What do a windmill, a boat design contest, and some leftover
plywood have in common?
Add to that formula someone who’s been bitten by the boat-building bug,
and you have...you guessed it - A PROJECT!
My wife had been wanting a windmill for our yard for some time, and I
decided to build her one for Christmas. Concurrent with this was my
designing of my entry in the 2001 Duckworks Design Contest, the Cherokee
Rose. Now, I have no pretensions - I’m a tenderfoot when it comes to boat
design. I do, however, like a challenge, and the contest offered that,
along with, I hoped, some constructive criticism to help me along my way.
The leftover 1/4 luan plywood from the windmill offered a perfect excuse -
er, opportunity to experiment with some of the ideas I had for the boat.
I really wasn’t ready to build Cherokee Rose, and I may never be, at
least as drawn for the contest. But how about a small kid’s boat - one
with similar design that would be easy enough to build by Christmas, would
be extremely stable and safe, and would provide some relief for my 13’ 6’
pirogue which the whole family just can’t get into safely.
It wasn’t finished by Christmas, but it did look enough like a boat
to surprise everyone when they saw it sitting in the corner that morning.
The building process continued in the months following. When it came time
for painting, I decided on a color that would be easy to spot from a
distance, and now I had a name for the boat - Yellowjacket!
It was finally time for her maiden voyage this summer. My wife,
Dinah, and my children, Rachel and Jonathan, and I headed down to Lake
Juliette, just north of Macon, Georgia, for the event. My daughter
insisted on taking the boat out first, and I acquiesced. It performed
beautifully! In fact, unless I really paddled hard, she didn’t have any
problem keeping up with me in the pirogue. When the inevitable, “Daddy,
I’m tired,” came, I threw a line (brought along for just such an occasion)
to Yellowjacket (now containing both kids) and back to the dock we went.
It was a fun day.
|
Click pictures below to
enlarge |
 |
 |
 |
 |
But there was one problem. Factor in two growing kids, and the
combination of one in Yellowjacket and the rest of us in the pirogue just
didn’t work - even with PFD’s on, I didn’t like sitting that low in the
water, especially with no built-in flotation like Yellowjacket has.
Hmmm. Two adults, two growing kids, and two boats that are two small. Do I
feel some more synthesis coming?
By the way, here’s the windmill.
|
