Why I build boats

Video transcript:

Well, I think everybody who loves boats knows what I mean: They're just amazing to look at, and they're a perfect example of when form follows function.

So it's a beautiful shape, and it's also the best shape. Like they say, "if it looks fair, it is fair". Which means that if a boat looks right, then it's a great boat.

So it's ... well, I don't know ... I think sometimes it's almost supernatural. You know, with a boat that's so beautiful and still perfectly functional.

A brain on a chair
I used to work at offices, where I worked with my brain all the time. I was sitting on a chair and I was using my mind. And it was really challenging for the mind, but my body was ... it was just there to hold my brain, so to say. So ... I felt there was something missing. Even though working with my mind was challenging, it was fun, and it was good work, it didn't feel very ... complete so to say. It felt like ... it felt like something was missing.

Working with mind, hands, and body
So when I started working on boatbuilding, I started working with my mind, because boatbuilding is pretty hard for your brain to do, actually. Because there are all those complex shapes and all those ways of making things fit and bending them around. It's actually pretty hard for your mind. But it's also challenging for your body and your hands. So I felt that, by doing boatbuilding, my work became complete, so to say.

Don't build a boat just because you want a boat
So I'd say building a boat is something you do because you want the process of building a boat. You don't build a boat because you want a boat. If you just want a boat, then go buy one. Because building a boat takes a long time. And it is really important that you ... at least I feel that it is really important that you make the process as enjoyable as you possibly can when you build a boat.

How do you spend life in the best possible way?
Say you spend, even on a small boat perhaps you spend 200, maybe 300 hours building it. So if you spend 300 hours just wanting to be done, then you are wasting your life, seriously. But if you are spending 300 hours doing something that is immensely satisfying and extremely challenging, rewarding. Building something that is a treasure for you and your family for the rest of your life, possibly for generations, then I think you are spending your life in the best possible way.

- Mikkel Pagh