Custom building a catamaran

[RandyAbernethy]

gosstyla:

You are the only person I have run across building a custom cat (Asanagi). I had a bunch of questions so I was hoping we could start a discussion here. Your boat and the other production boats you were considering are very similar to what I have been looking at.

I know she's not in the water yet but can you describe the process involved in custom building a cat and, at this point, what you see as the pros and cons. The two things that strike me after reading through your site are the extended (and perhaps unpredictable) timeline and the fact that it seems to cost no more than an equivalently equipped production boat.

Anyone:
Other folks here have any experience with custom building a cat?

[Talbot]

If you are seriously interested in building your own boat, there is a forum of like minded people with tremendous experience at http://www.themultihull.com/forum/active.asp

[RandyAbernethy]

Hey Talbot,

Thanks for the link. I’ll take a look for fun. I don't think I'm ready to build my own. I want to sail off this year, not slave in my back yard for 5 years. BYOB must be an amazing learning process though.

I’m really interested in seeing if there are many folks out there having (or who have had) a custom boat built for them by a yard. What I am intrigued by, particularly in Gosstyla's case, is the choices (which are in many regards unfettered) made in outfitting such a boat. Gosstyla’s got a crows nest, for instance, which I think is a really cool feature. Useful for working your way through coral and just a cool place to watch the sun set and have a beer. It would also be interesting to know how long such a process takes and how likely it is to come in on budget and on time.

[Talbot]

crows nest - great in coral, nightmare in storms.

[laser]

Randy:

Another fun place to have a look would be to contact this guy. He builds custom Cats out of Long Island.


www.bigsandbar.com

He is active on these threads and pm'd me one day about building a custom cat for me. The web page is lean but it has his contact information. His username on these threads is fhrussell (Frank)

[RandyAbernethy]

Thanks Laser. It is indeed a web page!

Have you considered having a cat built? It seems like you can get just what you want for about the same price as trying to retrofit a production boat. You just need to have 2 or more years to wait and you have to spend a lot of time working with the builder. I would guess that you are quite a bit more exposed post delivery and have a wider range of quality (though I would guess the median is higher).

[laser]

Randy:

The thought of having a Cat built crossed my mind but only briefly. I have done this with a couple of homes and realize just how time consuming it can be. At least with the home I was knowledgeable enough to be able to watch over the work in progress to make sure it was beig done correctly. Working with fiberglass, composites, core materials and molds is way outside of my knowledge base and I would feel a need to hire someone to represent me and my investment. As you say, you might get a better built boat but I agree with you about post delivery exposure.

One of the attractive things about having one of the popular production boats is that you will probably never be too far from one of the charter bases that have mechanics and maintenance folks familiar with your boat and systems that you could hire. There will also be more other owners you can befriend along the way to compare notes with. The Lagoon owners have a Yahoo board that I have been subscribed to for a while. It's very interesting to read the posts and see the value in having a user base to exchange ideas about maintaining the boat and its systems.

The question will always be if you can get a production boat that meets your particular standards.

Bruce

[gosstyla]

Randy, I don't mind discussing Asanagi with you and the process, which I believe I mentioned in a previous post, started back in 2000.

However, as you can see from the above post I don't believe it would be very productive or be of much interest to people on this board.

Email me anytime and I will be glad to start a private discussion with you.

ted@gosstyla.com
put Asanagi in the subject line otherwise your email probably won't pass my filters.

By the way the boat is behind schedule primarily because Glacier Bay was suppose to deliver the motors, gensets, etc in April, 2005 and didn't until December, 2005. Alwoplast is now playing catch up. However, I don't blame Glacier Bay I understand full well I am on the "cutting edge" - my profuse bleeding keeps reminding me.

One last point. If you have specific ideas/designs you want implemented in your boat and you are willing to spend at least $500,000 or $600,000 (cash - not credit) then I believe it is cheaper to custom build instead of buy off the rack.

[laser]

gosstyla

I hope you weren't referring to my post as an indication that the discussion would not be of interest to the people on this board. I was just answering Randy's question about my decision to not pursue a custom built boat.

It is Randy's thread that he started to have such a discussion and although I am not going that way I still would be very interested in the process and public exchange you might have on this thread.

Good luck with Asanagi. It sounds like a very fulfilling project.