Weeks ?-? (December 2020)

Been a long while since I’ve posted. Life hasn’t allowed for a lot of time on the boat and even less time for documenting it. I was able to finish the bottom planking. It went pretty well, but there was one thing I would have done differently. In my past boats, I’ve never left hardware

Weeks 6-9

Work has been pretty crazy, so not a lot of progress. Lots of fairing and I glued together my bottom planks. Finally got good use out of the weights. 🙂 I was finding that the boat placement in the garage was not working out well; too much sawdust everywhere and in the way a lot.

Weeks 4 & 5

My carriage bolts arrived! So I was able to get going on the keel, battens, chine log and sheer clamp. Starting to see the shape/curves of the boat and am really liking it. With the sheer clamps I was a little worried about the amount of force I was applying to get the bends I

Week 3

Not a ton of progress this week as I am waiting for carriage bolts to arrive (back ordered). Also took a trip to Deception Pass to relax and enjoy some family time. While waiting for the carriage bolts to arrive, I played around with clamping the chine log into place. It was struggling to align

Zip: Week 2

Working on building out all of the frames. No matter how many clamps I have, I feel like I need one more hand and a couple dozen more clamps! Got started working on the transom today. Lots of work with the backsaw and chisels; since the transom doesn’t sit at 90 degrees, all of the

Zip: Week 1

I received my zzzipkit and other materials from Glen L on July 9/10/11. The wood from the zip kit is awesome and I am already thrilled I decided to purchase that over finding it on my own and going off of the plans. I unpacked everything, took inventory, read/reread the directions and got started on

Welcome to the blog

It’s been roughly 5 years since my last build (the Swifty 12) and 10 years since my Pygmy kayak build. To keep up with my current pattern, it’s time to build another boat! This time I went with the Glen L Zip. Pic of what it is supposed to look like when it’s finished. Wish

A Look Back: Swifty 12 (2015) Part 3

Getting the boat on the water!

A Look Back: Swifty 12 (2015) Part 2

It felt like it took forever, but it finally started getting 3-dimensional:

A Look Back: Swifty 12 (2015) Part 1

I took on a different challenge with the Swifty 12 sailboat (from Shell Boats).  Rather than to purchase a kit (wood/fiberglass/epoxy already cut/measured/etc. and provided in a single shipment), I decided to purchase only the plans.  This included set of blueprints and a few pages of step-by-step instructions.  In the beginning it was extremely intimidating! After