We’ve been living in Panama (Bocas Del Toro Region, North/Caribbean side) since the beginning of February 2014. Jaimie and I decided we needed amobile house, so he started building a houseboat 28 July, 2014. It is a 3 floor, 40ft long, 26ft wide solar powered catamaran (custom built/designed by Jaimie Mantzel). Jaimie built this boat all by himself, no helpers or workers to assist. He used minimal electrical tools. We started moving in today! There are still a lot of things that need to be added for comfort and organisation of our stuff, but we’ve got the basics and J is building and painting and sanding as I type this post. If you’d like tomsee the videos of building the boat as it progressed, visit Jaimie’s YouTube Channel
Houseboat 8 month Update











Houseboat the final Roof!
4 Months Later…Houseboat update!!
We’ve got an entire boat!! There are interior sections and windows that open and close!!
Looking forward to moving in…hopefully soon!!
The Second Pontoon!!
For the past two days J has been hard at work on the second pontoon!! He was able to complete the first section of the second pontoon today. Tomorrow he’ll create the second section. Weather permitting.
The First Pontoon… gets blackened.
Sun! Sun! Glorious Sun. All Day! J was able to get an early start today. He sanded the entire outer area of the first pontoon and applied blackened resin this morning. Then this afternoon was able to repeat the process! Woo! Hoo!
The First Pontoon… has 4 layers of fiberglass and resin.
Sun! Sun? We finally got sun this afternoon. J was able to complete the next two layers of fiberglass and resin on the second half of the first pontoon. The entire pontoon is a complete piece now. Yipee!
The First Pontoon…lots of drying, for no reason.
It may seem like every post begins with me telling you about the rain. Well today was the most and longest amount of all since Sunday. Seriously it would stop raining long enough for J to consider going out to work on the boat. Then as soon as he dried it off and started to go get the supplies….it began raining again. So…yeah…a whole lot of wiping off for no reason at all.
The First Pontoon…gets fiberglassed.
Rain! Rain? Rain…
Well the morning saw lots of rain, J was able to work on the design on paper for a bit. Now the boat design is wider in the middle! The rain cleared up by the afternoon with enough time to slap on the first two layers of fiberglass and resin on the second section of the first pontoon!! Now the entire pontoon is waterproof on the outside. Hooray!
The First Pontoon…is whole from end to end.
The day began with rain, but not the entire day. J was able to complete the plywood portion of the second section! Hopefully tomorrow the weather will clear up long enough for some fiberglassin’ action.