A film I'm looking forward to...

A  50-year old Wharram, a wonky boom, and three women on a mission.

They had me at 50-year old Wharram.

There's more info on their website and Kickstarter page.

Something that pisses me off...

So there's this guy who wants to buy a (new to him) boat to sail off into the sunset. As it happens, he also has a YouTube channel that has quite a few followers and more often than not his videos are both entertaining, as well as educational. 

Just to be fair, I'll point out that his last boat rehab/refit was sometimes painful to watch due to his rather steep learning curve and boat building skills but in the end he got the boat launched and cruising in a reasonable amount of time and it floated right side up.

He's a guy who learns from his mistakes which is one of the most important boat building skills and surprisingly rare. Thus armed, I expect his new boat will come together successfully in a reasonable amount of time and within a sustainable budget.

Apparently, there are a lot of people who don't share my opinion that his current choice of project boat makes sense as his comments sections are rife with naysayers telling him that he can't, it will all end in tears, and if he takes on the project they'll go watch some other channel more attuned to their idea of how to choose a boat.

From my experience, naysayers have seldom, if ever, built or refit a boat. There basic mindset seems to be "If I can't do something, nobody can" so they spend their time telling people how to live their lives and take exception when you go your own way.

The sad part is that the naysayers (AKA assholes) exert a relentless pressure that can be a real obstacle to getting a project completed. Back when I was building the first Loose Moose, I was getting so much negative input about the rig that I lost confidence and found myself in a depressed death spiral that turned a two-day job into a month-long stasis where almost nothing got done.

The project in question is a Wharram cat, that for me at least, seemed like a pretty good boat to fix up. Sure it looked like a dog's breakfast that would require some money and a serious application of hard work but it looked doable. Just for the record, I've built a Wharram, know how they go together, and have finished quite a lot of boat projects, so I have some idea of what I'm talking about. If his project boat was up for sale here for twice as much as he paid, I'd have bought it in a second.

Wharram cats are designed to be both affordable and easy to build. While they may not be the flavor of the month, they are good boats. Why they seem to offend so many is a mystery to me but then you just can't fix stupid.

Anyway, check out the project because I expect it will be a fairly interesting, educational, and entertaining series. I know I'll be keeping an eye on it and rooting for a successful end because I just love to see naysayers pissed off.

So, you want to build yourself a VolksCruiser...

As it happens, I really enjoy building boats.I find the whole process of boat construction both a creative outlet and deeply satisfying on an emotional level.

That being the case, I often recommend to a lot of folks that they might want to think twice before building a cruising boat because there's a steep learning curve. It takes a special mindset to build a good boat and not everyone has what it takes. 

Which is not to say I'm one of those sad people who hang out on forums telling folks that building your own boat is a project that only an idiot would attempt, it will take a decade or more to finish, and when the dust has settled you'll have spent more than a new boat would cost. My advice is more along the line that building your own boat is a great experience, which can save you some money, and be done in a timely manner providing you have your shit together sort.

Which leaves us with the perennial question...

Do you have your shit together? 

The truth is that this is a question I ask myself on a pretty regular basis. It's a go to mantra of sorts because, in my case at least, I need to keep track of what sort of condition my condition is in*.

The hardest part of building a boat has less to do with one's abilities to do dovetail joints or perfect scarfs and everything to do with keeping your shit together in the midst of a gazillion interlocking, yet contradictory tasks, which is otherwise known as project management.

Take a look at the folks around you and, I suspect, there are people who can manage a project and others who can't even manage to do even simple tasks without some involved drama. 

Another reason boat projects fail is that the builder can't follow the plan. One of the most common questions I hear about boat building is something like "I got the Bolger AS29 plans but think I'll substitute the rig from a Catalina 30 and maybe add an inboard diesel engine. What do you think?" sort. One of the things I love about building a boat is I get to follow a plan that makes sense which is a wonderful thing considering that managing a boat building project is often an exercise that makes wrangling cats seem simple.

The fact of the matter is the backbone of any successful boat build is the plan and the minute you start questioning the validity of the design chaos ensues. 

The last issue that is seriously problematic for the build is that not everyone is good at doing consistent productive labor. Take a look at one of my favorite Wharram designs the Tiki 30 which is really a nice little cruising design. According to Wharram, the design requires around nine-hundred hours of labor to complete which is an average as some folks take longer, some take less, some are part-time and some folks work full time. Now, anyone who actually works for a living has already figured out that nine-hundred hours is between 22-23 forty-hour work weeks. 

Building boats is just like working for a paycheck. It's all about the labor. When building the Wharram you don't get to count time spent looking at that big pile of plywood pondering which part you'll cut out first, daydreaming about how awesome it will be sailing the cat in the Caribbean, or redesigning the design so it looks more like a Gunboat. Nope, you only get to count the hours you actually worked that produced stuff.

Admittedly some people are not all that great at being their own taskmaster and that's OK as long as they realize that doing an hour here and a few hours there doesn't get a boat built in any kind of timely manner, if at all. On the other hand, if the builder is self-actualized and can put in productive eight-hour days, not only will he have a successful build but also be able to send "Having a wonderful time in Pago Pago" postcards to all of the naysayers who said that it's stupid to build a boat.

Like I said, building your own boat is not for everyone but for those who can, it rocks.

*H/T The First Edition.