Owner Built Boats and Builders

[Salmoneyes]

Originally Posted by owly

I'm looking at the smallest boat that will meet my needs, not the largest that I could manage to afford, and in owner built boats this could be as small as 30'. That drives the costs down for absolutely everything. The focus here seems to be on boats in the 40-50 foot range........... for me such a boat is a money pit. Interestingly many people live on monohulls in the 30' range, but "nobody" lives on catamarans in that size range. I can sort of see why..... suitable boats simply do not exist for the most part. I've found a few, but monohulls are a dime a dozen. H.W.

You think like I do. Our final choice will always be a personal one. Ultimately, we want to be on the water. Everything else is leading to that.

Like you, I had numerous folks telling me to just buy a boat and go. "are you a sailer or are you a boat builder?" That logic makes absolutely no sense. My pops was a commercial salmon fisherman, I grew up in and around boats. Lots of time working on old rusted junk. What I learned from that, was boats need constant loving care in order to be reliable and safe.

Case in point,,, last boat I engineered on was privately owned 40' Coast Guard decommissioned search and rescue. The owner was so proud of it, and it looked beautiful to the untrained eye. My first day on the boat (it was in the water) I looked her over carefully. I noticed lots of galvanic corrosion around all the brass through hull fittings. (Aluminum hull,,, big oops) so I told him we should haul her out and look closer. In the lift, I opened the valves and one of the 2 inch valves came off in my hand. That boat looked great, but under the paint was a night mare.

I would never trust a boat that I haven't seen every square inch of with my families life. That requires dismantling. So the logical options become build or buy and rebuild. For some the latter is more expensive but if you have the ability to do most of the work yourself, rebuilding can save tons of money.

For what its worth, I have been using all types of welding equipment for over 40 years. I have never built a steel hull from scratch, so even with my experience welding, I am not comfortable with the idea. I trust someone who does that day in and day out for years. The rest is on me.

[Visarend]

IMHO I would have a look at Richard Woods Eclipse: Eclipse review

[pir8ped]

Want so see a weird looking 30 foot boat 18 feet wide?

Here's one.

I sailed it single-handed twice across the Atlantic, and many other trips.

I've now sold the boat, so I no longer have a dog in the race. But the OP described my boat so well, and he's right. That Woods cat is just great! Fast and comfortable and stable and I had a great time with it.

I bought it as a semi-abandoned wreck and rebuilt it, and while I was in the yard I became more familiar than I wanted to be with a 40' production cat that was being refurbished. I won't name the make of the boat because I have no interest in offending an owner of such a boat. But it is a make that has a reputation of being one of the best production cats with an eye on performance.

The owner stripped off the gel coat to deal with water in the laminate. There were places where water dripped out even after a year with no gel coat, and the owner got so frustrated with the process of trying to dry it out that he just put a layer of epoxy/glass over everything, including the wet bits.

The gel coat removed, the laminate and the foam beneath was clear to see. There were large areas where it looked like someone had been scrambling around in the bin scavenging for odd bits of foam and added them in there. The pieces weren't even that closely aligned. Plus the laminate was quite often white in places, where resin had never touched the glass, or only partially.

I can't remember why, but the owner also opened up the daggerboards. What was inside it was a joke. My own daggerboards I'd had to strip away the glass, put aside to dry out for a year, and then relaminate. Mine were nicely shaped foils made of strips of knot-free wood laminated together. The boards on this production boat were crude pointed oval shapes, and inside was a joke. It looked as if the boards were made from two moulded halves joined together, and then filled. The filling was just leftover bits of resin and filler, as if whenever the builders had a bit of resin left over, they tipped it into the daggerboard. I'm not exaggerating. Big air gaps amongst what looked like white turds set hard.

I could go on, but you get the idea. I'm not saying all production boats are off this standard. But I do appreciate the value in a home built boat, especially if the builder has photographed and documented the build along the way, and if he's competent and careful.

I liked my cat a lot. The forward sofa in the saloon was a fabulous watch-keeping position for a single-hander. I could stay in bed and just sit up to look all around, reach the laptop on the table to check position and AIS on OpenCPN, and even see the jib tell tales. If I needed a really good look around, I could just open a hatch and see 360, kneeling on my bed.

Anyway, I liked it so much that when I sold it, I figured that'll be my last boat (I've had 6 cruising boats). Because I doubt I could find one that would suit me so well. I wouldn't want to build one from scratch, I think I'd have to be really lucky to find a boat as well thought out and constructed as mine, and I'd be wary of any production boat (also almost every production cat would be bigger than I'd want.

Check out the mutihull design forum. Besides Woods, I appreciate Shuttleworth's cats, and there are a few Newick tri's around that might be worth looking at (one overtook me in the Bahamas - I was doing a nice 7-8 knots close to the wind in a strong wind but fairly flat water. The Newick passed me by closer to the wind, doing 20 knots and with just his mainsail up!)

[Dmitry Orlov]

Take a look at Quidnon. It's a monohull, very beamy, shoal draft, 36-foot LOA and designed specifically for a backyard/riverbank/beach builder who doesn't care about speed or design aesthetics and just wants to go cruising.

[dancor01]

Originally Posted by Donald Bryden

After building my 45' monohull using plans drawn by a renowned Naval Architect, I offer this advice. If you are primarily a sailor, then scrap this idea. Find a boat that you can tolerate and go sailing. If your interest is in building, construction and creating, then continue on. It took me eleven years from plans to departure and during that time I sure got lonely for the sea.

I second that.

[Ike]

Your project sounds well thought out and some here have given good advice. I would second (or third) the motion that you might also want to post your idea on BoatDesign.net As an active member of that forum I can attest that this is a question they deal with regularly and they will give you good advice. Yes some will tell you don't build your own. Buy and repair or remodel. For most people that is good advice. You have to judge that yourself because only you know what your boatbuilding skills and resources are. But most will give you good advice on how to go about it. Actually, were it me, I would look for something in the right neighborhood (size, cost, etc) and then remodel/repair. Oh, and your comment about larger boats being a money pit; all boats are money pits. The size of the boat only determines how much money you have to throw into the pit. For most people the time it takes to build usually far exceeds what they think it will take. Do not judge it on what the designer or person selling the plans estimates. They are based on how long it would take a professional boatbuilder, who has experience building that boat, would take. For the rest of us you can triple and quadruple the time. And the question about are you a builder or a sailor is valid question. Having built small boats (nothing over 18 feet) frankly I would rather be sailing or boating or fishing than spending hours sanding planking and other wood work, or getting fiberglass particles and resin in my skin, and other more obnoxious places.

[LargeMarge]

Quidnon the sailing scow. Fills your Requirements Statement to a 'T'.

Beachable. Heck, Dimitri suggests building it on a beach. Then, after you retire from boating, beach it permanently as a beach-house.

Cargo capacity excess can be used as a coastal freighter. Multiple tons.

Simple construction from 4x8 plywood sheets, very little waste. Two or three builders have it on the water in one month.

Sauna? You bet!
Fireplace? Naturally!
Stable. Four bedroom suites. Tiny outboards push it along at a decent clip.

Go for it!

I, personally, am partial to aluminum. But if I wreck mine, it'll need a lot of extensive repairs.

If you wreck your Quidnon, build another!