Plans have arrived!

"Forgive me Farther for it has been some time since my last blog".

The plans arrived about a month ago along with the video. The plans and building instructions are really good and I have read through them a few times now. However I had a bit of trouble with the video as it was in NTSC format, as expected, but my VCR would not play it despite what the manual said it would do. So I had to get it converted for $50!

The video is amateur in its quality but excellent in its content. Each stage of the process is covered very well with some good sailing shots at the end the give inspiration to get started.

I have started building the temporary frames using some 1m lengthe of 4x1 that I picked up at the Building Depot. I got enough to build the frames and other temporary jobs for $15 as they were going out of business. This was 25% of usual. So far I have two of the temporary frames built. I have also started on the paterns with a sheet of 6mm ply I bought for $34 from ITM.

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Study Pack Arrived!

Came back from rugby this afternoon to find an A4 size envelope in the mailbox, the kind that you can just tell is international. Sure enough it was from Arch Davies but obviously not the whole nine yards in a package so small. Sure enough this was only the Study Pack and I am still waiting on the plans and video.

This was quite a good document with details about the boat, information on pre-built parts that you can buy and the typical ply and epoxy packs. The information in the pack was very similar to the information in the magazines that I have so it was very much an entree that left we hungry for more. It did have a good set of drawings on a single sheet of the boat.

It was good to see the prices to try and gauge the cost of the total boat build. As an example you can get a pack of 5 sheets of 6mm ply for USD$260. I priced this locally for about NZD$275 (conversion is USD$0.67 to an NZ dollar) so this is much cheaper here. My best guess here is that it will cost about NZD$3000 all up to build the boat, get the sails made and the parts for the rigging.

Anyway I hope that this is a signal that the rest is not to far away.

Reference

Just thought I would post the link to Arch Davies site so you could see what the boat should look like when finished.

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If you click on this link News, Stories & Photos you will see a few examples of other people efforts.

Getting started

Well its all underway now. I checked the credit card and there is an entry there from Arch Davies Boat Designs indicating that the fax has been received and the plans are on their way. $260 including postage for the plans, a study pack, and a two hour video on how to build the boat and boat building techniques.

I got the family to help clean out the garage over the weekend so that I now have plenty of space to start building. My wife was a bit surprised at the size of the boat when we measured it out on the floor of the garage. I must admit I was a bit surprised myself, 14 feet does not sound like much but it is a resonble size to for your first boat building experience.

I can't wait until the plans get here.