Blog Archives

Building Materials Inflation – Revelation

Bedford Boats started back in 2013. I keep records on every part that goes into every boat and, recently, I started combing through the records to in search of what materials and parts cost back in the day. Boy was I amazed!

The primary raw materials of my fiberglass hull / thwarts are (of course) the fiberglass,

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Posted in Sabot Building Updates


Winding Down? Maybe not…

Since 2013 Bedford Boats have been building Naples Sabots – truly a labor of love as the Sabot is what my kids grew up sailing, what I grew up sailing, and what my parents grew up sailing. Now, after fifty-some boats I have been thinking of moving on…

Well,

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Posted in Sabot Building Updates


Pivot to Masks…

During the “stay at home” order we’re re-purposing some of our peel ply to be used as ties for protective face masks. Yes, not really an obvious use of skills by a fiberglass boat builder but it proves that anyone can be trained! The ties are made into bias tape

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Posted in Sabot Building Updates


Help with Building a Surfboard Foil

My son’s friend had a school project to design, build and implement a foiling surfboard. I thought I’d post the YouTube video he put together documenting his process…

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Posted in Sabot Building Updates


Now Building Hull #30

After starting Sabot building in 2013, I’m now starting the 30th hull – to be delivered to the SWYC junior program. In 2018 10 yacht club boats and three racing boats were delivered. The three racing Sabots were all for junior sailors in San Diego and that is my greatest joy,

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Posted in Sabot Building Updates


New Yacht Club Version of Sabot

Southwestern Yacht Club has ordered five new Sabots – though not the usual racing model! They are looking for a trainer version that their new sailors can take out and bang around. They are replacing boats that are about 30 years old and have certainly held up well but have gained weight and have become too much of a maintenance headache.

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Posted in Sabot Building Updates


3 New Sabots

Now completing boats 14, 15, and 16. Yes, just in time for summer sailing – I’m hoping the junior sailors hopping into these boats will have a great summer and give their peers some serious competition this year.

After delivery, the next production run will be something very different.

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Posted in Sabot Building Updates


Completed Sabot #13 and still going

It has now been over three years since the startup of Bedford Boats. It has certainly been a big change from being a systems engineer at a Fortune 500 company but It has been great.

I’ve now completed boat 13 plus a few repairs here-and-there. The boats have certainly improved over the years,

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Posted in Sabot Building Updates


Sabot Hull #6

Just finished infusing the hull for Sabot #6. Take a look at the time-lapse video – a day’s work condensed into less than 30 seconds! Also, my batteries ran out before the boat was completely wetted-out but it was close to being done.

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Posted in Sabot Building Updates


New Mid-thwart Layup Style

I’ve been experimenting with some new looks that I could use for the mid-thwart and/or hull. I’ll be retro-fitting Boat #1 with the new thwart I just completed. It is white like the old thwart but with translucent top, fore, and aft sides…

More to come when new thwart is installed…

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Posted in Sabot Building Updates