Some guy is living one of my dreams

Some guy is living one of my dreams, before I have a chance to do it. On a small boat forum I found out about a guy who’s building a small sailboat. Last year the design caught my attention and I bought plans for the exact same boat. Seeing photos of one almost finished caught my attention. The guy’s doing a nice job.

Then I find out the guy’s building it for a trip I’d like to go on with that boat, the Texas 200. He’s beating me to one of my dreams. Dang. He’s months ahead of me. If I do that trip, in the same design of boat, it will look like I’m copying him.

On the bright side, it’s confirmation that my idea of using that design is a good fit for the trip. At least it makes sense to someone else. Now I feel the pressure to do a really good job -not just a strong boat, but a pretty one too.

I’d be working on that boat now, but the ambulance to motorhome project has been taking up my time and money. A buddy of mine is following my work carefully as he too wants to convert an ambulance to a motorhome. He let one slip through his fingers a while back and it’s probably been bugging him every since. No doubt he’d have it in his driveway now if his wife didn’t stop him.

Now I’m not really blaming his wife for stealing his dreams. The guy does a lot of interesting stuff. She’s probably kept him from doing stuff that would have gotten him killed. Come to think of it, I haven’t been shot at since my buddy moved away and got married. We did have some interesting times together.

Maybe if I do a really nice job on the ambulance, she’ll relent and let my buddy get one. Sometimes there are advantages to not being the first one to attempt something. He can learn from my mistakes.

I’ll keep my eye on those small boat forums and see how that boat builder makes out. Maybe I can learn a few things from his mistakes.

-Sixbears