This past fall my nine year old son built
"Tortoise", Bolger's 6.5 foot sailing punt.
He borrowed one of Payson's books from the library
("Instant Boats", I think it was), and scaled the
plans up on butcher's paper.
He did ALL of the work himself, with me standing
by cheering and offering advice.
He cut the wood with a jigsaw, faired joints
with a hand plane, sanded, drove the nails,
drilled the holes, and painted her.
My wife helped him build the sail out of
blue poly tarp, and the mast is 1.25 inch
closet rod, which he tapered with the hand plane.
I would say that, with three coats of paint,
it cost well under a hundred dollars (Canadian-
that's about sixty American), and took him thirty hours.
He had never built anything more than a crude
picture frame before this.
His boat sails remarkably well, he loves to row it,
it's a hoot with a 2.5 Cruise and Carry motor,
and he's totally enthused about boat building!
His next project will be Bolger's Cartopper.
Inspired by his request, my eight year old ordered
the plans for Bolger's canoe. This is a "stitch 'n glue"
project (we stitched with hot glue- Yeah!), so I had
to get a bit more involved in measuring the resin,
sanding the fibreglass, etc. My son enjoyed the project
(October in Canada, so we built this in the living room
in deference to the temperature needs of the resin),
but is keenly aware that he did not build it
"all by myself".
We sheathed the entire (exterior) hull with glass,
which brought the cost to around a hundred dollars,
the weight to 46 pounds, and the time to nearly forty hours.
The double bladed paddle is a 1.25 inch closet rod with 3/8 inch
plywood blades inserted into kerfs in either end.
We had to drive through several inches of snow to launch
the canoe. With my fifty pound son paddling like mad
and drawing only 3/8 of an inch of water, it looked exactly
like a big water bug scooting across the surface of the lake!
Now big sister is starting a canoe...
I expect we will end up with at least half a dozen of
Bolger's "instant boats" before we stop.
We love 'em!
Hope this helps.
Dave