November 27, 2025

Building the AF4-1

Thursday

The saying goes that man plans, and God laughs.  Adapting to changes in circumstance is challenging to some, but to others it offers new challenges and opportunities to be absorbed.

And so it was that in early 2022, I was fortunate to inherit a rundown but otherwise desirable waterfront property in Virginia from my uncle.

(Bear with me, the background is relevant here.)

This shakeup in circumstance forced some other changes, but my wife and I happily adapted and made changes, sold another property we’d owned for 13 years, and spent as much time as we could over the past few years working on our new property, restoring the overgrown wasteland of the property to something more open and attractive, and disposing of 13 huge dumpsters’ worth of accumulated hoard from the house and land  in the process, while restoring and otherwise improving the small 1940s era concrete house to livable and even (dare I say) cute condition.  We built a new dock to replace the derelict original, but there was no time for boats.

Till now.

With the house situated on a protected creek shooting off another, larger creek leading to Chesapeake Bay itself–all perfect for casual exploring and sightseeing–we knew the time would come for a boat, but what kind of boat?  Our spot isn’t navigable by deep draft boats–and I had no desire for a cruising sailboat or larger powerboat anyway–so clearly it’d be a small runabout of one form or another.

But one thing I knew for sure:  I didn’t want some old boat with a massive outboard and all its inherent problems, and couldn’t afford anything with a new outboard.  Plus, waters are shallow where we are, with shifting channels, and something small and shallow was the best way to go.

Enter the AF4.  Not the most descriptively-named design, but after a friend told me about it, I learned that it might well be something good for us.  This little boat, designed by Jim Michalak–a sort of George Buehler for affordable trailer boats–had a lot going for it–practicality, low construction cost and most importantly it only needed a small outboard, something that the budget could probably handle.

So here we are.  I’m building a 21-foot version of this boat, specifically called the AF4 Grande, or AF4-G for short.  Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it.

My thinking now is that this will be a video-only project, but we’ll see.  I wanted there to be some sort of background first, though.

In any event, here is the first video on this build.  If you find this interesting, please check out the future updates on YouTube.