Now I'm a restless boat nut, having sold my last boat almost 4 years ago. I've sailed, rowed, motored, broke, fixed, and delivered wood and fiberglass boats, from 8 to 72 feet, over many thousands of miles. My daughter Allyson also likes to sail, and has been actively seeking a good old boat to beat around in, with little luck so far. Since I've never built a boat from start to finish, I figured I might just be able to knock out building a boat for Allyson.
Since no one I know is getting any younger, this is the year I build at least one boat, maybe two. After a week of web surfing and library searching for a proper boat that could be sourced, built, launched, and sailed locally, I settled on a John Welsford design called SCAMP. This boat is fairly popular in our local area.
People have built SCAMP from CNC cut plywood kits and from lofted plans. There's even a local company, Gig Harbor Boat Works, that makes and sells, a fully rigged fiberglass SCAMP, with an aluminum mast.
I opted to purchase the CNC cut kit, with foils kit, from Josh at Small Craft Advisor. Josh also owns and runs Port Townshend's Duckworks Boat Builder's Supply, and helped me with a "few" supplies that I'd need to get the hull nearly complete. Great place to shop!
The CNC kits are cut to order at Turn Point Design. Brandon used a forklift which made loading the truck simple.
Got the kit home a couple of hours later, unloaded the truck, and started reading the blueprints and design plans for Scamp. Spent the remainder of the week finishing up a few projects, cleaning out the shop, and reading plans. I plan to start building on Monday, Feb 4th, with a planned launch date around Memorial day. It's aggressive, but entirely doable. My daughter Allyson is going to help with the build, and I'm sure I'll have a few more people "pop" in to see what's going on.
Hang with me, it's going to be fun!
Campy Out!
