Beginning in the Middle Somewhere

Welcome. 

This is my humble blog mostly about Chebacco sailboat, Bluster. She is a 20 ft. catboat yawl designed by the late Phil Bolger.   Unlike some boat building bloggers I am not starting this blog in the beginning, amongst the shavings and epoxy.  Bluster was actually launched in the spring of 2002 and fully rigged the following years.  This  blog will touch of some of the adventures as well as construction and modifications details and of course some of the fabulous folks we have met along the way.  Pass, present and future.

Now, how it  got started...

For the longest time I had a desire to own a small sailboat.   Small, not necessarily for economic reasons (which was true) but also for practical reasons like being able to quickly transport her overland to easily sample the variety of wonderful cruising at my doorstep.  I recognized early on that the large boat, off shore type of sailing was not to be for me.  I am a small boat coastal trailer sailor. 

Thus the search was on to find a boat.  Around this time (early 1990s) I stumbled upon an article in the Wooden Boat magazine about the Chebacco design.  I read and re-read this article to the point where this was the boat for me.  The Chebacco hit all the marks - trailerable, cuddy cabin, yawl design, traditional style but modern construction, etc. etc. The problem was that this was not a commercial available boat - you had to build it yourself or have someone built it for you.  I pondered this.  Re-read the article.  Got on to Bill Sampson's original Chebacco News newsletter (in the days of mail out newsletters!).  Bought the plans. 

I decided to pull the trigger and tell my wife I was going to build a sailboat.  Told her it is something I just have to do.  We were in the car heading towards a seaside holiday town in Washington state.  Ever the practical one she raised a few good points We had a one year old child and were in planning stages for more (I will work at night when they are asleep and how great would that be - sailing with the kids!).  We did not have lots of extra money (I will buy only what I need for immediate build).   No covered workshop (I will prefabricate as much as possible in our two car garage and do the assembly in my Dad's barn).  Never built a boat before (I am somewhat handy with tools and somewhat genetically programed to build stuff) My wife is a the best any man could have and she gave me the go ahead and has been a total supporter throughout the whole project. That was 1995...