Measure Twice

An amateur boatbuilder in England spent three years building a 16-foot dinghy in his house, but when it was time to go sailing found the boat too large to go through the door.

Steve Goodchild, a retired land surveyor, said the problem resulted from his “being a bit inventive.” Goodchild had added a deck to the design, which made it too “fat” to go through the door. He had to remove the doorframe from his brick house to get the boat out. Fortunately, he did not have to destroy any of the brickwork.

Goodchild then hauled the cedar-hulled Stornoway to Paignton harbor where the wind was blowing at 20 knots or more. Goodchild says he is a fair-weather sailor, but he took her out of the harbor and said she “went like a bird.”

You can read more about it on the United Kingdom’s iNews website.