several days ago I was emailed from Matt, the www.boatbuildlog.com webmaster , who asked me to invite the builders which are building anything from a SUP to a big sailboat from our plans to share their building exepriences. Basically this website , as the name shows, it’s a logbook of your progresses during the building of your boat.
There are already a good number of projects posted, and I really think this website will became a very helpful resource for several reasons:
–put the builders in contact: sometimes in the past I took the task of putting in contact the builders working on similar projects, but having a wideworld database takes this process to whole new global level;
–crossing the experiences among different projects: maybe you are struggling with a specific part of your projects, and maybe out there there is another builder who struggled with a similar thing altough on a different design few weeks ago, and having the chance to see how him/her they dealt with that issue is a very big plus, mostly for those new designs which for obvious reasons do not have a big building history on their back.
–sharing the suppliers: let’s say you live in Greece , for example, and you are starting your project , and you find out that Iannis, which lives one hour by car from you, has started building 6 months ago and he already purchased plywood, epoxy and so on. This can significantly ease your search for a local supplier, or who knows, maybe you can put up a small local purchase group with other builders to get better prices.
–sharing the mental fatigue of a project: we all know that boat building has its up and downs, especially for longer projects; sharing the fatigue of a long term project , motivate each other, or simply realize that there is a light at the end of tunnel of a long and boring part of the work can be absolutely helpful.
–a community is better than a bunch of youtube video: web is packed with videos of boat building, but a database, with an indication of the working times, the stuffs used in every step of the building, and the chance to contact the builders in almost real time is definitely a more useful thing than to binge watch videos on youtube.
-let your bulding process last: it’s not a problem if you load your images and suggestions after you have launched the boat, the log does not have to be strictly ”on time” , and these resources maybe useful for other people months or years after you have launcehed your boat.
So my advice to anyone who is building out there (or built in the past), no matter if it’s a kayak or an Hirundo 750, register yourself to www.boatbuildlog.com and start sharing your experience
thanks a lot
Cristian Pilo