About this project

I'm building a John Welsford designed Pathfinder sailing dayboat....
The boat (at this stage merely a project) is named after my wife who very patiently and magnanimously has accepted that I embarked in yet another home boatbuilding journey.

Choosing the right design wasn't easy but as I came across the Pathfinder I knew straight away it would fit remarkably well our growing family needs.

Compared to our previously owned 21ft cabin sailing boat the Pathfinder is actually smaller, however our sailing habits have changed radically since our two boys have arrived.
Having a boat that can be stored in a garage, trailed and launched as needed when needed and almost all the time where needed gives great freedom to people with a passion for sailing and little time to spare.
Attending  to sailing raids and traditional boat festivals is another reason why we steered from plastic to trailerable wood.
The pleasure that comes from sailing the boat you have built yourself and the fun of building itself took care of the final elements in the decision .
I hope the boat will be in the water within reasonable time, however I am under no illusion given work, family and other pre-existing commitments.
Anyhow one condition that my wife set in order to "validate"  the new project was to simplify the build process along the way and for this reason I decided to have many components of the boat hull precisely cut by a local CNC sheet cutting service. The first step was therefore to design the CAD model of the boat .... .... .... and now to the blog posts for the rest of the story!