I had an epiphany one day. A revelation of a truth which all boat builders probably know but that I had not yet learned after 60 years of building small boats. Since 1963 I've been building boats from 12 to 32 feet in length, but for some reason it never dawned on me that a boat doesn't have to be perfect, only watertight.
I started building a Wee Lassie II one year late in March. After 30 days of labor (not consecutive), at the rate of about 3 to 4 hours on each day worked (perhaps 100 hours accumulative), my Wee Lassie was named THE YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS and almost finished. Everything went just perfectly, building my expectations high. Until one day.. disaster hits - bubbles in the epoxy!
It turned out to be fixable, but it did take the wind out of my sails and lowered my expectations. That was good. Now I look at the labor I put into the boat and what I am getting out. OK its beautiful, but it isn't a show boat. The only contest it had to win is the approval of my friends, and that was won years ago. It was awesome after the first coat of varnish went on, even with the couple of flaws which no one but I will see. I felt better. She would be a handsome dinghy to go on our planned world cruise.
It's good to lower one's expectations to the level of what you want to accomplish. Sure, with another 50 hours I'll bet it would be a show stopper. But it wasn't worth the effort, when the first time I pull it up on an oyster reef, the show stopper will become a fishing boat.
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I took her fishing one day. I caught a 32 inch Redfish. The canoe and I together weighed almost 200 pounds. Don't know what the fish weighed, but it towed me almost a mile in the wrong direction, away from where I had to go to get home. Maybe I should've made a harness for the fish and took him with me whenever I went out!