Nice looking boat, hope to have one myself someday.

             Chris

Well done, Dave. The Pocketship fleet has now doubled in size and John has someone to race against :-)

Not only does your boat look very pretty, but that was a pretty fast build, too, for such a large boat. Congratulations, and  hope that you get some reasonable weather before Spring.

Laszlo

Work on my Pocketship started in earnest in March and I worked on it essentially full time since then. I estimate it was about 800 hours (my construction log got a little lax towards the end) which I guess isn't bad for a first time boat builder. I wasn't working from a kit so I figure I spent about a 100 hours transferring patterns and cutting out the parts.

I enjoyed the process immensely and it would be a thrill to race against John. All I have to do is trailer it a few hundred miles to Lake Superior, sail through the Great lakes, up the St.Lawrence and down the New England coast to Maryland :-)

"So True" is packed up fro the winter because it is highly unlikely here in the middle of the Canadian prairies that any reasonable sailing weather is left. We are thankful that we got her on the water for her christening yesterday and didn't have to wait until spring to see if she floats. 

Dave 

Congratulations, Dave.  It is a beauty!  Still plugging away here, but next Summer, for sure.  The brass portlight finishing rings look great.  I just got a set for my ABI portlights.  It was a long/hard search.  Sail good.  Jer  (aka mtsailor)   http://gallery.me.com/jermcmanus

Dave,in reading your blog I noticed that you are using a trolling motor for your aux power. My plans are to use one also but all the experts at work say I would need a 80fp 24volt moter to move such a "heavy" boat. Since these fellows have 2 ton "master bass catcher" rigs I think  I need to ask someone who has "been there done that", So what size are you using and how well does it handle "So True"  ?

I'm using a Minn Kota Endura 55fp running off one 12 volt marine battery and on our brief first sea trial it seemed fine. We are really only planning to use it for maneuvering in and out of the narrow breakwater at our harbor and not for any cruising. My research was that on an 800 lb boat even 30 or 40 fp would be sufficient but the price difference was so small I went for something bigger. I have no experience yet what battery life will be like. It did manage to get us the .5 km back to the harbor against a 20 km headwind yesterday with no problem. If you get a 42 inch shaft instead of the 36" I have, you probably will not have to build a motor mount like I did to keep the prop underwater.

Isn't there a prize, or something, for the first production build?  If not, there should be.  Congratulations on a beautiful boat... maybe that's the prize?

FrankP

Maybe I get a free Pocketship t-shirt :-)

Seriously, I agree the prize is your personalized one of a kind sailboat. A bigger prize was getting it on the water instead of impatiently having to wait 6 months for spring.

Dave C