An apparent problem with priorities, some strong AI thoughts, and in the “need to know about Puerto Rico and the territories” department…
Sail magazine has a pretty good article about rowing that’s well worth your time. Even better, it lists a lot of ‘rowing’ boats you can go out and buy. Which, in my opinion, really could use a couple of affordable boats and some input from the DIY side of things.
First of all, there’s the price thing. The boats mentioned in the article while mostly nice are, shall we say, not anywhere near a VolksCruiser’s budget. For instance…
Puffin Boat Company’s Puffin 860 is $3,195 and weighs 80 pounds. Sure, it’s a sweet ride but the cost, while the norm, is more than I’d care to pay. Also, considering they’re selling a pair of seat cushions for $600 frelling bucks is somewhat insane.
There are so many free and cheap designs out there that can be built in a weekend with a couple of sheets of plywood, a 2″X4″ or two, $50 bucks of fiberglass, and a gallon of epoxy. Add some hours of sweat equity and you have a dinghy that does everything the Puffin will do and only cost $200-300.
Do the math and see why I consider DIY a 10% solution.
For what it’s worth, saving that $3k, for me at least, is no bad thing…
Too much a tyro to build? West marine has two plastic dinghies (Sportyak & Classic) that will do the job. On a similar tangent, I just saw that Walker Bay discontinued their 8 and 10-foot dinghies. Bummer that.
Don’t laugh. Éric Tabarly used a Sportyak as a tender on one of his Pen Duicks and that truly impressed me.
Saw at Costco a while back one of the inflatable sup manufactures had a kayak made with drop stitch that wasn’t too pricey. Not a great dinghy, but headed in that direction…