As a younger man, I had the good fortune to spend the better part of ten years on various commercial fishing vessels in different parts of the world. Many times as monotony and a lack of sleep would induce a trans like state I would day dream of a time when I would come back out on the ocean but on my own little yacht. I quit the fishing business when a marriage and family issues took over.

For the next twenty years I dreamed at first of buying an old West Coast salmon troller and truck it to the east coast to convert to a pleasure cruiser. But as time went by I decided it would be better to build something smaller and newer. My requirements were a size that would allow unrestricted trailering, a safe seaworthy proven design, diesel power, enclosed helm, full galley, head and sleeping quarters. A lot to put in a 25' boat.

The sudden death of a friend made me rethink the idea that this would be a retirement project and upon hearing of his unexpected death I decided to start my boat building project the next day! I had my eye on the Surf Scoter for a while and called Devlin Boat that day to see if I could arrange for a visit to see one of the boats first hand. As it turned out Sam was coming to Maine the next week to teach a stitch & glue class at The Wooden Boat School so I talked my way into the class.

The week at the school in Maine was a great way to start. I was enchanted with the boat centric world up there and came away stoked to get started. I had intended to build the 22' but over the week at school Sam talked me into building a 25' instead, something I am very grateful for.

I got home on a Sunday night and on Monday morning I asked the Landlord at my commercial sign shop, Keene Signworx, if I could erect a temporary shed on the property to build a boat in and they were all for it. The next day the bulldozer was there leveling a spot for my bowed roof boat shed. It only took a weekend to put up, cost me $900 and has now been up through 3 New England winters.

I actually started the boat on August 18th 2003. After many calls to Sam, I was off and running. I bought 90 sheets of Okuome BS 1088 plywood and 30 gallons of epoxy to get started and once I started, it was like opening a flood gate. The boat shed was only 100' from my shop so I had to work at resisting the urge to skip work and work on the boat.

The process of building the hull went quite smooth with a couple of exceptions. Sam's plans were extremely accurate and I was very happy and relieved when the 27' long panels came together perfectly. After getting all the bulkheads aligned and braced we wrapped the entire hull with specially cut plywood panels in one weekend. When it came time to put the transom in, I didn't want to cut off too much of that expensive plywood so I called Sam to see if I could lengthen the boat a little and after some figuring I had a 26 footer! Many hours of epoxying, sanding & fairing the outer hull and I was ready to fit the keel and glass the hull.

By Halloween I had the hull completed with fiberglass and 4 coats of epoxy on it. The boat shed being uninsulated here in New England, the temperature is too cold to work with epoxy so I patiently waited for spring while looking for all manner of parts for the boat that winter.

In early April of 2004, I opened the shed and started back in. I sanded and recoated with epoxy, (just for good measure!) The hull one more time. Then it was on to primer and bottom paint. On the first of May I invited 25 of my best friends to help roll the boat over onto her new trailer. We just unbolted her from the building rails and carried her still upside down from the shed to my shop. There we hung her with straps from the bar joist ceiling and with very little effort just spun her around. By now I had already picked up the new trailer I had made for her and we just backed in under the hull and lowered her down. It was a really big day for me. The first time I got to see her right way up.

Once she was rolled over I started to do the glassing of all the inside seams. This was the first time the realization of what a big job I had ahead of me sunk in. When I stood inside that big hull it seemed huge! I was wicked slow at the seaming at first. Luckily with time and some planning I became quite proficient at it. I pre-cut all the layers and lengths and I made a shallow long box for saturating the fiberglass cloth with resin.

Around this time my wife Mary and I took a couple of weeks off and went on a bare boat charter on Moonglow, a Devlin Black Crown 29, out in Puget Sound. It was like returning home for me since I spent 6 years fishing out of Seattle. The two weeks on board a very similar craft was a big help in understanding the methods and systems on a boat like this. It also helped Mary see the benefit of not having me around for the next couple of years. I shot hundreds of photos of everything so I would have reference material. We had a funny moment when showing photos of our vacation to friends. Every other shot was something like the inside of the electric cabinet or the bilge.

Once I returned, I was ready to resume the 25- 30 hours a week I was squeezing into the boat project. After all the seams were complete I started building the engine box and related drains, side decks and finally the front deck. When I started laying out the cabin I made some small changes to the plans here. I thought the side decks were a little generous for a boat this size so I widened the cabin by four inches. I also had some aesthetic issues with the plans that I choose to change. I ran the pilot house roof parallel to the shear line rather than with the water line as the plans showed. I also put the pilot house windows in at plumb instead of the 7 degree rear slant the plans showed. These were to give her a more traditional Northwest work boat look.

On the interior I made some changes also. The plans called for a table in the V-berth which lowered to form the berth. The remainder of the galley was to Starboard up in the pilothouse with just seating to port. Since I like to start my days early with coffee and a newspaper and my wife Mary likes to sleep in, this was not going to work for us. So after much mocking up we managed to shoehorn in a table to port in the pilothouse which also converts into a 3rd berth. Fitting this was helped by the 4 inches we added to the width. I got the cabin built and the roof on and was glassing the decks when I had my first real bummer. I put a coat of epoxy on the decks right over another coat thinking I was ok on time but the epoxy had already blushed and I didn't know it until the next morning when I found it coming up from the slightest thing. After throwing a fit or sorts I decided to bring the boat outside, (first time since the roll over), invite some people over and have a beer while admiring how far I had come. It was just what I needed.

The next day I got all the epoxy off the decks and within a week it was like it had never happened. By now the weather is getting cold again but with the boat on a trailer I could now move the boat into my shop on the weekends so work progressed all winter. By January I had the exterior paint work done and was ready to install windows. The next year went by like a flash, winter turned to spring followed by summer and then right back into winter.

Finally in the winter of 2005-2006, I was sure this would be the launching year. I had intended to have the engine, a Volvo D3-160 with a duo-prop outdrive, installed by the company I bought it from but they were 150 miles away and kept putting me off so in a leap of faith my wife Mary & I did it ourselves. Nothing like knowing everything about your boat! After the engine was in there seemed like an endless list of mechanical and electrical things to take care of. I read and re-read Nigel Calder's book on wiring boats and finally decided to have the electrical system designed and the panel built by an experienced boat electrician. This helped my peace of mind.

As summer approached I built swim platforms, a hollow 6 sided douglas fir mast and boom, lettered the name on the transom and prepared to launch my new boat Alsek. After sea trials in Maine we brought her over the road to East Greenwich RI which was to be her home for the summer. We managed to get 35 nights on board last summer and have found her to be more than we had hoped for. She is more fuel efficient (8 miles to the gallon at hull speed, 4 miles to the gallon at 15 knots), quieter and has a better motion in a seaway then I had expected. Every were we go people inquire about and compliment her. Most are surprised and interested to hear we built her ourselves and quite a few recognize her as a Devlin design.

In all I put 2200 hours into her, 600 hours of sanding alone! She carries 83 gal. fuel and 30 gal of fresh water. Will run flat out at 26kts. And cruises nicely at 12-15 knots while burning 3.5 gals per hour. I would have to say it is the most rewarding thing I have ever built and I have built a lot of things in my day. Finally I want to say what inspiration all the others on the home built Devlin design pages have been. I have read and re-read your stories time and again and invite any comments or questions.

Thanks for listening!

Sincerely,

Peter Poanessa

E-Mail Peter

Click here to see more pictures and a building timeline of Peter's Surf Scoter on Peter's website,