I built a 35 foot steel boat that I ended up living on for years, sailing on the North Sea, and more recently throwing a bunch of great parties with. (If you're in the Netherlands and want to come to one, my email's in my profile!)
It took about 5 years to build (on and off) and I say "built" but I actually bought a large part of the hull of the boat to start; however, somewhere around 90% of the boat by mass is stuff that I've made entirely myself or worked on significantly, so I'd still say I built it.
Because the title specifically asked for cool: I've built a lot of other serious physical things in my life but the boat somehow has some serious cool power. When I started throwing parties on it I expected a somewhat modest reception - it's a medium sized steel boat, not a superyacht - but for some reason it's attracted the coolest other people: composers, neuroscientists, filmmakers, martial artists, costume designers, makeup artists for movies, a super unique crowd. Obviously you can't fit that many people on a boat the size of mine, so we're talking 10-25 people per party, but each one is unique and some nights when the music, liquor and conversations are flowing I feel as if I have constructed the International Prototype of the Cool.
Anyway, if anyone wants to come see it in person, my final boat party of the summer is this Friday-Saturday the 11th-12th in Rotterdam, my email's in my bio :)
Party photos are only for the guests, although with five thousand addressable LEDs, over 100 lasers, multiple underwater lights, moving programmable head lights, a fog machine and more it looks amazing, certainly wish I could share!
It took about 5 years to build (on and off) and I say "built" but I actually bought a large part of the hull of the boat to start; however, somewhere around 90% of the boat by mass is stuff that I've made entirely myself or worked on significantly, so I'd still say I built it.
Because the title specifically asked for cool: I've built a lot of other serious physical things in my life but the boat somehow has some serious cool power. When I started throwing parties on it I expected a somewhat modest reception - it's a medium sized steel boat, not a superyacht - but for some reason it's attracted the coolest other people: composers, neuroscientists, filmmakers, martial artists, costume designers, makeup artists for movies, a super unique crowd. Obviously you can't fit that many people on a boat the size of mine, so we're talking 10-25 people per party, but each one is unique and some nights when the music, liquor and conversations are flowing I feel as if I have constructed the International Prototype of the Cool.
Anyway, if anyone wants to come see it in person, my final boat party of the summer is this Friday-Saturday the 11th-12th in Rotterdam, my email's in my bio :)