Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Choosing Wooden Boat Plans

Many a would-be boat owner shies away from the idea of building a boat at home because of the imagined difficulty of the undertaking. And yet anyone with a little extra space, a modicum of skill, and the proper tools can do it the only other requirement is solid, down to earth guidance. Go Build Your Own Boat! fills this need admirably, providing the how to" for every step of building a boat, from blueprint to launching. There's lots of wooden boat plans available for anybody who's interested in owning their own home made sea worthy vessel!

Choosing The Right Boat
Step one is choosing the type of boat you want to build. Some will of course be easier than others, but if you have your eyes set on a sailboat it doesn't mean you have to settle for a row boat. The best method is to find an easy to follow plan or even somebody to work with who has a little experience. You might even be able to get guidance from locals. Try online forums or even requesting help in the paper. You might be able to get a stranger to help out if you're willing to pay a little bit. This fee could be worth its weight in frustration and wasted materials.

Make sure you choose a plan you're comfortable with and is in your price range. Remember that a large or more complicated boat will be more costly to build and more time consuming. If you don't have the patience or budget to stick with a project of the size then move on to something else. At least for your first boat.

Are Boat Plans Worth Paying For?

There's plenty of places online that you can get boat plans for free. A quick Google search will reveal plenty. The problem with these plans though is that they are not the best. They can often be vague, and if you download free plans you'll get no support. Purchasing a kit is an options but leaves you limited in what you can do in terms of building. It'll basically be like building a model ship on a large and difficult scale.

You can instead do what I did though and purchase a plan or set of plans. The good thing about purchasing is that you can usually ask the provider lots of questions or there is very clear clarification. Since this is their business they are typically very happy to help you out in your boat building ventures.

Many times plan packaged also come with other perks like instructional videos. These are amazingly helpful to a newbie. It can make all the difference between success and utter failure to actually see some of the steps. You can see things like building joints and how to properly form the boards. Most of these are provided as free bonuses to the product you need anyway.

Are Boat Plans Expensive?

The answer to this question is maybe. Some websites charge hundreds of dollars for boat plans, but if you know where to go you can get them for a fraction of that cost. I spent a lot of time surfing the internet to find something I could really use that was in my budget.

Again, Google is your friend. There are thousands of sites providing good quality plans to amatuer boat builders the world over. Since I've already done a lot of research work myself I can recommend a great package I've used to you.

The great thing about it is that it only cost me $67 for 500 plans! Some of the sites I visited wanted a couple hundred dollars for just one plan. There are plans for pretty much every kind of boat you'd want to build too. Whether you're into hunting, fishing, or just like boats in general.

If you're into large scale boats or specialty boats like mega yachts then you might need to check the plans yourself before buying. While there is a lot of variety it's a little lacking in these categories. However, the average boater will most likely be more than happy with the selection.

There's also the support feature I was talking about earlier. The owner of the package runs a forum where he answers any questions and answers, and you can talk to other serious boat builder. This was pretty instrumental to the success of my boat building in the early stages. He also offers other helpful bits like instructional videos and the plans are very easy to follow. Check out this package here

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