The journey begins (began)

A long time ago I got the idea it would be neat to build my own boat. I grew up along the St. Lawrence River and always had boats to tinker & play with. Sometime around 1967 a Hudson's Bay trading ship replica, the Nonsuch, toured the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes to commemorate Canada's Centennial. I had the opportunity to tour the boat and became fascinated by the exquisite craftsmanship and decided then and there someday I'd build my own boat.

The idea to build a boat was rekindled about seven years ago when I started to seriously think about what we'd like to do when we retire. We have a boat now, 25' Sunray Mirage power boat and have enjoyed a few summers with it puddling around the St. Lawrence River and Rideau Canal but it lacks the capacity and endurance we'll need when we can finally go canal cruising full time. I originally had grand ideas of a large steel trawler like the Simpson Offshore 45. In researching the costs etc. it quickly became evident that there's no way I could afford to build let along operate a vessel like that on my measely gov't pension. I weeded my way through the designers of steel & composite trawlers, Roberts, Kasten, Glen-L, Neville etc. and eventually stumbled across a web site (www.bateau.com) that provided plans and supplies for amateur built boats employing a method of construction called "Stitch & Glue" (S&G). Bingo! I could do that!


Designers concept for the TW28

Specifications:
LOA:	28' 2 "	8,60 m
Max. Beam:	10'	3,05 m
Draft at DWL:	34"	86 cm
Displ. light/full :	7500/9750 lbs.	3400/4400 l
PPI at DWL:	920 lbs.	418 kg
Recommended HP	35 to 50	30 to 40 Kw
Material:	Composite	plywood or foam

Skip ahead a whole lotta years and here we are. We've (Lori =  Admiral) just completed a 1500 km journey to Boston MA to pick up the plywood CnC kit for our boat building project). Standby.... more to follow