Well, the Inagua is coming along slowly. We (i.e. my son and I) were hoping to have it done already but that just goes to show how little we (well I should say “I”) know about all those little details that go into sailboat fabrication.

I suppose a liberally educated person would have thought this all through in advance. But let’s not forget that even Aristotle mentions that the man of practical experience has a wisdom that can’t just be obtained from thinking!

Right up front in his Metaphysics…the very culmination of his works…he praises men of experience!

 …and men of experience succeed even better than those who have theory without experience. (The reason is that  experience is knowledge of individuals, art of universals, and actions  and productions are all concerned with the individual…

Maybe someday we will have both the theory and experience. At this point I would say that we are still struggling even with the theory of boat building.

I mean we don’t even have the spars and rigging yet! We don’t have the centerboard…We don’t have pintels… We don’t have the sails!

I need to sand this down and clean it up. Note the recycled lumber.

Applying the 1/4″ ply to the sides. I know that is a little thin…but neither Home Depot or Lowes sells 3/8″

The key is to try to keep those graceful lines. But wood has a peculiar way of snapping when one tries to bend it too quickly!

Here is the stem of the Inagua. Its beginning to look like a boat!

Now I am attaching the plywood to the bottom. You will be happy to know that it is 1/2″ ply. Thankfully the bottom of this boat is FLAT!

After we finish attaching the plywood to the bottom we need to do a little fiber glassing- of the seams especially.