Hi folks, I'm Dan Cavins from Norwood, Ohio. I'm a television news photographer (a fabulous job) and forty-four years old (a nice age). A few years ago I did a story on a couple who built their own cruising boat and sailed away. It stuck with me and now, well, here we are one kayak later and four years into an NIS-23. I spent a year looking at designs and then saw a small ad for the NIS line. Study plans... it just felt right. Good looking, distinctive, realistically trailerable, and seemed it could be built by a schmoe like me. I'm as glad today with my choice as the day I sent in the money. I'm just poorer. Whadda ya' do? So far so good I think. Of course if I were to do it again there would be changes but hey who starts with experience? You may notice I'm not afraid to try something different at times but I think it all works.

Scout will not win the big award at the Woodenboat Show, she's mine. George Buehler in his book asks: "Are you building a shrine or a boat?" I'm building a boat.

P.S. - Thanks to Jack for resurrecting this site and helping me get this on.

So far so good, bulkhead A. I set up an easel, totally vertical, in the basement. Then used the rules and a long level. I figure level will always be level, it was a good quality control. Drew it right on the ply sheet. Worked well I think. Wow, I'm under way! Pardon my excitement.

The centerboard case. Now there's a pain in the can! How do you do this? Well we'll think of something. Drew the curve of the bottom and with encouragement and clamps set the mahogany piece to glue. Much to my relief it fit just right in the hull. This was a very big deal for a guy new to this. I would build it different next time, no laminated 3/8" sides, just 3/4" or a 1/2" with some structural beefing.

Jumping ahead a bit, here is the frame. Man, it's looking like a boat! A few notes: I did not cut out the inside of the bulkheads. I drew them out to be cut later. I figured with the torque of the installation of chine logs and sheer clamp I'd prefer to keep things stout. Speaking of stout, what is that bulkhead wood? It is HDO, high density overlay. Used by suggestion of another boat builder. It is all 1/2". The stuff is used for concrete forms. Stiff, waterproof glues, very few voids, priced right and available around here. It has been criticized for it's no-stick nature but I rough it up with low grit and even scared it on gluing areas. If anything is feeling like letting loose I sure have not seen it. My only worry is maybe the weight, it is a bit heavier but I'm not really much worried and I like the strength. Mahogany chines and keelson, and western red cedar laminated sheer. Next time (God no) the stem will be set in the building form like the bulkheads, not fit on later! What a pain.

Planking. Fork out for the good stuff here, marine fir. Clamps have been put on and beveled. The sides are butted and joined, cut and then put on. Was thinking of scarfing but the butts seem entirely fair. I doubled (well the added layer is 3/8") the bottom on the advice from my good friend Robert at Duck Flat boats in Australia. More grounding durability and weight in the bottom. Why not? My big goof here was just my sloppiness at the CB slot. Just could be better, I think we'll be ok though. If I wait for it to be perfect it would never see water.

Onward.

How to draw the waterline? I've read several methods but came up with my own idea. I work with light so... What is a waterline? It's a straight line on a curved survace. So what if you set up a string/line fore to aft alongside the boat even with the waterline marks on the hull? I did this with levels and rulers, no big deal. Then you set up lights. Adjust them so the shadow of the string falls on the waterline marks on the hull. The shadow is the straight line falling on the curved surface. Take pencil and trace. Voila, your waterline. Looks great. Kind of proud of this idea actually. Wait til' dark by the way.

I'm skipping the glassing of the hull because I don't wish to recall it. To rollover day! Wow am I scared. Will it bust? Nary a squeek. I think it is pretty tough. Built a roll bar to the bulkheads, three old tires, friends, beer and heave ho! This was just a great day. Big in the boat sense but so warming to see the collection of friends and family I have who wanted to be a part of it. And no one got squashed.

Bulkheads cut out, cabinet in starboard, some support in. My interior plans are simple. I don't plan to be living in there so funtional is fine. Again, this is a cool boat, not an art boat. Hello from the builder.

Here is what will hold up the main stick. The base is three layers of 1/2" ply cut and formed. Only took about five tries! Set in with 3M 5200. I went with a tabernacle system made by Duckflat in Australia. To be honest it looks a tad bulky above deck, the strait stick would look a little nicer. But I wanted this boat to be user-friendly for one sailor. With the tab the mast will just hinge up and down for rigging and trailering and always be attached. I think this will make my life at the dock much shorter and easier. Aligning the thing was a bit maddening but mainly because I over thought it probably. Levels, squares, rules, strings and don't forget the eyeballs. I think it's straight. We'll find out later!

Oh, one more thing: if you are not considering insuring that important thing for shipping? Both of my masts were bent and trashed in transit. New ones on the way, courtesy of the policy. Still a big hassle.

Ok, ya' know how some things don't go as planned? My cabin top. I was worried about the size of the top and getting it on without warping. Also that there were large areas of this thin wood seemingly lightly supported. I just couldn't get it set right. So my plan was to put in a 1" by 3" support from bulkhead B to D. This added a lot of support to the top and also allowed me to work with smaller pieces which were much easier to handle. It should also eliminate the need for the hand rails.

My apologies to Mr. Kirby but I'm quite happy with it, the top formed well and I believe is structurally stronger. Now the nifty two-tone? I started using a five-ply mahogany, great stuff but way too stiff. I got the side parts on but no way on the center. Switched to three-ply fir. Wow, why didn't I do that to begin with? I'm a dummy who just didn't know. Do now. I later made a jig to secure and mount the main hatch rails parallel and vertical. Holy cow it worked and the hatch fits and slides. I'm getting better or more lucky - and I don't care which.

I've glassed the cabin top here and you see the hatch runners in place. I detest the glassing process. Just the same I believe it is worth the grief on high exposure areas like the cabin top. I have not done it in the cockpit or on the vertical cabin sides. The MDO ply I used has a layer of impregnated resin which has proven extremely durable in my tests. I believe good paint will suffice and be much lighter and certainly less abuse to apply. We'll see. The front hatch may look a bit small. It is. I just thought the one in the design was to big and might interfere with the running of lines. It's a ventilation hatch for me, so I downsized. How about those portholes!? Used the jigsaw, files (I love the four-by) and sanding. And if you stand far enough away they look symmetrical. They'll be ok.

The trim is on, and with a coat of varnish. I used a router to cut the corners of the cabin entryway and to groove the inside to take the "door" panel. Just a lot of setup work and planning to get it right but it was worth it, I like the curve. The seat top trim pieces were tough. The basic shape was no big deal, make oversize, trace to combing, cut. The bugger was getting the inside angle to mesh with the seat back angle. Was hoping I could Japanese saw the thing fore to aft. No deal. Too slow and the blade wanted to wander. After a couple of lame ideas it was my old friend the four-by file. I just ground it down using the curved side until it got to the sanding stage. Labor intensive but it worked.

I sanded all the trim to 220 grit. This is mahogany. Then it was Interlux Interstain, two coats of epoxy (West 207), and so far two coats of varnish. The Interstain was at the suggestion of a boat repair friend who said it would enhance the color and grain of the wood. He's right. It's easy to apply too. Of course I'm a crummy varnisher but I think it will look alright. Good lord I won't bore you with varnish lore but I use Schooner, badger hair brushes and sand with 3M sanding sponges. The sponges don't clog, crease up and gouge and they take off the sheen, not the varnish you just put on. They're great, the hell with sand paper.

The mizzen mast tabernacle is not in permanent yet. I just extended the cockpit around it, seemed secure, simple and the area under will have a mesh across it for a nice little stuff storage spot.

I've been doing a lot of sanding and small stuff in prep towards painting. I'm really on the fence for paint. A big part of me wants to go with quality acrylic latex house paint. It seems to have worked great for many. Then of course others cringe at the thought, only marine will do! they say. Can't decide.

The new masts finally arrived to replace the ones trashed in transit. They look great. Whew!

Picked up the trailer too. Now that's an experience. I amused the locals with some practice backing in a big parking lot. Workin' on it.

There are a whole lot of things happening fast right now which means I must be getting towards the end. Still think I can get it in this fall. Much as I love this thing and working on it, it is also time to wrap up. I've spent enough money, time and have to admit I'm a little tired. The pedal is to the metal. And hey, I want to sail the thing!

Here is the deck at the bow. I'm sure there is a better way but I don't know what it is so here is what I made up. Problem is that there are several things converging at this point and making them all work and play well together was a bit of a thinker. Mine is a bit Frankenstinian but I think it will work fine. I put a deck plate in for some venting and at least a little access to this area. It also has a deck plate in bulkhead A. I doubled the ply deck at some points and planed it down to get an angle. Again I suspect there is a better way but...

Some color! As some of you may know I agonized and asked a lot of people about what type paint. If I asked twenty people I got forty answers. House paint, epoxy two pot or one, marine oils... To keep it short, I went with house paint. A top quality acrylic from Porter. I really was not interested in a shiny yacht finish, just didn't seem like my elbow grease creation of work boat heritage. Also worried a bit about my painting abilities wasting very expensive paints. Cost was an issue too but not the focus. I was tired of solvents and the like as well.

The house paint was very easy to deal with in acquisition to application. And finally I talked (e-mail) with Bill Hersey. Bill said he was a traditionalist who never would have done this a few years ago but tried it and had great luck and was sold. I figured that had to account for something. So feel free to chastise me if you like, maybe I will too in the future. But it worked for me at this time and I'm happy with it.

I am not a great painter. Had better luck with the roller than brush. And I had to change the color of the deck/cabin. I put on a white at first and it was just too white. Went with cream. Way better! The varnish looks much better beside it and it will work more nicely with the sails (cream). The inside is white and I just thought the blue would be fun. As to the red hull - cool! I did not want one more white boat out there. The nifty, sleek hull of the NIS 23 I just thought would look good in red. I like it.

One more thing; I thought I'd be in this fall (2003) and worked my can off to do it. Short story is I just could not make it over the mountain. Yeah I'm bummed. But it will give me time to tweak and finish in an unrushed manner. And it will be nice spring day soon enough. What's six more months at this point?

Well it's June 2004 now and wow time flies. I didn't work as hard over the winter, with no heat in the building I just didn't want to deal with it. I did build the rudder and box in my basement. I made the rudder of laminated ply and planed it down to something like the plans profile. Close is all I'm going to get on that, and I bet it's close enough. Rudder seems a bit heavy maybe but should be ok. The box was a lot more work than I thought, but I guess everything is. One other deal that was a bit of a pain were the ballast boxes. These are just frames that the lead bars will fit into in the bottom of the hull. Word of advice: figure out and do this when you build the hull. What a hassle trying to work down there with the rest of the boat built up. I had lead bars of 17-3-1" extruded. It was not cheap, metal prices have risen quite a bit lately. Same to be said of the aluminum centerboard. I tried an alternative ply-reenforced cb. Add it to my list of bad ideas. Fork out or consider the fatter wooden version of Duckflat from Australia.

So, a big day, out of the boat barn and onto the trailer. Like the Romans we rolled it out on round fence posts put under the cradle. That worked great. Getting the boat onto the trailer was another matter. That was old fashion oomph with straps and grunting. It was harder than I thought, I believe I just underestimated the weight and difficulty of getting a good grasp on the boat. But after some on the spot engineering and trailer repositioning it was sitting pretty. And I think it is kind of pretty! Thank God for my family and friends who are willing to help on these occasions.

Since then I have been putting on hardware and just stuff. Always more than you think. The masts look great. Quite a relief to see them looking straight and in unison.

One bad note and warning: I've gone through hell trying to register this boat. The title office freaked out at the sight of a non-factory built boat. Maybe not a factor where you live but in southern Ohio they just don't see this I guess. To shorten this saga I'll just tell you they wanted to see all of the receipts from the materials I bought. I about croaked. They just didn't get it. With the help of a great friend in the boat business and, finally, a bigger thinker from the title agency I believe I'll be able to get this done soon. It's been scary. I had no idea...

At this point I worry that people have given up and assume I'm some crazy guy who will never get this thing in the water. I have to pull it out to empty parking lots to work on it now and it's a pain. But I keep at it and finally make it official: it goes in October 3rd, 2004.

Trailering the boat to lake I'm not nervious, it's kind of weird. The boat trailers great and it seems less of a deal the more you do it. I envisioned a big launch party at one time but it ends up being just family and about three friends. This is better. I found myself so consumed with the boat that I wasn't so social, it was easier with a small and understanding crowd. Putting the boat together took too long, but that was expected.

Well you have to drop it in sooner or later so here goes. I back the trailer in, and thus don't get to see it's first float! But everyone cheered and I got out to see it bobbing level, happy and at the waterline. Guess after all this time I should feel some big thing but I was just sort blanked. Overload? Anyway I had to get the truck off the ramp and all this other little stuff so I was still busy. We were like the Stooges go sailing trying to get everything together, you think your about ready but... Whatever, who cares? One thing bothers me, yes there is a slow leak at the centerboard case. Crap. It is very slight but it's water. I knew if I had trouble it would be there. My own fault of course, I'm mad at me. So it goes. We'll fix.

Are we ready to shove off? Oh, what the hell. Now I have no motor on the thing and figure if worse comes to worse we'll just start waving money at bass boats. We have a wonderfull light breeze and shortened sail. It's time and they push brother Paul and I from the dock. She heals slightly and starts forward. We are of course listening to all noises and antsy about everything. Scout seems less so and just carries on straight and steady. Is this real? After awhile we settle in a bit and the wind picks up some and we get moving. Paul and I just look at each other and go "Wow!" She just settles in and goes great. No need for the bass boats we get just where we want to go. Motor, we don't need no stinkin' motor! But some more wind would help, it goes quiet. We get back to the dock and back on the trailer. This takes too long but it's a learning day. It was sort of a short sail but a big one and as I get less nervous I start to realize the potential, I think my little creation sailed great. Man, am I tired.

Needless to say I could go on and on (sorry if I have). Truth be told I felt better about it the day after, launch day was sort of a blur. I needed to see the pics to get the whole idea. There is still work to be done, the cb leak, tweaking the systems, learning to sail... But it is sort of done and I'm relieved. I've referred to this project as the coolest and most idiotic thing I've ever done, and that's pretty accurate. Whatever the case I would not trade a dollar or minute of it back. It has been far more than just a boat in my life. And to think now I get to use it! I can't wait to iron out the details and just sail, next year will be fun. Jack, I'm dreaming of that NIS armada one weekend. Anyway, in final, thanks to everyone who helped with advice, muscle or just moral support, I needed all of it. I'll keep you posted. Thanks, Dan.