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Also: If you scroll down this page we have links to a score of other YouTube videos posted by builders around the world!

One of the best tools one can have to build any project is experience; unfortunately, when one is starting out and a beginner-builder, that's not a tool in one's box yet. We realised that we could help provide this experience by creating a video of our techniques and that we could share some of our experience with other builders. We put totgether a 3-and-a-half-hour video of the entire process of building our Weekender sailboat. From choosing lumber to sailing, and all the points between, this video covers a lot and we think it really can help builders complete their projects more easily. While the video covers our Weekender, it's also applicable to the other sailboats as well, since the construction techniques are the same in all.

We think the Weekender Video is fun as well as useful — It covers a lot of information and still remains easy-to-watch, at least that's our story!

The Weekender Video is 3 1/2 hours long so it comes on two DVDs. There are a total of thirty-three chapters split over the two DVDs! You can view the chapters in two ways:

Click Here or on the image above and you can view a video of the DVD Chapter Menus!

Click Here or on the image above and you can download the PDF file of the Chapter Menus for both DVDs!

We really tried to cover all the important parts of the Weekender project: from picking the lumber to sailing tips. Everything along the way, including tool-use secrets, assembly tricks, bondo-techniques, fibreglassing, painting caveats, sailmaking, varnishing, and rigging short-cuts.

The video also tackles the dynamics of project building: how to overcome "First-Cut Fever" (the anxiousness preceeding your first steps into a project), how to keep momentum rolling through the stretch. and how to combat "Finishing Touch-Fever" (that hesitance to get the project out on the water and try it!) We've had a lot of builders send us notes over the years mentioning how they appreciated the video as a confidence-building tool to help them push through when they were unsure about their projects. We're really glad to hear it, as that was one of the big reasons we did the video!

The Weekender Home Boatbuilding Video

Weekender Videos

This is a link to a clip from the Weekender Home Boatbuilding DVD Set which shows the Weekender really sailing well! We're pretty proud of this little bit of video: It was shot hand-held in pretty breezy conditions and we think the boat really tears up the bay in this sequence! It's a good look at a fun day in a Weekender...Click Here to watch it!

A few notes about the DVD Sets:

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank the Sprague Family for their contributions to the Weekender Home Boatbuilding Video Sets. Hall Sprague was the third member of our boatbuilding team for the video and was an invaluable help in the production — Hall had never built much before this, but he's an insightful sociologist and a sharp fellow. His intelligent questions added tremendously to the on-camera discussions and his wonderful attitude made working with him a real joy. We think this comes across in the video and we want to thank him for that once again.

In addition to the building help, Hall is one of the musicians responsible for the great sounds in our videos! Hall, his sons Peter and Tripp, and a few of their friends recorded the album Blurring The Edges and you can hear tracks on the Weekender DVD. Hall Sprague's own great album Hurry Home provides sounds as well. The links above will take you to Peter Sprague's website where you can learn more about their music and purchase CD's and MP3's as well.

The Spragues are a truly accomplished and charming family and we're glad we could combine both our family's productions in our videos!

This link takes you to a sample video for the Home Boatbuilding DVD Set. This video is seven minutes long and shows several clips from the building sequences of the video, and a bit of sailing also! We took only a few clips from the whole video, but it gives one a good idea of the relaxed, conversational style of the DVD set. Click Here to watch the sample video!

We wanted to share some great links to video clips posted by Builder/Skippers, both on YouTube and on their own websites and we've put together a list of links below. In addition, a Weekender builder has posted a great page which we think is even better than our layout! We're leaving our page below, but Tom's page is great!

Go to Tom's Great Weekender Video Page (and webpage links too!)

If you have more videos you'd like to share, or links to other videos we haven't posted, please let us know! It's really gratifying for us to see people having good fun with their projects built from our plans and we hope others enjoy watching these videos as much as we do!

This Weekender video was taken in New Zealand and really shows these Weekenders sailing nicely and in varying conditions. Another great video (they all are!) Click Here to see this video.

This video is from the True North Fleet up in Canada, where they have several of our boats which gather in Great Slave Lake. It looks like they have a lot of fun up there...Click Here to watch the video.

This video shows a Weekender sailing in Ireland! (I think they may be motor-sailing, as the outboard's down.) Click Here to watch this nice Weekender.

A nice look at the cockpit and cabin of a Weekender, taken while sailing along very smartly. Click Here to watch this video. This is another nice sailing video from the same day, it looks like, just a bit more of a side-angle: Click Here to see this video!

Sailing a Weekender on Navajo Lake. A nice video of a really nicely done Weekender in pretty waters. Click Here to watch the video.

Three videos of a Weekender motoring in the Columbia River. These videos show the ability of Weekenders to handle choppy waters (and the Vacationer and Skipjack also, as they have very similar hull shapes.)

Click Here to watch the first video clip...

...and Click Here to watch the second video...

...and the third video clip: Click Here!

Sailing on a bit of a still day, but peaceful looking! Click Here to watch this video.

A Weekender and a Pocket Cruiser! Video taken from a Weekender of the Pocket Cruiser "Wild Hare". Click Here to watch this nice video.

This is a really nice video about the Weekender "Willam Harrow" and its builder, Bill Davis. A bit longer than the others, with good shots of the boat sailing and a nice interview with Mr. Davis about the project. Click Here to watch this very nice video!

A video of a Weekender sailing in the desert! There's a large group of Builder/Skippers in the Southwest Fleet and they sail in Nevada most of the time. Click Here to see this video.

Another great video from the active Southwest Fleet! This video is about one of their gatherings in Utah with a couple of Weekenders in attendance. It looks like they didn't have much wind, but they had fun; Pirate flags and all! Click Here to watch this video.

A great video of a Weekender. It appears the builder started the boat indoors and then knocked a hole in the wall to get the project out! That's dedication...Click Here to watch this video.

Three very cool videos of some young builders in Australia making a Mini-Cup over their Christmas break! I remember helping on the build of the first Mini-Cup over my sixth-grade Easter break—Really neat to see history repeating itself!

Congratulations to these young guys for making a great boat and for making great videos of the process too! Well done...

Click Here to watch the first video clip...Starting on the construction...

Click Here to watch the second video...Finish work and painting...

Click Here to watch the third bit...Sailing the Mini-Cup!

The Old

We first posted ProjectCam back in 1996! Back then, it wasn't so easy to watch video on the Web and we wanted to share the feel of the Weekender Boatbuilding Video (on VHS tapes back then!) We put 60 still frames from the video into a slide show which showed some of the important scenes from the building process. More than a bit dated now, but ProjectCam still shows the flavor and concept of what the video tries to share with our builders. We still think it's worthwhile and we hope you get a bit of nostaligic fun out of it as well!

Back to 1996 we go...

ProjectCam is sequential presentation of 60 still frames from our Weekender How-To Video. It starts at the beginning with lumber selection, and progresses through the various stages of building, ending up with the Weekender sailing around in the bay. Each frame should take about twenty to thirty seconds to refresh, given normal conditions. The whole show will therefore take twenty to thirty minutes to complete. The little number at the bottom of each still photo is the frame counter, which gives you an idea of where in the video the picture appears. When you order a Weekender Video, it won't have these to get in the way of the action.

If you're using Netscape Navigator, the pages will automatically advance every twenty seconds, but if you're ready to go to the next picture sooner, click on the "NEXT" button. If you're using another program to view ProjectCam, use the "NEXT" control button to go forward whenever you are ready.

Anybody can use the control buttons to go to the "NEXT" picture, go back to the "LAST" picture, or "PAUSE" to see a picture in detail.

Our goal with ProjectCam is to provide a sort of project peep-hole through which visitors can watch a project going together before their very eyes. In this case, a Weekender sailboat. Perhaps you're curious about what's involved in a do-it-yourself project, maybe you just love to watch other people at work, could be the Zen of creation grabs you: whatever your reason, grab a chair and start the show!