I bought the plans for the Diesel Duck 48 from designer George Buehler in January 2004.  Where did those 10 years go?  I moved to Maine, found a nice little spot to build and ordered up some Angelique a very hard wood with high silica content- tough on insects, borers and saw blades.  My first crisis was finding out that the 35 foot timbers (one was actually half a tree) were coming on a flat bed in two days and where should they go and how was I getting them off the truck?   What?  No boom for offloading? Crappe.  These big timbers easily weighed a thousand pounds each (didn't weigh them though) and its not like you just threw one over your shoulder and off the truck.  In the end I scrambled and found a lumber yard that would off load them then reload them onto a truck with a boom and they were eventually delivered.  This was my first realization I wasn't in Kansas any more.  Actually I was only in Kansas once but it sounds good.

OK, so now I have this bee in my bonnet.  I want to get my bum out on the water as a live aboard.  First thing to figure out is what is this thing that I think I want to be out on the water on (this was intentionally obtuse BTW).  As a long time sailor my first inclination was to build a sail boat.  But after an initial "consultation"with dream merchant and boat designer George Buehler, he sold me on the idea of a simple, full displacement Trawler to get safely and comfortably from point A to point B.  And honestly, who would have helped me with that head sail change in the gale anyway?  Trawler it is.

This is what Pile of Wood should mostly look like when done.  This is a picture of another home builder project launched a few years back.  Just so you have a sense what I am working towards.

Theme song

Every boat building project should have a theme song.  Here's mine https://myspace.com/guyclarkofficial/music/song/boats-to-build-30859011-31248639?play=1

OK, so what the heck am I building?  I am taking a pile of wood to- http://dieselducks.com/

And so it begins

Hi, my name is Greg and I decided to build a 48 foot power boat.  I kind of knew what I was getting into and also had no idea.  These polar opposites often co-exist when it comes to boats.   I bought the plans about 10 years ago from designer George Buehler.  The boat is a "Diesel Duck" 48.

Shortly there after I began accumulating the big chunks of wood that became the name sake of the project for many years to come: Pile of Wood!