ROTTERDAM JUNCTION — After nearly 18 months of back-breaking labor to re-create the first European ship built in New York, it’s hard for Schenectady County’s volunteer boat-building crew to remember what they did before the Onrust came along.

“We used to be retired,” said Jerry Bobar, a former General Electric employee who has been working on the Dutch yacht for three days a week in rain, sleet, snow and now mud.

They have about a year of work left on their epic project, but all of the major challenges are behind them. As they cut deck planking for the finishing touches on Tuesday, they said they can’t quite believe it’s nearly over.

“They’re already saying, ‘What will we do when it’s done?’ ” said project organizer Greta Wagle. “I said, ‘Well, I can think of another project …’ ”

The Onrust will become a floating museum and a showcase in the state’s quadricentennial festivities, which will commemorate Henry Hudson’s 1609 voyage to America. Onrust will memorialize an event that took place five years later, when a desperate crew of Dutch traders built a ship after theirs burned off the Manhattan shore.

To add to the challenge, the shipbuilding novices in Schenectady are trying to replicate the Dutch ship using authentic 17th century shipbuilding techniques, which they believe has never been done before.

The idea seemed like a pipe dream when it was first proposed two years ago. Organizers for the nonprofit New Netherland Routes struggled to raise money at first and then hit delays as they searched for oak trees to build the 50-foot-long sailing craft.

They were allowed to use modern tools to cut down the trees and mill the boards. Then the adventure started.

None of the volunteers had ever before even wanted to build a boat, much less learn to warp boat ribs over a fire pit or hammer the planks into place with wooden nails. They joked that Wagle had to trick them into volunteering for such a task.

“Little did I know it was going to be so much work,” said George Bowdish. “It was supposed to be a hobby.”

Now his Princetown house is home to every volunteer who can carry a board. Men warm up around the kitchen table between stints at the portable sawmill. His dog carries around scraps of lumber and begs visitors to toss the boards for a game of fetch.

BECOMING A BOAT

His front yard hosts a pile of 50-foot-long logs, destined to become the Onrust’s rudder and lee-boards. Behind his house, the ground has been trampled to a sea of mud around a stack of freshly cut lumber. In short, the Onrust has enveloped his entire life.

And he can’t get enough of it.

On Tuesday, he gathered up his crew at 9 a.m. and headed out into the cold to carefully mill Onrust-sized boards. After lunch, they all went right back outside to continue the job. There were no complaints about sore muscles, poor weather or the tedious repetition of the sawing. Instead, they said they were lucky to have such an experience.

“It’s something we’ll never get to do again,” Bobar said. “It’s one of a kind. I don’t think anyone will ever build anything like it.”

Volunteer Dan Grzybowski added that it will give the entire crew bragging rights for the rest of their lives.

“There aren’t many people in this country who can say they built a wooden ship,” he said.

The group has to harvest just two or three more trees and raise only another $80,000 to finish the $400,000 project, Wagle said.

“We’ve passed the major challenges,” she said. “We’re nicely on time — we might even be a little bit ahead because of the core team. They worked all winter. They didn’t want to quit.”

Much of the work has taken place in backyards around the state, where New Netherland Routes purchased oak trees from anyone they could find. Money also went into contracting for the expensive, custom-made sail and other equipment, including the mandatory engine.

The ship is taking form at the Mabee Farm in Rotterdam Junction, under a Dutch pole barn built specifically to shelter the Onrust.