I loved doing projects with my dad growing up. Whenever something needed to get fixed around the house, I was always right next to him. I wasn’t able to help that much when I was little. I would mostly just hand him the tools and make funny comments that had nothing to do with the project at hand. As I got older though, I was able to help out more and more. My dad and I would discuss life and other things while we worked around the house. It was a great bonding experience, and I still remember many of the conversations we had and the life lessons I would gleam from them. Well when Reddit user BenderRodriguezz was in middle school, he wanted to build a boat with his dad. So he saved up his money and bought the plans to build his own motorboat from scratch. It took him and his dad 10 years to complete, but now the boat is hitting the high seas!
He saved up his allowance and birthday money, and finally had enough to buy the plans for the boat. He set out cutting the plywood planks into the correct shapes.
A makeshift frame was thrown together to help with a process the poster describes as “stitch and glue.”
The process is quite literal with its name. You literally stitch together pieces of plywood together with copper wire then seal the seams with glue.
Slowly but surely, the hull started to look like an actual boat.
Now it was time for the gluing and sealing. He cut all the copper wire away, and covered all the seams with strips of fiberglass cloth and epoxy.
The poster and his dad worked out of this tiny garage for almost the entire build. That’s a pretty cramped work space.
By the time they started putting fiberglass on the exterior, 4 years had passed since they first started this project!
After the fiberglass was applied, it was time to start the dreaded sanding process.
The first coat of paint applied!
Bender Rodriguezz had graduated high school by the time they started to install the electrical and working on the deck.
While BenderRodriguezz was away at college, work on the boat definitely slowed down. Here he and his father are gluing and clamping pieces of African mahogany wood around the outside of the hull.
Even more sanding. The poster said “I still have nightmares about the sanding.”
He took his time and did it the right way though, and once that varnish was on it really showed. This thing is beautiful.
This thing is definitely going to be something to brag about when its done.
Here she is in all her finished glory! The named the vessel “Current.”
See the fully detailed process here.
10 years is a long time for a project, but building a boat also isn’t your average project. It requires a hell of a lot more know how than a simple fix on a house or even building a small tree house. The end product this father and son were able to get is absolutely beautiful. Building a boat is not something I would ever want to take on. For the people brave enough to tackle a project of this magnitude though, the reward of a job well done has to be pretty awesome.