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<span class="excerpt_part">...easily handled vessel to <strong>com</strong>plement our more demanding sailing home, to keep us on the water longer.&ldquo; So, starting from scratch, they invite you to join them, in this video series, to observe the whole process of conceiving and building a new boat, from identifying needs and purposes, through brainstorming and design, construction and launch, outfit, rig and sea trials&mdash;and,...</span>

<span class="excerpt_part">...gone into the mental stew-pot and&hellip;well&hellip; stewed. Other ideas have mellowed and blended and <strong>com</strong>plemented one another. But years have thundered by, and it&rsquo;s time to serve up the stew or abstain from it.&rdquo; In this episode, Dave and Anke serve up the stew. They present their influences on the design of their new hull. From these influences, they draw...</span>

<span class="excerpt_part">...with a small box of mostly hand-tools. We&rsquo;re handy, but not masters of craft. We&rsquo;re shoe-string operators and scavengers but debt-free and able to budget. We benefit from modern, gap-filling adhesives but favor lower-tech and <strong>com</strong>mon materials. We build simple and robust structures, but let handsome be as handsome does. Who builds their own vessel must be able to persist....</span>

<span class="excerpt_part">...must be clever, but not too clever. Flexibility: The more roles it can fill, the merrier. Modularity: Interchangeable, reconfigurable, and redundant. Synergy: Parts that work together. And the further challenge of sea-trials lie yet ahead. Phil Bolger once <strong>com</strong>mented that he had abandoned a design due to the sheer number of untried features it involved. We&rsquo;re not that wise. https://youtu.be/5bDINpw4Oac...</span>

<span class="excerpt_part">...But, should things get contrary, we can always hunker down until conditions favor us. For remote cruising, we built the rig of found materials&ndash;conifer saplings. The six identical sails are interchangeable and redundant. We led our lines aft then forward again to the cockpit. The masts should <strong>com</strong>e down and stow easily and out of the way for rowing. https://youtu.be/WF8kaDeYIDM...</span>

<span class="excerpt_part">C&rsquo;mon aboard&hellip; let&rsquo;s tip a cup o&rsquo; kindness! Here&rsquo;s a look at our living arrangements when we&rsquo;re aboard for extended periods. The cabin accommodations include heating, sleeping, food preparation, lounging, work, and play&mdash;and for foraging for the food, fuel, and materials that extend our provisions. One thing that turned out hard to show, even in video, is the amazing feel...</span>

<span class="excerpt_part">We&rsquo;re finally underway! We won&rsquo;t see the wilderness wedding we set out for that never materialized. We won&rsquo;t see Dave forget the durn camera at home and row back a mile for it. We won&rsquo;t see the whale that almost T-boned us. Those are tales for another time. We will see our first big wind. Our first narrows to negotiate....</span>

<span class="excerpt_part">...on its very bones. Stunted trees lean into winds long blown yet soon enough <strong>com</strong>e storms again. We are mere transients. Brief sojourners in summer&rsquo;s easy embrace. We move among survivors of winter&rsquo;s mauling wind and wave&mdash;and are humbled. For all this surge and surf, these waters teem with life a&rsquo;roar and a&rsquo;roil, adapting to each moment. We drift and...</span>