Building a Core Sound 17

I'm building a sail boat! This blog is for family and friends who feel I'm off my rocker and need visible proof of that fact.

Work began following the July 4th weekend on my Core Sound 17, with Loy Seal, the lead builder, pictured here, and myself, Randy Hales, helper's mate.
History: I've always loved the water. While out on the water enjoying motor boats, kayaks, scuba diving etc, I've always watched that guy in the sail boat and wondered what that would be like. For the past couple of years I've been looking on the internet at sail boat adds, looking for a sail boat I could purchase so I could experience sailing. During that time I found out Loy did boat building as a hobby and had built several small boats over the past several years. Over many conversations Loy suggested that he would help me build my boat so I could experience sailing from the ground up, so to speak.
THE BEGINNING: Picking out my boat design. Loy had several designs he had purchased, the guy gets bored, goes to his cabinet, and can pull out boat designs from anything from canoes to battleships, I did say he built boats for a hobby.
Loy showed me several designs, but the Core Sound 17 caught my eye. A few reasons why... It can be easily pulled on a trailer, good for someone like me living in the middle of town. The Core Sound 17 is fairly fast but also fairly stable, good for someone like me just learning. It is also fairly roomy, with a payload of 1000 lbs. All in all, it seems to fit what I want to do which is sail the big inland lakes of Arkansas and Louisiana. It can even be equipped as boat camper on the water... my wife says dream on!
The boat uses a stitch and glue system. B&B Builders is the designer. The boat will be rigged as a Cat Ketch, which to my understanding means you've got a couple masts in a specific configuration on the boat... I'm learning ... the basics are advanced to me right now!
The following pictures and blogs will give an overview of my journey in building my own sailboat. My family and friends think I'm nutty for trying this... one thing you need to know, I am not a carpenter, builder, or particular gifted in tools of any kind, and my family knows this. I am having trouble getting a crew together that wants to ship with me for this very reason.