Skippering a boat that you created with your own hands is a special kind of experience that we just don't find elsewhere. To many of us it's as different from just buying a boat ready-made as skippering a boat is from just crewing.
As we get more and more feedback from other Weekender builders, we're noticing that they're discovering a lot of things that we've also gone through in over forty years of creating new kinds of boats to sail. Since some of the things we've already learned about becoming a home-built skipper might save new skippers some wasted time and effort, we'd like to pass on a few tricks of the trade here in Cap'n Ply's column on a regular basis.
Each month (or maybe more often) we'll be seeing a growing list of articles by Cap'n Ply that tell the story of what's been learned here at Stevenson Projects about getting the most out of sailing homebuilts-the maximum Fun-over-Fret ratio that can make sailing homebuilts such an addictive habit.
What better subject to start off with than how to get the most out of that first sail? Especially if you've never sailed before!