Supremely Selfish/ A Short Thread About Stuff.

My ‘Maybe’ build a boat plan that is.

In my previous post of this very short thread I left the question of whether I would or whether I wouldn’t build another boat, completely open as I hadn’t made my mind up either way. If you like your posts really short then firstly ; don’t come here, and secondly my answer is only a few short lines away and, in the same way that I don’t value the final answer to a problem anything like as much as how the protagonist arrived at that answer, I’ll spend more time explaining why (yes) or why not (no).

First though a very quick recap : In the first post I got so close to committing to a yes answer that I went ahead and ordered a set of plans from the people who now seem to own the rights to the plans to John Welsford’s SCAMP and SCALLYWAG designs ; as I write they are still winging their way across the big blue pond. I even got as far as deciding that if I built I would build from pre cut parts and was already trying to source the CNC cutting file and to find a workshop with a CNC cutter that could do the job for me. I was even mentally redoing the layout of my new workshop inn such a way that I could work on the build in there all year round. It even had (kinda sorta) a working name.

So anyway, here’s the TLDR ; my answer is no, i’m not going to build a boat even though, maybe especially as, I had a sudden rush of enthusiasm to the brain, had a lot of it already worked out and even a voyage in mind that still needs a boat. My main reason is that I find the whole idea supremely selfish as it would be an expensive toy for me alone as I very much doubt that Jackie would ever put up with going to sea again and quite frankly I doubt that I have the strength, stamina and endurance myself. Instead i’m almost definitely, kind/sorta, going to start work on a teardrop style camping trailer as we could both have adventures with that and oh yes : I want to build a sail and oar superyacht !….one from Venice circa 1750 and with cannons !

Yes ; it’s a model (about 1:60 scale) and it’s a Mediterranean Xebec ; maybe Trumpy will charter it to smack the Iranian pirates around a bit.

Have I made a mistake though .

With having thought about building and sailing another boat my obvious thought/question was did I give up on the Pathfinder too quickly and secondly ; have I given up on the little Skerry too soon ? The Skerry is still here, sitting on it’s trailer in the yard and one of my pressing decisions this month is to either put it up for sale along with a few other things to help me raise some cash for the camping trailer build, or to give it a quick refresh and do a few trips with it. Some of you will know that my last effort with video was a quick row up and down the river Tamar with the idea of doing a few bushcraft and sailing/rowing trips in the local rivers.

Although I modified, refitted and tidied up the little Skerry I rowed it a couple of times but never sailed it, even though I tidied up it’s mast and bought a new sail – I even bought an anchor for it. Today, it’s just sat there half full of winter leaves and I don’t have any great plans for it any more. I am still slightly tempted to take it out and do a few camping trips with it although my short experience rowing it suggests that I don’t have the strength or muscular endurance to make rowing trips feasible. I have though regained quite a lot of my former fitness just by walking – my upper body needs a whole load of work though.

Anyway ; the upshot of all of that is the realization that I want to free myself of a whole load of stuff that I own but aren’t benefiting from in any way, shape or form – thus it’s all up for sale even though the act of recreating accounts and spending most of a day listing and trying to find photographs, was somewhat annoying and depressing.