Intro post

John Brooks, the designer and builder of the Somes Sound 12 1/2, in Maine

A month or so back, I decided I'd like to try to build a wooden boat in my backyard here in Hong Kong.

I was building a model 17th Century Longboat, and thought: "it's probably easier to build a full sized one...".  Here I was fiddling round with tiny turning- blocks the size of grains of sand and halyards like spider's web. And me with fingers like sausages (the UK sort, pork, short-ish and fat).

The first-up idea of literally building a 17th Century longboat was discarded when I found that the only plans, at the National Maritime Museum in the UK, were no longer available online.

So, some research later I came across the Couta Boat from Melbourne: these are fine sailing fishing boats of the late 19th century, gaff-rigged and fast, now raced in an active one-design class.  But again, despite repeated emails to the Couta Boat Association, I couldn't get any plans.

That led me, on the byways and highways of the intertube, to the plans for a Somes Sound 12 1/2 designed by John Brooks, Brooks Boats Design, Brookline Maine.  It helped that in my research I'd ordered a dozen or so books from Amazon on building wooden boats and found John and Ruth's by far the best: their excellent "How to build a glued lapstrake wooden boat”.

So here I am now, in the process -- or just started really.

I'm going to keep a record here, photos and thoughts.  And a record of costs, if I remember.
UPDATE: Forgot to post a piccie of what she's supposed to look like when finished....

A pretty little picnic boat

From Wooden Boat, Nov-Dec 2010

Cheers for now.
Peter in Hong Kong