Prologue

The idea originally came to me about a half dozen years ago, when my nephew came for a visit bringing with him a remote-control model sailboat. Our families gathered for a holiday at my parents’ home. Their house backed up to a small lake. After a large Italian meal filled with conversations, meatballs, pasta and "gravy" (known as "tomato sauce" to rest of the world), we all went out back and he launched the boat.

We stood on the bank watching the boat glide through the water, and eventually he offered me a turn at the helm. I took the controls and could actually feel the wind in my hands as I trimmed the sails to maneuver the vessel across the lake, coming about, tacking around, and bringing back it close-hauled in a playful dance of give and take with the wind. The rush I had years ago as a child sailing with my father on his boats flooded into my soul. As I handed the controls back to my nephew, one of Jimmy's other songs drifted through my head "...someday I will..."

This log will chronicles the building of a T37, a wooden remote-control sailboat is designed by transatlantic sailor, Will Lesh. I chose the T37 Racing Sloop. This kit and other designs are available from him at his website (linked here). 

The Tippecanoe T37 shows as beautiful boat, elegantly design, and, as Will assured me in our brief conversation, a simple build. Scouring the internet, you can find YouTube videos and other builder blogs, all instrumental in my decision to build my own and document my build. I've included those links in the resource page. My photos and experiences on this website help supplement the instructions, but by no means is this enough to replace the instructions.

As Will points out in his video, this boat easily lends itself to a simple, fast-build, so you can get to sailing quickly, or spend as much time as you'd like on the modeling. You could do the entire build and finishing in very short amount of time.

For me, I intentionally took my time with the building process as an exercise in meditation. Little did I know when I began, that the path I took, would extend over a number of years, as I was distracted by side excursions of life puts in front us. I eventually found myself returning the particular harbor to complete the boat.

With this site, my goal was to capture my own journey of building and sailing my first model boat, and my hope is others may discover this blog in their own journeys... (and along the way you may learn a little about me, a son of sailor.)

Happy building and sailing!

- Anthony