HINA: We Built a Live-on Boat for $300

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The oh-so-proper yachting press would have you believe that you must spend at least $2,000 to own a twenty-foot cruising sailboat. Hogwash! My lady and I built and outfitted Hina for less than $300, and $90 of that was spent on a suit of used sails alone!

Instead of using costly marine hardware, we made our own fittings from scrounged materials. We combined efficient, modern design concepts with older "tried and true" methods. At the start, we had only limited woodworking skills and a few hand tools, no plans and no blueprints to follow. We relied simply on intuition plus what little we could learn about the boat designs of faraway times and places.

The result: a crisply performing vessel that far surpassed our highest hopes. Hina sails beautifully! On a 2-1/2 month, 400-mile cruise around upper Lake Michigan, under all kinds of conditions, she kept us safe, dry and reasonably comfortable. In heavy weather, she took five and six-foot waves easily and her classic lines drew admirers at every port.

Because she was such a success, and because I'd like to aid others who've dreamed of living on the water, I've drawn up this description of the Hina and how we built her.

THE DORY STORY

Despite the cultural diversity on our planet, certain practices in the arts of seamanship and boat design have remained nearly universal. The sea presents the same circumstances to all, and people who choose to live and work on the water survive by learning to handle them.

In gale force winds, for example, waves roll high and travel fast, frequently breaking into white caps and releasing tons of force. To avoid being crushed by these breakers, small boat skippers keep the sharp ends of their craft pointed into the surf, so no broad surfaces are exposed to its power. Everywhere, seafaring people have built boats with high, pointed bows which offer little resistance to heavy oncoming seas and which tend to lift boats over swells.

The dory is no exception to this rule. Developed by offshore fishermen of the North Atlantic, this little ship is a "child of adversity". Many fishermen have ridden out blustering gales in sixteen-footers, and a few have crossed entire oceans in them.

Like many good things from an age when men lived closer to nature, the dory has become rare, a victim of automation in the fishing industry. Yachting enthusiasts have ignored it in favor of competitive fiberglass racing styles. For them, a craft whose angular hull is best suited to wood construction and a modest sail area is of no interest; it's not sleek enough.

But, for a small boatman, the reasons for building a dory today are the same as they were in the last century: She's easy and cheap to build, yet as rugged and seaworthy as any small boat can be. Anyone can go to sea in such a vessel without excessive risk to life and limb.