Every boat builder hits the same moment: staring at a step with no idea how long it should take or what usually goes wrong. The plans tell you what to do. They rarely tell you what it actually looks like in someone else’s garage.
Boat Build Log exists to close that gap. It’s a place for builders to post photos, notes, and hours worked as they go, then have it come together as a proper start-to-finish record once the boat is done.
How it works is simple. Log entries in the shop order they happened, not the order you got around to posting them, so a finished log reads like a real build story instead of a scattered feed. Every log is grouped by design too, so if you’re building a Shearwater 17 or a Glen-L Zip, you can pull up other builders on the same hull and see how they handled the parts you’re stuck on, along with what it cost them in hours.
It’s a young site (5 builds and counting, boats ranging from a Northeaster Dory built on a porch to a Boston Whaler 13 getting a new transom), but that’s the appeal for anyone starting now: your log becomes one of the first references for your design.
If you’re mid-build or about to start, it takes about a minute to post your first entry.
Check it out at boatbuildlog.com.