Kickstarter

Our first Goal has been met! Another $3000 will get us to new portholes from Spartan Marine (includes the cost of the portholes plus Kickstarter's cut).

Please read on!

Eight years ago, I decided to fulfill a family dream to build a wooden 42-foot traditional sailing schooner (John Alden's Malabar II, designed in 1922) in which we can sail across the Atlantic. We have done almost everything ourselves out of our workshop in North Philadelphia, from framing and planking to casting an 8000 pound ballast keel, with the help of friends, family, assorted volunteers, and neighbors. As we have never had a ton of money for this project, we have always been on the lookout for reclaimed hardware. High quality marine hardware is very expensive, often made out of cast bronze, and we have spent the past eight years scouring for materials along the Eastern seaboard, from Maryland to Maine.  We were able to salvage wonderful bronze fittings off two old boats that would never float again.

We have been making good progress and were looking forward to a spring 2013 launch in the Delaware River as the first step in moving the boat to its permanent home in Harpswell, Maine when, three weeks ago, scrap thieves broke into my shop and took every piece of bronze we had collected over the past eight years. The cost to replace what was stolen is over $8500 and includes the critically important rudder post that we custom built to fit our boat. The time and cost of re-fabricating another rudder post is beyond our means.

This is why I need the Kickstarter community. If we can raise enough money, we can replace the rudder post, the most critical piece of lost hardware, in a timely manner so that we can meet our spring launch date. 

So: 

GOAL A: $2100 - HAS BEEN MET! We have the funds to replace the rudder post! Thanks to all who contributed. 

GOAL B: $5100 - an additional $3000 will cover replacement portholes plus kickstarter's cut.

FINAL GOAL: $8500 - This will cover the full loss from the theft, allowing us to replace all of the critical deck hardware.

My family is incredibly close to fulfilling this dream, the result of almost a decade of much hard work and planning. Please help us make it possible. Thank you for considering funding this project. If you want to learn more about the project overall, visit http://eatonbatsonboatbuilding.wordpress.com.

Thanks for your help! 

And specifically, thanks to Karina Kacala for encouraging me to do this and making my video and Cliff Hall for letting us use his music!

Rewards