Price for Bruce Roberts Kits

[Deep6]

Hi Everyone,

I am wondering if anyone knows the rough cost of one of the Bruce Roberts Steel kits? Obviously it would vary a little bit based on size, but I am wondering what a ballpark # is. I've looked around on his website (which sadly looks a bit web 1.0 style) which I hope is a sign he spends too much time being a nautical expert as opposed to an HTML guru rather than a sign of his design skills fullstop! I am unable to locate anything surrounding pricing of one of the metal steel kits though. I am hesitant of emailing the company directly so as not to feel any kind of obligation or end up on some sort of list (complete speculation on my part I should add.)
Thus, I'd rather ask it here and see if people have any experience with the kit prices.

All things aside and perhaps should be covered in a separate thread, but how overall are the Bruce Roberts designed boats....

[anjou]

If the Bruce Roberts web site looks totally un geeky, I doubt you will end up on a database, so email them and get all the details direct, not an educated guess from others

[knottybuoyz]

I e-mailed them about 5 yrs ago for pricing info on one of their 35' trawler kits. If memory serves me correctly the cost for the kit and shipping from UK to Canada was about $35,000 US which wasn't bad at the time.

Depending on which boat you want to build have a good look around. There seems to be plenty of them partially finished sitting in boat yards all over NA just waiting for a new owner to finish them. FWIW.

[dreamer38851]

I have his price book around here and I also bought some study plans. This was all about 3 years ago.

When I was planing to build a boat I found it cheaper to buy the plans and have the steel cut locally. Or invest in a USED CnC plasma cutter and use it to cut the steel and resell it.

I am a CnC programmer so that may be easier for me than others. Still I just seen a used one sell at an auction for $10,000 last week and I know it was worth $18,000 so there was one you could use and turn a profit on selling it.

With all that said. I have no plans on building a boat now. My house is for sale and I am in the market for a boat. Our 15 year plan turned into a 2 year plan. We are leaving as soon as we find a boat and sell our junk off. My 10 year old son is coming along.

[NotQuiteLost]

Originally Posted by dreamer38851

With all that said. I have no plans on building a boat now. My house is for sale and I am in the market for a boat. Our 15 year plan turned into a 2 year plan. We are leaving as soon as we find a boat and sell our junk off. My 10 year old son is coming along.

Great to hear of your accelerated timetable. For whatever reason it's come about, I think it'll end up being a good thing. Congrats

As to Roberts plans, I was just perusing them today. What I'd really like is to find an interesting steel cat design, but I can't find much other than his site for any kind of plans.

[markkoby]

HI,
Try Van De Stadt yacht design, I am building a 37ft yacht out of wood epoxy, but they also do steel and alum. They are also one of the best designers for steel yachts and they look good.
Mark

[Deep6]

Originally Posted by NotQuiteLost

Great to hear of your accelerated timetable. For whatever reason it's come about, I think it'll end up being a good thing. Congrats

As to Roberts plans, I was just perusing them today. What I'd really like is to find an interesting steel cat design, but I can't find much other than his site for any kind of plans.

Let me know if you happen across a steel cat design, I am still doing background research on the mono/multi issue but know that ideally regardless of the hull quantity, I want my boat to be steel for ease of repair durability etc etc.
However, as of yet I've not found anything remotely close to a steel cat.

[Brian Russell]

Look at Dudley Dix' designs. I am currently building a Dix 43 pilot house in aluminum, with cutting files provided by Alumar. The pre-cut kit is definitely worth the money (3900.00 euros for the files). The fit of the router cut parts is , dare I say it, near perfect. Think about aluminum , rather than steel. I have built many things in both materials and aluminum is much, much, faster to build and more pleasant. You can see my build at my blog, www.odysseyyachts.com. Full disclosure: I am representing Alumar in North America, and can organize the complete pre-cut aluminum ( or steel for that matter) kit. Both Alumar and Dix provide excellent support during the build process.

Cheers
Brian

[markkoby]

Hi Brian,
Nice work and web site, Dudley dix designs are great sea boats. If I was going to build a cat I would use alum. not steel. There are some great Aussie cat designers but use wood, foam and epoxy. I am sure they could design a cat in alum. but at a cost.
Mark

[GordMay]

Check out his "Prices" page
Bruce Roberts, steel boat plans, boat building, boatbuilding, steel boat kits, boat kits

[Brian Russell]

Speaking of alloy cats:
Osram VII Planing and Development

Brian