The Avenging Amateur...

Ok first off, a little about me... I'm a 30 year old living just outside Boston who is quite frankly sick of drunken nights and weekends with the same old people and looking for a new adventure. That being said, I have always been interested in sailing and I have always wanted my own sailboat. I never thought I could afford one however, and as much as I would still like a 60' Beneteau let's be honest it really isn't in my price range to own one. I stumbled across the Chesapeake Light Craft website (Please note shameless plug) not too long ago and really liked the idea of building my own. I thought that I would enjoy it so much more if it were born of my own sweat and tears (let's hope more sweat than tears) And winters in Boston can be pretty miserable so I figured a good project would keep me busy. The reason I chose to build the Pocketship is because it really was everything I was looking for without being too expensive. I can easily store it in my garage while being built and after completion, trailer it around New England and beyond with my horrendously underpowered car, and build it piece by piece avoiding any large lump sum investments. Oh, and it will keep me from being a drunk waste product. Ok, well the drunk part is true at least. Hopefully... (I do work for a prominent local brewery after all)

The other more important reason I decided to undertake this adventure was to regain my childish enthusiasms with constructing something by my own two hands. Too often in modern society we as a culture are addicted to the grab and go lifestyle. I look back in envy at the age of the pioneers who simply built something if they needed it. Need a wagon? Build one. Need a house? Build one. Need a boat? Build one. You get the idea. I will admit I have never built a boat before, nor have I ever built anything of this magnitude. An ex-girlfriend of mine recently lambasted my idea of building a boat and saying she doubts it will even float. I suppose she's right, there is that chance. (She's also my ex and likely finds it her duty to disagree with anything I say or do) Her point I'm assuming is that building something which requires a skill is something best left to the experts. But I am excited about this amateur pursuit. I acquiesce to my humility in that I know very little about boat building, but in my mind there is no better way to learn, than to do. I'm quite sure I will be in more than one situation where I will be uncertain as to how to proceed, ignorant even in fact. However, in doing so I will be obliged to figure out new skills and techniques. A historian named Daniel Boorstin once mused, "in the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are very few." Another favorite quote happens to be, "The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge." I make no claim of knowing what I'm getting myself into, which conveniently happens to be precisely what makes it exciting.