Model Boat Building I

Although I have spent the majority of time filling this blog with information on the manly pursuits of hockey and cooking, I feel it is time to expand my horizons a bit. One of the pursuits I have enjoyed doing in the past is building wooden model ships. I have been feeling a hankering to get back into this recently, and decided to buy a somewhat simple model to get the feel for it again. I also wanted something I could bring out to Fire Island and get back after my vacation.

Blue Jacket Ship Crafters is a 102 year old company in Maine that designs professional model boats and also makes a variety of kits in a wide range of skill levels. Compared to some of the other companies that do this, many European, their instructions, plans and supplied equipment are of top quality. Because this is my vacation, I was particularly pleased to see that they made "all-inclusive" kits, which include tools, paint and pretty much everything else you need to make a boat. Bluejacket has an excellent web page, and my model was delivered quickly.

I have decided to build the "Yankee Hero." This is a model of a "quoddy" fishing boat originally built in Maine in 1889. The original boat is in the Smithsonian. This type of ship was commonly used to fish well through the beginning of the Twentieth Century. I have to admit that visiting boy 1 in Maine and visiting the Maritime Museum there rekindled my interest in model boat building and in building this boat in particular.

Compared to my cooking or eating reviews, I feel that these will more personal than technical, describing my experience making the boat. Since I am truly a rank amateur, I am not anticipating adding much to the World's knowledge of model ship building. But I am hoping to solidify my model building knowledge by documenting my progress as I build the ship.