12-18-2015, 10:48 PM
Hello. I'm actually a Korean-American born and raised in Oregon, but I'm here in the Philippines due to certain circumstances. Anyways, I'm a 20 year old looking to build a boat inspired by the concept of junk-rigged sailing by the Chinese and the marvel of classic (~1960) sailing vessels. I've spent the past 2 years traveling the world in-between periods of work, and in recent times I decided that sailing around the world would be more fun than backpacking. In a nutshell, I was motivated enough to be foolhardy enough to luck out enough for circumstances to be favorable enough for me to be writing this.
After an entire month of asking around, exchanging gossip, talking with various people, etc. across 7 different cities here, I stumbled into an opportunity better than I could have ever hoped. I was extremely weary after traveling 72 hours (excluding a 48 hour delay due to a typhoon and including a 10+km walk [I got lost]) to get to this place, sleeping on overnight ferries and buses, and I resolved that this was my final shot. A man and his wife had just returned a few days earlier after a 2-year hiatus (I had stubbornly pursued my ambitions for almost exactly the perfect amount of time needed for this to happen) and this man was someone who's been building, designing and sailing boats for more than 40 years. He is extremely kind and now I'm in a sort of informal apprenticeship.
I had no idea what he was talking about when he asked me if I had any boat plans. I also had no experience or knowledge of how to build a boat. I had a picture of a boat I thought looked pretty cool, and my vocabulary included "junk rig, boat, and mast." I didn't even know what starboard was.
Fast forward 6 weeks (this post is a bit late; I finished the dinghy ages ago but I was so busy), and I've repaired this dinghy as a side project, learning the tools of the trade and reading books given to me by a network of generous sailors. There was some manual labor involved with clearing the land that I rented out and there will be plenty of more work to do in the future, but I'll be continuing this undertaking in a new thread in the builder's forum. Thanks for reading.
After an entire month of asking around, exchanging gossip, talking with various people, etc. across 7 different cities here, I stumbled into an opportunity better than I could have ever hoped. I was extremely weary after traveling 72 hours (excluding a 48 hour delay due to a typhoon and including a 10+km walk [I got lost]) to get to this place, sleeping on overnight ferries and buses, and I resolved that this was my final shot. A man and his wife had just returned a few days earlier after a 2-year hiatus (I had stubbornly pursued my ambitions for almost exactly the perfect amount of time needed for this to happen) and this man was someone who's been building, designing and sailing boats for more than 40 years. He is extremely kind and now I'm in a sort of informal apprenticeship.
I had no idea what he was talking about when he asked me if I had any boat plans. I also had no experience or knowledge of how to build a boat. I had a picture of a boat I thought looked pretty cool, and my vocabulary included "junk rig, boat, and mast." I didn't even know what starboard was.
Fast forward 6 weeks (this post is a bit late; I finished the dinghy ages ago but I was so busy), and I've repaired this dinghy as a side project, learning the tools of the trade and reading books given to me by a network of generous sailors. There was some manual labor involved with clearing the land that I rented out and there will be plenty of more work to do in the future, but I'll be continuing this undertaking in a new thread in the builder's forum. Thanks for reading.