I think one of the more worrying things that has occurred while BBM has been building the boat is the number of young people who have asked who taught him to build boats?  To us it is a bit like asking Brynn how she paints her pictures.  No one gave her permission or dictated what she needed to produce. The picture above is in fact not a specific place in New Zealand.  She titled the painting ‘Daydreaming’ because that was what she was doing when she produced it.  It has the elements of the New Zealand coastal environment, but it is not dictated by the reality she sees.

In the building of his boat, BBM has taken many hours to research the methods of boat building used in history and now, and products used in boat building in history and now. Then, he made decisions based on his unique boat building goals and his understanding of materials from the construction industry and availability within New Zealand.

Some of the young men asking who taught BBM to build boats are builders themselves.  In response, BBM demands to know, Do you know how to read plans?!    Yes. Do you know how to cut wood, pound nails, use screw drivers and saws and clamps?!   Yes.  Then you can build a boat!

It concerns us immensely that young people appear to believe someone must teach them.  Where is the trial and error?  Where is the courage to mess up and start again?  Where is the resilience in starting a project and overcoming one barrier after another, ever creeping toward the goal?

A very important resource has been books written by people who have built boats, some written by their wives.  The trials and successes of these people have made us laugh and empathise with their miserable times.  I will post the titles and authors of these books later.

Youtube has been another resource that has probably been the most fun.  I bought BBM a Kindle so that he could use the internet to find information.  During crucial decision making times, I would wake up at 2.00 am with a light shining from his side of the bed.  What are you trying to find?  Remember how I told you that I was going to turn the boat over using a cradle sling with the block and tackle incrementally lifting it until it was ready to flop over?  Here are some guys in the deep South of America actually doing it.  I was right, it will work!

So we would watch Youtube clips, often with me interpreting the strong southern accents.  Sometimes I was trying to use my German to guess what the Dutch sailors were saying in their Youtube clips.  In all, it is fun knowing that people all over the world are also interested in sailing and fishing, and the world is small enough to learn from their experiences and feel a part of the global community.