Brad
Don't feel bad .....
I made the Coho from Pygmy Boats
http://www.pygmyboats.com/mall/coho.asp with all of the bells and whistles on and in it then when it was done I made the mistake of letting my youngest daughter paddle it ...... She got back to the shore and proclaimed it as HER BOAT........
Just one of the pleasures of building wood boats......... YEP, I built a canoe for my use and several more pirogues. It never stop's..........
Chuck......
************************************************************
Let me throw a thought in here, something I really like.
Anyone can go out and purchase a boat of the shelf and it is made by a machine without any feeling and the boat is made from the same stuff, plastic or something close to it.
There is an ole song from the 50's about buying stuff ... it is called .... " A Dollar down and a Dollar a week"...... (Kingston Trio)
Our boats are made from a living breathing item called wood, this wood also has a spirit to it and a character unlike the modern junk from test tubes communally called plastic.
Now by making the boat then we use this material and it's character and spirit to create something functional and beautiful, bringing it back to life. In this process we also add a lot of ourselves be it blood, sweat, tears, worries or just thought but all of it is woven into the wood of the boat when it is done......... Something no one can walk into a store and purchase.
Like with my youngest daughter and the kayak .... When I am long gone and just a memory on the web or less then when she paddles the kayak I will be with her on the water and in her thoughts and for this there is no way anyone can put a monetary value on it. I am wishing that even later down the road a grand child has the same pleasure paddling the kayak or any boat I make, thinking about that ole SOB who made them, depending on how Mary describes me to them...... with any luck they will decide to make there own boat and not purchase it off a shelf someplace.
This makes it a continuing action and pleasure for more folks and multiplies rapidly which I think is a good thing. We are not just doing this for ourselves but for future generations who want to enjoy the same pleasures we do, the smell of the sanded and cut wood, the epoxy, the varnish and then the pleasure of padding a boat you have made and with luck your grandkids will enjoy........
Anyone can purchase a boat but the serious folks make them for there use. It is called a customised , hand made , watercraft.
If you have a plastic boat on a vehicle and next to it is a wood boat on a vehicle .... everyone will have to stop , look , feel and admire the wood boat
Chuck.
PS ..This last trip ... I had folks start to pass me and then they would slow down and I could see them staring at the canoe , after several miles then they would speed up and pass me , honking and waving........
