A Boat Project

If somebody had told me five years ago that I will start a boat building project one day I would have considered such a thought absurd. However, after reading about a voyage of a SCAMP in Tierra del Fuego I wanted to have a closer look on that boat type. Eventually a building project started to attract me. I ordered the plans and started to outline the shopping list and budget little by little.

Around one year later, in April 2017, I found myself in a wood store in Lahti buying Gaboon plywood (similar to Okume) with a boat builder friend of mine. After building sawhorses and getting a proper jigsaw and a blade I started cutting plywood. An alternative to cutting would have been ordering a kit from United Kingdom. Despite of shipping costs the order would have been a relatively inexpensive option as when you cut the parts yourself there is more loss and CNC process results superior quality. Still, I would say that cutting plywood has been a rewarding experience for me.

You may ask, why am I building another boat? Am I not happy with a Wayfarer? Well, Wayfarer is one of the most versatile sailing dinghies in the world and has a strong presence in Europe. There are no doubts that I will sail a lot in Sarastus. In spite of that I want to gain experience in wooden boat building that isn’t encouraged or supported by the current copyright holder whose business is focused on something else. Then, SCAMP is a modern innovative boat designed for home builders that value stable seaworthy sailing dinghies suitable for family cruising. Building and sailing a SCAMP are going to be enriching experiences.

I will post more about the progress to this blog when something significant becomes ready. The details of the build have been documented on a separate page. The boat is called as Merisirri for the time being.