Dreaming of Cruising

[Narfi]

New to the forum so I guess introductions are in order.

I enjoy building and use it as a way to teach my son about life. I am 41, he is 11, and my wife is somewhere in between..... (much closer to my age ofc)
We live in a remote Alaska village in some of the most beautiful scenery you will ever see, the only practical way in is by airplane, though with one or two portages by truck some stuff can get barged in here.

We built a stitch and glue canoe and a 17ft powerboat and am currently building a three place aircraft(Zenith 750 Super Duty, scratch built not a kit).









Whenever we start a project we start researching the next one, so once a project is finished we are mentally and hopefully financially prepared to start the next and there isn't any 'boring' time spent in limbo.

We are starting research on a 45-50ft catamaran to build. Timeline being <3yrs to build the plane and 5-8yrs for the catamaran. By that time our son will be old enough to fend for himself and we can sail off into the sunset. Or at least that is the dream.

'Dream' being the focus here.... we have never sailed before, but enjoy isolation and remote areas and while all of our time on islands and warm beaches has been in tourist areas off of large cruise ships, it very much seems like what we want to do.

Being realistic we want to get some sort of experience in before we commit to building something so large and will be looking at either chartering and taking sailing lessons over the next couple years, or even more ideally making some friends in the lifestyle who could take us on for a week or so maybe even a couple times for a more realistic view of what it is like. (Perhaps in trade for time in the most beautiful remote place in Alaska.)

I would love thoughts and suggestions on building this dream, encouragement as well as the blunt realities of it.
Are there good sites for reading and researching on building in that size range? Is this the main site for reading about real peoples day to day life aboard and traveling?

We have watched lots of youtube, but they are more 'show' and less reality it seems, there are some good building videos, but hard to find, I don't think many of the true craftsmen are that social, so you see less of them than I would like.

Anyways, Hi!

[Nauticus]

Hi. You sound like you have all the basic tools needed for cruising. You can build/fix and you are comfortable out on your own for long periods. My advice would be to take a basic sailing course. You sound pretty remote but most marinas/clubs with sailboats will offer training. I did my basic in a weekend. You'll know by the end of the weekend if sailing is for you. We all share a love of the wind and the water. Can't wait to hear how the plane works out ��

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Narfi.

[Narfi]

Thanks GordM

Originally Posted by Nauticus

Hi. You sound like you have all the basic tools needed for cruising. You can build/fix and you are comfortable out on your own for long periods. My advice would be to take a basic sailing course. You sound pretty remote but most marinas/clubs with sailboats will offer training. I did my basic in a weekend. You'll know by the end of the weekend if sailing is for you. We all share a love of the wind and the water. Can't wait to hear how the plane works out ��

yes, nothing like that near us, any training would be a 'vacation' trip, so needs to be planned accordingly. As much as we want to learn and experience new things we also lead busy lives and need to rest our minds and bodies as well as finances.... balancing it all out will be fun

[redhead]

Welcome Narfi and family -

I can't add any build ideas but can offer plenty of encouragement. I had nothing but the dream for 20 years, which I spent reading, learning and daydreaming. Have been living aboard for 6 years a bit south of you, and had Covid not pooped on the dream would probably be in AK now.

Your plan sounds well thought out, you have many of the skills so just keep on keeping on. Hope to see you out there!

Oh, and the canoe is a stunner!

[Narfi]

Originally Posted by redhead

Welcome Narfi and family -


Oh, and the canoe is a stunner!

One step closer, the canoe sails now. We finished the conversion project and got our first sail last night, first time I have ever sailed and on my own design, it felt really good!

































[youtube]

[Tayana42]

Wow. Good for you and your son. That canoe conversion to a tri looks like a great success.