While it makes all kinds of sense to find a used boat and rehab it, for some of us it also makes a lot of sense to build a boat from the keel up… In my case, the most important factor revolves around draft because there are simply bugger all used boats with real shoal draft in the for sale category.
Our first Loose Moose drew a foot, our second Loose Moose drew around 14″ so you may understand why I don’t think a boat with four-foot+ draft is really a shoal draft boat.
Plus there is shoal, as in “we can motor into places that are shallow if we are very, very careful” and shoal as in “we-can-sail-pretty-much-any-damn-where-we-please” variety and if you want the latter you’re simply going to have to build it yourself.
Which in my mind is a pretty good reason to build a boat…
Speaking of boatbuilding, a friend of mine I mentioned some time ago is starting to make some real progress on his Wharram Tiki 38 project…