The company I work for builds fiberglass bathing equipment that is sold into Nursing Homes all over the country. We have a sewing department that makes shower curtains unique to our size showers. The fabric is a lovely white, synthetic material of just the right "heft" for a dingy sail so I bought enough to make two sails and set to work. The finished product came out even better than I had a right to expect....I even made my own sailbag. I bought some sailmaker's insignia cloth, sticky backed, in red and cut out my own version of the "8-Ball" logo for the sail and the sail bag. I even made my own white oak battens and installed them into 18" batten pockets.

The hull is made from luan plywood purchased at Home Depot. Luan is a millimeter or so thinner than standard 1/4" plywood but finishes beautifully and is very reasonable. The keel and other members are made from some scrap redwood I had laying around. The whole boat was built on a "shoe string" and came out just great. (Hey... maybe I SHOULD have named it "shoe string" :) The attached photos show the boat, spars, sail and sail bag and a "quick and dirty" rudder and tiller. I didn't take the time to varnish the rudder or tiller as cold weather was setting in and I wanted to get the boat in the water last weekend (Oct. 22nd) and at least say I had sailed her before the end of the season.

Thanks again for a great design and for always being there to answer all my questions.

Brian Amato
Traverse City, Michigan