You know what they say:
Teach a man to fish, you feed him for the rest of his life. Give a man a boat he has to build by hand … he’ll handle your dinner.
Or something like that.
Introducing the Rowboat Kitset from New Zealand-based Stitchbird Kitsets. It’s a DIY dinghy that arrives in a hodgepodge of wooden pieces, which once assembled (over the course of three weeks or less), will net you a handsome 7-foot, 44-lb rowboat, fit to tackle water fresh or brine.
Fitting for a project that’s going to take a huge chunk of your time, the boat’s pretty customizable. You can select from three different stains (light, medium, dark) and 15 variations of greens, reds, blues and greys for the exterior, any of which you’ll apply with the aid of timber sealer, varnish and primer.
Is putting the boat together easy? It definitely appears to be time-consuming, but difficult? — no. The dinghy comes shipped like a jigsaw puzzle, and will require copious rounds of stitch, glue, let dry, repeat before she’s good to go, but the instructions and the end product are straightforward. If worried about the vessel’s brawn, take note of its 2017 finish at NZ’s Best Design Awards.
Find more info here, and pray these things ship Stateside soon. As of now, you’d need a three week sabbatical or longer Down Under to properly build and test one out.
This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.
