Converting at 4 cabin to an Owner's version

[Flying Tiger]

I'm looking at buying a Lagoon 440 charter version at a great price and the thought crossed my mind if it can be modified to a 3 cabin Owner's version. Anyone have any such experience? Thanks

[a64pilot]

Sure, just knock a wall out.
Just kidding, but usually almost always its best to buy a boat configured the way you want, it can get difficult, and expensive to try changing the interior.
Boat mods, refits always take way longer than logical, and are always way more expensive than estimated

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by Flying Tiger

I'm looking at buying a Lagoon 440 charter version at a great price and the thought crossed my mind if it can be modified to a 3 cabin Owner's version. Anyone have any such experience? Thanks

This couple, now plus baby, https://www.youtube.com/user/jandradventures bought a 4 cabin Lagoon 410 and changed it to 3 cabin (I think they kept both cabins on the other side) with a dedicated owner’s hull and large bathroom. Lots of videos of their refit.

Crazy lot of work and the finishes will likely be not as good as the original professional and moulded finishes, but if you can do most of it yourself and your time isn’t worth lost wages then you can get ahead by buying a cheaper charter version with 4 cabins.

[ozsailer]

FT, we had a 410 lagoon with four cabin and went through the process of costing it out to change to an owners version. Result the cost to upgrade to a 440 owners version was the cheaper option.


Greg H

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Tiger.

[Ken Z]

First consider the skill level of the worker, structure strength as is and after refitting it. all cut need to be fitted, scribed and refit, scrap wood patterns or cardboard cut out patterns, a slow job and costly if in a yard.It has to look original to maintain resale. If possible buy what you want.My nickel.

[FLLCatsailor]

It is almost impossible or cost effective to do a good job on converting a 4 cabin into an owners stateroom.

Not to mention, it will end up costing even more on the resale...

Please don't do it...

[Sailor 99]

Originally Posted by Flying Tiger

I'm looking at buying a Lagoon 440 charter version at a great price and the thought crossed my mind if it can be modified to a 3 cabin Owner's version. Anyone have any such experience? Thanks

My advice is don't do it.

Working on boats is expensive and time consuming.

Example. I have a radar arch and davits. The davits were mounted too low on the transom. I wanted them up high on the arch.

We took the old davit anchors off yesterday, wife and I.

Today I cut them up and used the metal to make new anchor points. If I had bought new metal I would not have saved time. I fitted and welded the bottom ( not the top) anchors and semi re-polished them. With the help of a retired boat club friend at no cost we fitted the BOTTOM anchors to the arch and tacked but have not welded them. So far we are into 12-14 man hours ( not including design time, talking to others about the best way) . I have to now fit and weld the top anchors and have at least another 6 man hours to go to finish the job and its not bad, in fact pretty good but the polishing is not good enough so its not something I could sell. More polishing more time.

I would never have found someone to do this work for me. Its do it myself or forget it. I am retired. this is my job. If I had a 40 hr a week job this is realistically a 2 to 3 weekend project. Who is your helper? Much slower without a helper at some point.

I used to work in a stainless fab shop so I know how to work stainless. This is 4-5 hrs work total there.

Why? Small confined spaces, funny angles and curves. You never have all of the tools and materials you need. Your not in a 2,000 sq ft shop with a material crib and all your saws and benches and tools set up properly, your in a funny shaped 100-150 sqft space( big boat) in the one end of the boat ,which you need to take extra special care not to damage while putting on/in your latest dodad as you use hand tools to rework the interior. Don't forget getting the tools and material through the rest of the boat without damaging it.

Up here in Toronto non-union labour in the boat business is running 100 to 135 an hour and you WAIT for people to come and likely they will not do a really great job.

Remember when they do what your talking about in the factory they jig it all. All the wood and plastic is pre cut and right there. All the screws are there in a bag and its being done by a guy who has done it 20-30x before. Everything is all cut by a CNC machine to match the CAD drawing.

There was a big craze here in the 70's. Buy a hull and finish your own yacht or better still build it out of fero cement from scratch. A boat almost for free, just your labour. Most of these were never completed because it is difficult work.


Buy something you like, and keep it like that or plan to do it yourself. You will never save enough money on the purchase to justify the cost of the changes.

[Piscis]

Originally Posted by Flying Tiger

I'm looking at buying a Lagoon 440 charter version at a great price and the thought crossed my mind if it can be modified to a 3 cabin Owner's version. Anyone have any such experience? Thanks

I am scanning the used boat market for a while. 3 Cabin versions seem to be very rare and some have to pay a hefty premium over the 4 Cabin boats.

Accually those are the only two reasons why i would get a 4 Cabin boat...

When it comes to converting to a 3 Cabin design, i would definitally stay away from that approach. Just too much hassle and too much money.

BUT: In my oppinion there are two alternatives:

1. Get a 4 Cabin/2 Heads layout.

2. If you get the 4 Cabin/4 Heads design, think about of just modifying ONE of the heads to a full size shower.

My question would be: Is that a "plug and play" job? Is it possible to simply remove one of the toilets, plug all the hoses (or reroute them) create a plate that covers the openings of the removed toilets, seal that area and use that hole room as a shower?

Anyone did that kind of conversion?

Thanks!

John

[cjenkins]

Piscis,

I have had the same thought. A 4 cabin/4 head boat sounds like too much maintainence to keep 4 small toilet/shower rooms functioning. Converting one or two of them to dedicated shower rooms would seem to be a lot less work than a complete remodeling to an owner's version, but a reasonable compromise. I too am interested in whether anyone has experience with this.

Charlie

[Nahbrown]

Originally Posted by Flying Tiger

I'm looking at buying a Lagoon 440 charter version at a great price and the thought crossed my mind if it can be modified to a 3 cabin Owner's version. Anyone have any such experience? Thanks

Post this in the Lagoon sub forum.

Lagoon Catamarans - Cruisers & Sailing Forums

I know one guy that post there is doing this to a 440 and getting Beautiful results. Then again, he is a professional boat refit guy.

[ausnp84]

Hey mate,

Anything’s possible and all depends on your time and available funds. I’ve just spent 9 months refitting a cat, including converting one of the forward cabins into a full heads / shower room, and converting the other forward cabin into a single bunk / utilities room.

Sure, mine could be said to be “easier” as it’s not a production cat and so doesn’t have a “3 cabin standard” layout to conform to, but if you’re buying this boat for yourself for long term, who cares about the standard 3 cabin Lagoon?

I say go for it. Cost it out (time and money) and also factor in your plans for the boat. We’re always here to answer any q’s you might have throughout the build!

N

[joesail]

I agree. If you have the time and money to make better living quarters then go for it. I've got a Lagoon 4 cabin 420 that I've just started converting. First thing I did was yank out 2 heads. Too much maintenance. The first head I converted into a mechanical room to hold a new electrocan type 3 MSD and my future watermaker. The other head I plan on turning into storage. The port front bunk will be removed next and a new washer dryer and more storage added in that space. I've always thought the lagoon owners cabins wasted space anyways.