: I have a motivation question. Countless times throughout this lengthy
: process, I run into snags and have to back up several steps/hours.
: Sometimes I end up wasting good wood in order to learn a skill or
: technique that I didn't have before. I used to say,"It's not the
: destination, it's the journey." But that is wearing thin. I want to
: paddle this boat! Does anyone have any tips or tricks they use to back up
: to the spot where things were acceptable quality and start anew.

OOPS! Man I am tired. I misread your posting and came up with this list that doesn't really apply to your email at all. So I'll post it separately. Hopefully what I wrote below does address you weariness to some extent though.

What type of mistakes are you talking about?

Are you sure you're not over perfecting your boat? All wooden kayaks have flaws. I look at the boats I've built and see every flaw but that's because I built it. No one else sees them. Really!

I've got this Wood strip canoe that I built five years ago. I call it the ugly duckling because from it I learned how to build beautiful swans. I did everything wrong on it. Tried making the glue be wood filler. Had my fiberglass floating in overly thick epoxy. Cloudy epoxy. improperly cured epoxy. You name it, and I probably did it wrong.

But when people came over and saw that canoe during and after construction they were blown away. They'd never seen anything so beautiful. I'd get lots of comments like. "Where did you buy that?" or You should build those full time and sell them". People love this little imperfect canoe. I get nothing but praise from it.

So here's my advise: Unless it is going to affect structural integrity or performance, or it's a big cosmetic blunder that you just can't live with, then go on to the next step and quit looking back. Sooner than you'll know you will be on the water and you'll be the envy of the marina/dock/loading ramp.

Roger