I was going to put more pictures up here but decided not to.
The story is much too good to make a short version valid. In a way it is nothing special – just a family building three little boats – but I think there IS something special.
The Story is here with all the photos and the main parts of our conversation.
Maybe it is the photos, maybe it is because the location, maybe the yearlong process of gradually getting the boats together.
The three kids Caleb, Laurel, Isiah built the hulls and I am really impressed by the great colour schemes.
Their Dad Jonathan built all the bits – centreboards, rudders, masts, booms and rudderbox.
That’s about it for a PDRacer.
Oh – except for the sails which are made out of polytarps – probably the biggest selling point for boats being built in West Africa!!! We use the same materials in Australia and are impressed at how a $40 sail can push an efficient boat in all directions. You can see our sailing videos if you don’t believe it works. Our sails are two years old now and still going fine.
The UBeaut forum site is real gem for digging out information about boats and woodworking. UBeaut Woodworking.
Also what we did about the rudder failures on their first sail and the easy fix.
Hope you enjoy the story as much as I did!