Time to start
A dream to sail around the world.
On my own, yet unbuilt, sailboat, of course.
I had been living in Vancouver for three years, sailing Georgia Straight on weekends but couldn't afford to take a boat for longer voyages; for example, around Vancouver Island. Repetitive sailing from False Creek on Granville Island to Snug Cove on Bowen Island had soon become boring.
I wanted my own boat.
Many people do spend their lives on a boat in BC. I wish I could too.
A boat is not a real estate. No bank would give you a mortgage for a sailboat with 10% down payment. Taking this more serious barrier into considerations, the idea of building a boat myself didn't seem too distant after all.
After driving all over Greater Vancouver, looking for a piece of land for a sailboat and possibly a house construction (see the previous project at house.creatica.org) I had become quite desperate. I would have been working to pay out the land, and only the land...
Despite all the benefits of building on Pacific shore in British Columbia with its numerous marinas, ship yards and suppliers, the prohibitive cost of a building site had prevailed.
Luckily, a job opportunity in Edmonton, AB had arisen and I moved from the Beautiful British Columbia to the Wild Rose Country, Alberta.
In Edmonton
In Edmonton, I had soon realized that building a 40-foot steel boat in a city where your lovely neighbors couldn't wait the exciting moment of when you first start hammering (or welding or cutting) to file a complaint. Even imagining hypothetical situation of ideal neighbors, I couldn't find a house or a lot in a city with a large enough backyard.
I got an acreage not far from St. Albert. Three years had been spent on building a house. Now it was time to build a boat.