Jeff's pocketship- It's DONE!! except for the sails 4/4/11

[Shudoman]

A thing of beauty!

[longboarder]

Jeff, did you do your fillets first and let them cure and then glass, or did you do your glassing while the fillets were kicking off(still wet)?
Thanks,
Michel

[jeff]

Michel, I let the fillets cure before glassing, much easier for me to keep the fillets straight. jeff

[rudder59]

Jeff
Amazing workmanship. I have been thinking of building a boat. I looked into plans for a Blue Jay back when I was a teenager in the sixties. Never got around to it but never lost the desire to do it. Have a little more time now and have been looking at different plans and came across the pocketship. Since this is the third boat you have built, with your experience would you recommend building from a full kit or purchasing just the plans.Any guess as to how much you might save if you puchase just the plans and secure the materials yourself?

In your view do you think the pocketship would be ok as a first time boat building project or do you need to start with something smaller and work up to it? Thank you in advance for your advice.

Mike

[decurtis]

I cannot speak for Jeff but I can relate my experience on my recently completed Pocketship.
Pocketship is certainly doable as a first time boat because I just did it. However you will be learning on the job and my filleting skills still need a lot of practice to come close to Jeff's high standards. I encountered some minor problems but nothing that I was not able to overcome. Full details are in my blog including how much I saved by building from plans instead of a kit.

http://pocketshipadventure.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html

However, my savings include the exchange to Canadian dollars and the higher shipping costs to Canada. I estimate it took me 100-150 hours extra to transfer all the patterns and cut out the parts. Working from plans only you also have the fear of whether or not you cut everything out accurately and whether the boat will actually fit together.

[jeff]

Mike, I think Dave gave you good info on Kit or Plans, I'm building from the kit and found the quality and materials first rate. In either case being a first time builder I think this boat, although a challenge shouldn't be a problem if you follow the manual and plans exactly as written, they are excellent. This forum is very helpful if you need answers to even the most bizzare problems. I say go for it, we need another boat in the fleet. Jeff

[SHyland83]

The amount of money saved by building from plans is pretty small. I was able to drive to the shop and pick up the kit so i was able to save a lot of money on shipping. Besides the hours and hours saved cutting out plywood pieces, I would never be able to get such perfectly cut pieces with perfect edges as they do on the CNC machine in the shop. Some people may consider kit building "cheating" but the likely hundreds of hours of tedious work saved I have no doubt I made the right decision.

[rudder59]

Jeff & Dave
Thank you both for your feed back. The kit sounds like the right way to go. I agree that the accuracy of the cut pieces and the point that they will all fit together outweighs the slight savings in purchasing the materials separately.

Mike

[hatchman]

You are one "Anal MF" looks great!!

Just uploaded the latest pictures...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35243545@N ... 619831460/

[jeff]

Just uploaded the latest pictures up to 02-02-2010...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35243545@N ... 619831460/