Boatbuilding in a Nation of Two Finger Texters and Page Swipers

One of the memes of modern American culture is we have lost our DIY aptitude (a characteristic particularly attached to the millennial generation). We dont fix our cars, we dont fix our houses, we dont build things..we pay someone else to do it. I was reminded of this when reading the geeky but very informative Professional Boatbuilder magazine (by the same publisher of Woodenboat magazine).. They did an article on Chesapeake Light Craft, the plywood boat-kit builders based here in Annapolis. Chesapeake Light Craft spends an inordinate amount of time trying to make their plans and kits so comprehensive there is very little room for error. I then read the following paragraph and my jaw dropped.

Some customers are so unskilled that it would be better not to sell them a plan or a kit. "So many people these days cant read plans at all. When a part is symmetrical around an axis and the plans only show half a part, some people build half the part. Thats happened twice in the last month. One guy made half of the deck and the bottom. We were very nice. I guess if you cant laugh, you have to cry...You cant make assumptions about anybody."[Professional Boatbuilder, Number 152, pg. 26]

Hmm! maybe we are becoming a nation of hopeless klutzes.

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