Prepare yourself before going traveling


Building a 16 ft. Grand Banks Dory

As a kid I did a lot of boat building ,We decided on swimming. We did not see anyone
mainly scale models that were not able toaround, so we quickly undressed, and with one
sail, although I did actual build a few boatshand holding our clothes above the water, we
that were, more or less, capable of sailing.managed to get back to our own side of the
I even once build a 10 feet boat, or shall Iriver. Just as we were struggling to get out
say raft. I accomplished this with a fewof the water a group of girls from our own
friends and we had great fun sailing it onschool were passing by, and I can tell you we
the local river. It was not really waterwere  not  happy!
proof and while one person was rowing, the
others had to make sure that they removed theThis all happened a long time ago and a few
water  quicker then it was entering our boat.times in my live I have had plans of building
a boat again. I have spent a good amount of
Then sadly one day we failed. I was rowing attime looking at boat building plans, but with
the time, and we were in the middle of theboats  size  does  matter.
river when it was clear we were sinking. I
stopped rowing to assist with the hosing, butI usually looked at boats between 30 and 40
this only slowed down the process of sinking,feet, but the sheer volume of work involved
it did not stop it. So I started to row againhas always stopped me from going ahead with
in on effort to reach dry land before wemy  boat  building  plans.
sank, thus avoiding having to swim to safety.
Now I have decided to start small. I am going
And guess what: We made it! Just before theto build a 16 feet Grand Banks dory, which I
boat really started to sink we managed towant to fit with a small outboard engine. I
jump ashore. Here we watched as our pride andbought the boat building plans, I got the
joy slowly sank to the bottom of the river.working space, and by the time you read this
It was then that we realized we were at thearticle  I  might  be  finished  already.
wrong side of the river and this left us with
a problem. We either had to walk to theLater, who knows, I might build a 40 feet
nearest bridge, 10 kilometers upriver, socabin cruiser, and tow my Grand Banks dory
that would have been a 20 kilometer walk, orbehind me. Then, if my cabin cruiser sinks, I
swim  to  the  other  side.can always row to safety in my Grand Banks
dory, dry and with my clothes on.



1 A B C D 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 82 83 84 85 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106