In the beginning

I am not a sailor.  

My exposure to sailing on sailboats has been very limited.  I have been crew (read ballast) in a few forgettable races aboard traditional catboats.  I found that experience, on the whole, to be too stressful, and entirely too much like work to be considered fun.


I am told that there are other dimensions to sailing, and that some of them I might actually find pleasurable.  I remain an agnostic, pending some Sign that might cause me to believe.


Nevertheless, I am building a sailboat.  It is Grey Seal, a 22 foot gunter rigged centerboard sloop designed by the illustrious Iain Oughtred, some years ago.  I picked it because it met my peculiar criteria for a project, none of which are worthy or even valid criteria, from the perspective of a sailor.

Me tightening a clamp.  I've gotten very good at this.

Why a boat?

• I wanted a big, but not a too big project -- i.e., one that will occupy me for a few years with consistent but not full time effort. When you retire, as I have, still have your health and reasonable dexterity, and cannot sit still for extended periods, you had better figure out something to do. Nevertheless, the most deluded optimist in his 60s does not take on a physically demanding project with the expectation of working on it for the next 20 years.  
• Boats, especially wooden boats, and most especially sailboats, fascinate me as systems. No part of a boat, or any system, works independent of all the other parts, and all of the design and construction decisions along the way must take this into account.  As a systems professional during my working life, I lived and died by this imperative.  Observing this reality to be just as true with the "hardware" system enterprise of boatbuilding as it was for me in the "software" environment of computer systems design and development is very satisfying (coming full circle, and all that stuff.)
• I really like doing things with wood. I have done a lot of it over my life, and I have found no higher use for the material than the construction of a boat.  

Why Grey Seal?

What's not to love?

• First and foremost, it is cool looking (double ender, huge stern mounted rudder, lapstrake hull, sharp looking rig, funky cabin top, what's not to love?)             
• It is made of wood. Although some would argue that epoxy glued plywood construction does not really qualify in this regard, it is close enough for me.

• In the event that I do complete the project, and also decide to actually put her in the water and sail her, the design meets the two eminently reasonable requirements I agreed to with my wife, many, many years ago, as regards any object upon which she ventures onto the water.  Simple though they may be, our marriage continues to hum along and these criteria may be a key reason:

1. "Boats are intended to keep one OUT of the water.  Getting wet is a consequence, not an objective."  With her half-ton lead ballast plus her 150 lb centerboard, Grey Seal would take a concerted effort to capsize.
2. "Basic bodily functions must be accommodated at sea as comfortably as on land." Grey Seal, by design, has enough cabin space to make a comfortable head a practical option.