If you live anywhere near water (ocean, bay, lake, river) you have probably thought about having a boat. But have you ever thought about building your own boat? I had never really considered it until I came across this site:

Free boat plans

There are three things that amazed me: 1) When you start poking around on the Web, you can find thousands of different boat plans, 2) the process of building a boat is fairly straightforward and fairly inexpensive, and 3) Boats come in an infinite number of shapes and sizes.

For example, there is this plan:

The Coot – 22 foot sailboat plans

This is a 22 foot sailboat that sleeps two, built from plywood. At the other end of the spectrum, here is a catamaran made of PVC pipe and scrap wood:

[You can skip the first 2:15 of this video to get straight to the plans]

Here’s real-life experience building a portable folding boat from plans in “The Boy Mechanic”:

If you have ever considered building your own boat – if the thought has ever flitted through your head for even a second – you owe it to yourself to jump into Google and YouTube and look for plans. It is amazing what is out there.

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