boatbuilders block

[Hwyl]

My plans for today were cancelled, it's snowing and so I decided to do a large chunk of the remainder of the work that I have to do on my Dick Newick kayak.(It has been 90% finished for 9 months or so.My basement was nice and warm by 10 AM. Here it is 8:45 PM. All I managed to do was glue in one hatch in a bulkhead. It was not particularly difficult (probably took me 45 minutes). I epoxied the rest of the bulkhead too, now I don't want to be down there creating dust.I procrastinaed the rest of the day. The epoxying of the bulkhead could have waited until a "one coat of epoxy everywhere" day
Does anyone have any tricks to motivate themselves?, I generally find that I go great guns at the beginning of a job, but lag towards the end

[Matt Middleton]

Hey there, Hwyl. Kind of quiet in here, huh?

Well, I find that the thing that motivates me most is either reading a book, or visiting a website with discussion pertaining to the type of work I'm doing. Sometimes, it'll jump start my brain on a solution to a problem, or just motivate me to go make my boat look as good as the one I just read about or saw online!

Seeing things from other people's perspectives and picking up on their excitement tend to motivate me best.

So, what's the scoop on this kayak design? I've never seen it before, I don't think.

Matt Middleton

[Rocky]

Hey don't let that work ethic get you down! A little music, a little dust, a little zen, who cares if you get anything done? Takes me all day to find a drill bit sometimes! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[LarryJacobson]

Hwyl ,

Great question and one I think that will provide some interesting responses.

After over 1000 hours on our 24' Selway Fisher Launch I have experienced a few low points in the building process. Here are a few strategies that have worked for me.

1. Take lots of photos and bring them to work. Friends and coworkers are typically interested in news of your progress and are interested in seeing the finished product.

2. View photos and news of other building projects on this and other web sites. One of my favorites noted on the WoodenBoat Forum was:

http://crip.moorey.net/toplevel/boat...ojournals.html

3. When at the lowest point of motivation due to a particularly difficult, boring or laborous task, I have found that spending a minimum of one hour in the shop, whether its cleaning and reoganizing tools or peforming a minor task on the boat can be very helpful in maintaining the buidling momentum. Even short sessions add up to reasonable progress over time.

4. Finally, as mentioned, give yourself permission to take some time off. If not too long a period, the downtime serves to give you some needed perspective and an opportuntity to take a fresh look at your work.

Larry in CT

[LarryJacobson]

Hwyl ,

Great question and one I think that will provide some interesting responses.

After over 1000 hours on our 24' Selway Fisher Launch I have experienced a few low points in the building process. Here are a few strategies that have worked for me.

1. Take lots of photos and bring them to work. Friends and coworkers are typically interested in news of your progress and are interested in seeing the finished product.

2. View photos and news of other building projects on this and other web sites. One of my favorites noted on the WoodenBoat Forum was:

http://crip.moorey.net/toplevel/boat...ojournals.html

3. When at the lowest point of motivation due to a particularly difficult, boring or laborous task, I have found that spending a minimum of one hour in the shop, whether its cleaning and reoganizing tools or peforming a minor task on the boat can be very helpful in maintaining the buidling momentum. Even short sessions add up to reasonable progress over time.

4. Finally, as mentioned, give yourself permission to take some time off. If not too long a period, the downtime serves to give you some needed perspective and an opportuntity to take a fresh look at your work.

Larry in CT

[Paul Scheuer]

Post pics here, and tell us your launch date. We'll do the rest.

[Hwyl]

Thanks very much for the encouragement. I particularly like the one about just spending an hour down there and doing whatever, in fact I'm going to do that after writing this post. The design is by Dick Newick http://www.wingo.com/newick/ . He did a fair amount of kayaking before he became the multihull guru. It's a very simple flat bottom straight lines plywood kayak (16' with butt joints) with chine logs and beam shelf (both the same continuous profile). The deck is radiussed 4mm ply. I don't have a digital camera, but I know that's no excuse. I'd like to finish before spring, I'd also like to build a skin on frame kayak as described by Lisa.

[JimConlin]

I get seriously motivated toward boat work when SWMBO begins to give me that "You look too comfortable. I have a chore for you." look. If I'm quick, i can get down to the shop and into a cloud of sanding dust before she says anything.

[ken mcclure]

This happens to me frequently. I get to thinking about the whole project - planning things out, worrying about certain tasks, thinking about budget, pondering the inhumanity of man to man, and so on.

I find that if I break the project down into small tasks and concentrate on one small task until it's done, things sort of fall into place.

Whenever I get into the mindset that won't let me work, I try to make that time into constructive rest time - I "do nothing" with a vengeance.

[Barry]

HWYL:
Sometimes you just need to step away.
It's true with just about anything.
When it starts to become work and not fun, I'll step away for awhile.
Some strategies I use at these times are:

Break the work down into it's most basic elements
and map out a list of task. Do just one simple task at a time, finish it an dmove onto the next. Often it may only require an hour of work, but its progress. Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed by the big picture and this can lead to "Boatbuilder's Block". By focusing on single
components, it becomes less so. Also you'll be amazed at how much you actually get done over tome

Set a deadline. I'm serious.Put the pressure on.
Tell yourself that this has be done by such and such a date. And work towards that goal.

Buy a new tool or tools, especially hand tools.
WOrk at developing skills with hand tools, rather than the power tools. Learn New skills and tou're further along towards completion.

Barry

[Barry]

HWYL:
Sometimes you just need to step away.
It's true with just about anything.
When it starts to become work and not fun, I'll step away for awhile.
Some strategies I use at these times are:

Break the work down into it's most basic elements
and map out a list of task. Do just one simple task at a time, finish it an dmove onto the next. Often it may only require an hour of work, but its progress. Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed by the big picture and this can lead to "Boatbuilder's Block". By focusing on single
components, it becomes less so. Also you'll be amazed at how much you actually get done over tome

Set a deadline. I'm serious.Put the pressure on.
Tell yourself that this has be done by such and such a date. And work towards that goal.

Buy a new tool or tools, especially hand tools.
WOrk at developing skills with hand tools, rather than the power tools. Learn New skills and tou're further along towards completion.

Barry

[Dan McCosh]

Start doing your taxes. Then working on the boat will seem like a neat thing to do.

[Dutch Rub]

Usually if I look at the company check book balance I get motivated in a hurry.

[Bayboat]

Sometimes the block occurs, not in the context of the whole building job, but in some small part or process that you think has you stumped. If that happens, you can retreat to your moaning chair, or you can work on something real easy or boring enough so you can put some mental effort into solution of the tough one. If that doesn't work, you can think of the old Swede I worked with who, when we came up against something that seemed at the moment to be insurmountable, would say, "Well, let's just go ahead and do it, and maybe we won't bust the whole shebang."

[Armedmariner]

Here's my "keep motivated" techniques:

1. Don't work on the boat when you are in a bad mood.

2. When you are working on the boat and you make a mistake or simply don't feel the tools "working" in your hands, stop and pack it in for the day.

3. Before each work session PLAN. Get everything ready that you'll need so you aren't chasing all over the place trying to get something simple done. Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance (6 S's of planning)

4. Keep the boat work shop clean. After each work session I clean the place up broom clean. I periodically do nothing but clean the shop in more detail. This goes with item 3 above as it is much easier to find stuff in a clean shop than a messy one.

5. Play music while you are working. I range from Rock and Roll to Golden Oldies to AM Talk Radio (The Savage Nation). The other day I was bending on my sheer clamps and the radio had some awesome old time rock and roll on, CCR, and I was literally dancing in the shop, the floor was all covered in sawdust and I had old boat shoes on that have a few layers of epoxy on the bottoms and that makes for a good slip shoe dance.

6. Someone once said on this site, "Sit on your boat and stare at it." Sometimes I shut off the music and do just this. I have sipped whiskey looking at my boat. I get lots of ideas this way. I also work out future problems before they happen. I talk to the boat too. Honest. I ask her how she'll handle the first swells.

Of all these things, the one that helps me most is planning. I love to go to my shop and know in no uncertain terms that I have everything I need. I love it when I know in advance exactly how far I will get. I'm doing pretty good at this. But hey, I'm an old manufacturing engineer. I'm a little geeky.

[ken mcclure]

Originally posted by Armedmariner:
...Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance (6 S's of planning)...

That's not a mistake. The "S's" are there - they're just silent, like the "P" in swimming.

(edit to fix my bonehead typing)

[ 02-04-2003, 07:59 PM: Message edited by: ken mcclure ]

[Bob Cleek]

As usual, there's a traditional solution for "builder's block." I'm surprised nobody's thought of it. There's all sorts of "Tony Robbins" self-help personal development advice here, but not a lot of old fashioned problem solving!

What you do is keep a fifth of Jack Daniels in your bottom tool bench drawer. When you find it hard to start thinking about work, pull out the bottle and take a belt. If that doesn't work, take another. And another. When you feel it coming back up your gullet, put the bottle away. That should get you doing SOMETHING. About half way into whatever that something is, if you start feeling lazy again, tell yourself you can take another swig of Jack when the incremental little task you are doing is finished. When you get it done, something else usually comes up and so you play a game with yourself. Finish the next task on the promise of that little nip. When the game gets boring, go ahead and take another swig. Start over. This trick of the trade has worked for boatbuilders for as long as there's been good whiskey. Being a traditional approach, though, it works a lot better if you are only using hand tools.

[skuthorp]

I try to do something every day, even if its just sitting and looking and thinking 'what if?' Dangerous though! Look at a couple of plans, look at the plans of the one youre working on, just in case youv'e missed something! Whisky sounds good.
I sometimes get a severe case of self- doubt so I keep a big list of things to do on the wall, there's ALWAYS something to break the drought. I'm amassing epoxy jobs to do and I have to bundle them with the clamps, etc needed in case I run out.
I'm also making fittings for the next boat, you can never have too many cleats!

[Dave Fleming]

Cleekster, the whiskey of cherse at A&C was Old Crow in watercooler expandable cups. Straight no chaser, if ya folla?

<insert big wink here>

[Tomcat]

If all you lack is the key to doing something you really want to do, that is easy. But basicaly being motivated to do something you don't want to do is difficult. I once listened to Tony Robbins tapes, and though it sounded like it might work, but realized there wasn't really anything I wanted to change. Of course there are a million ways I could be a better person, but what do I care.

If I go into the shop, and feel like it, but need a little push. I put on something like the Pet Shop boys. Not by any means my favorite music, but a good driving beat. Music to dust by. There are times when I just don't want to build anything. There are lousy jobs, in fact some boats are high percentage lousy, like performance glass boats, where the end result it really the only cool part. So I guess keeping the end in mind is useful. Easiest when you really relish every part of the building, and not just the using.

[Hughman]

Originally posted by Bob Cleek:
bottle and take a belt. If that doesn't work, take another. And another. When you feel it coming back up your gullet,<snip>

How many fingers you got left? LOL

[Bob Cleek]

Like I said, Hugh, it's a traditional technique, so you have to use hand tools. LOL

BTW, Dave, IIRC, Old Crow has gone the way of Anderson and Christophani, I'm afraid. Same for those little fold up paper cups. It's all plastic now, I guess. I don't think Old Crow is made anymore, is it? Actually, in my drinking days, I was a Jim Beam man, myself. No point in wasting money on Jack when Jim'll get you there just as quick for a lot less money! LOL

[Rick Tyler]

I'm only on my first boat, but I have built a lot of furniture projects. When the project is nearing the end and I'm getting bogged down, and I can barely stand to look at it anymore (because all I see is a big wooden pile of mistakes, errors, and imperfections) I just remember something I read in a book about boatbuilding.

You can't ship it until you hate it.

This gives me the motivation to gut out the finishing work, call it done, and either stick somewhere in the house where I don't have to look at it, or, even better, deliver it to a paying customer.

Usually, a few months later I start thinking it looks pretty good, and that I am not completely incompetent after all. By then, of course, I'm building something else that I loved in the design phase, was very fond of in the construction phase, and then hated by the time I finished.

Am I the only this happens to?

- Rick Tyler

[Armedmariner]

Originally posted by Rick Tyler:

Am I the only this happens to?

- Rick Tyler

Rick, I'm sorry to report this but the further I get along with my boat the more I fall in love with her. I DO see the pile of mistakes there in front of my face but this is kind of like loving a child only a mother could love. She may be ugly but SHE'S MINE. I am MAKING A BOAT! I feel like a unique individual - a Noah - a guy who can do anything. My friends think I'm nuts but they like to look at the progress. They may make wisecracks but they'll be drinking beer on her this summer!

[ken mcclure]

Rick, you're not the only one. About two days from the end of each project I start to ask myself yet again why the heck I do this stuff.

Then the customer calls and says "This looks better than I'd imagined!" and I'm back on track.

[Seth Wood]

Whisky in paper cups? The mind reels. Strong drink and the smell of the boatyard: a fine idea. But there's no way I'm storing Scotch in the boatshed...until the boat is built. Then it'll be stored IN the boat.

I have a list of "rainy day jobs" -- all the little things I'll need to do eventually that I can work on if the main project is vexing or waiting on parts or something else. Once I started making the list of rainy day jobs, I was surprised at how big it is.

Things like: Get rid of old trash bag; burn scraps; winterize lawnmower (I know it's February), add shelves, hang up hose, design and build planking bench, sort through long scraps of wood.

On and on.

That way, there's always something you can do to keep the project moving forward.

Momentum is also an issue. If you've had a couple days off, it's harder to get back into it than after just one day off. If you've been going great for a couple days, it's easier to deal with problems than if it's your first day back and something goes wrong.

There's only one way to finish it: work on it.

[Dave Fleming]

Seth, that was AFTER work and just on Friday aka payday. Not a daily occurance for sure.
No other yard I worked at was booze drunk on site unless it was a 'Shutter Plank" ceremony or a Launching.

[Hughman]

We used to work 4 ten hour days, (unless the launch date was imminent, then it was 8 twenty-five hour days a week). The tradition of the yard owner buying the booze on Thursday after work went a long way towards good morale, until the lawyers started muttering about accident liability. Feh.