Many people have taken up building small boats for pleasure or as a money-making hobby. Some people get therapeutic results by having a woodworking project which they spend their spare time building. There's something relaxing about creating a boat in your garage, on your own time. No deadlines. No boss telling you what to do. It's all up to you how to do it and when to do it. And when you finish your boat, there's the pride of seeing it and showing off your creation to friends and family. Then, finally, there's the joy of launching it into your favorite lake or river!
I have personally been involved in building three boats in my lifetime. The first one I built as an 8th grade woodshop project. I have to admit, it was a little overwhelming at that age, but, with a little encouragement from my dad, I did finish it before the school year ended. The design was a simple 6-7 foot, plywood dinghy style boat. I have to admit, my brothers and I spent many hours floating around in it after it was completed! (Yes, it did float!)
The second boat building experience was during my senior year in high school. Again in woodshop, our whole class built a wooden drift boat. It was a little more complex than my first boat, but I was older and we had the supervision of our shop teacher. It turned out beautiful and we all enjoyed the process and learned much about boat building.
My latest boat building project is a 16 foot wood strip canoe. I'm actually still working on it. It's about halfway done and I hope to wrap it up before summer's over, so I can put her in a lake and show her off to the world! Building this canoe has truly been fun and relaxing as a side hobby. I would recommend it to anyone.
Building your own small boat doesn't require a lot of special woodworking skills or fancy tools. I got by with a simple tablesaw, electric sander, block plane, wood rasp, a few clamps, hand stapler, and a hammer. If you'd like to check into building a small boat for yourself, check out my bio box for a link. There you'll find a great source for boat plans which come with complete step-by-step instructions.
If you'd like to find out more about building your own boat from scratch, Click Here and you'll find an excellent source of boat-building plans and instructions.
I hope you will actually try your hand at building your own small boat. It will bring you many hours of joy in the building process as well as using it in the lake!
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