Steel Boat Building Price and Advise?

[Lagoon4us]

Originally Posted by S/V Alchemy

If anyone is interested, a visit to another boat refitter's blog prompted me to do a rough tally of my costs and purchases refitting my custom steel cutter. Then I made a blog post on the topic:

The world encompassed: The rough tally

It may be of some help to someone considering buying an apparently "nearly there" project boat. Hint: You are never "nearly there"! It's a process of approaching nearly there in hopes of attaining "acceptable".

Your 'nearly there' advice would be the strongest less arguable post that i've yet to see on this forum. Good enough is the next step......

[Lagoon4us]

Originally Posted by gjordan

I watched a man use an English wheel many years ago, and I considered it a form of art work. To do a good job requires(IMHO) an artist eye. I dont think it would be something that you could build your first round bilge boat with and expect it to be fair. Some people have a natural GOOD EYE and other people use a lot of fairing compound. My 2 cents worth._____Grant.

You are totally correct, half way through rolling the plates for the first sloop i ever did (1/8" plate) i could eyeball the required framed shape and go and roll it with little adjustments.

The next ten or so hulls were as easy as the first, it's like an understanding, hard to explain but good to watch.

[Wand]

Originally Posted by gjordan

...It would be unusual to need to re-plate large areas of a bottom. Typically rust will be from leaking plumbing or from condensation behind an ice box, or maybe from a neglected deck leak. It may look like hell, but probably isnt a very large area of substantial damage. Repairing wasted spots could well be confined to a few patches of a square foot or less. Has an actual steel boat surveyor said that it needs major re-plating? A little bit of wasting makes a tremendous amount of ugly rust. As far as making the compound curves for patches, remember that it is a bottom plate repair, not a topside repair that you will see every time you row up to your boat. There are a couple of options that will pass the bottom beauty test. The poor mans English wheel which is a sledge hammer and sand bags, or do a template of the curve and take your plate to a metal working shop that has an English wheel. Or you can try the edge welding on of bar stock and forcing it into place. The pictures of the boat that you posted dont show very much compounding of the plate so it should not be too hard to do.

Okay thanks, it's good to hear from you and also Lagoon4us that putting compounding curves into steel isn't too difficult - notwithstanding that I've heard that line before

But it's not a major replating; I didn't mean to give that impression. The worst bits were small areas where flexible tanks had leaked, and another where a portlight leaked, and yet another under the head. A previous owner had overplated patches onto two of the problem spots.

From what I've picked up, overplating is a good and easy short term fix but can cause problems long term (steel on steel moisture traps). So now seems as good a time as any to cut out those patches and fix them properly. Lucky for me, I've got other boats to sail on; this is pure project, with no time pressures.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by Lagoon4us

Your 'nearly there' advice would be the strongest less arguable post that i've yet to see on this forum. Good enough is the next step......

I've learned to be realistic. I've also seen people who should have gone cruising ages ago never go because they were chasing some sort of domestic perfection best ignored on a moving boat.

Learning the difference between "not good enough" and "good enough" takes time, but not as long as shooting for perfection.

[Billy Higgins]

Does anyone have experience owning a Swain designed origami boat? Are the best builders for them up the west coast of British Columbia.

[chala]

May be you can find something at Transverse frame calculation - Boat Design Forums

[gjordan]

A 35 foot steel boat just came on EBAY this morning. Hard chine, long keel, appears like a transome hung rudder(I like that). The hull looks like it was very well done(very fair), but the inside is pretty funky. The starting bid is $6K. Who knows what it will bid up to, but even at twice that price, you cant build, rig and power a 35 foot boat, let alone all of the other costly things that go into a boat. The designer is familiar, but the building yard is a new one on me. Maybe other people can give more information????.____Grant.

[hpeer]

Ny SWAG is that this boat was built by a reputable yard (moody) with a bare interior. The owner tried to fit it out himself and made a botch job of it.

Good news bad...consider this a bare hull plus a lot of work. The coach roof, and likely the entire dog house are of ply. If lucky that is salvageable. If lucky the motor is salvageable, but they give no indication of hours or condition.

So the best you can hope for is to standing there, with a stripped interior, and an engine. Then rebuild the boat interior. That will take a lot of time, money, skill and patience.

Troublesome there are no pics of the deck or hardware. A main winch is not self tailing, thus older or bargain basement.

Dickenson Adriatic cooker. Worth Over $2000. Not a great solution for this size application. I've got one in a cabin, It's a nice stove, but out of place here.

In many ways a nice boat, but a labor of love.

[gjordan]

Since this thread is about price, and advise, I think there is a lot of potential in this boat. The cabin sides are steel, judging from the photos, and the coach roof is ply. If the ply coach roof was done by the original yard, it is probably a decent grade of marine ply. The photos of the interior show home depot grade of ply which wont hold up in a marine environment. Having a ply coach roof, and maybe the cabins aft bulkhead will go a long way toward having a compass that actually works in a steel boat. It has features that show a cruiser had a hand in the building(steps welded to the rudder at a level that allows you to get back aboard, and fittings welded to the rudder for some type of self steering trim tab), and a very nice boom gallows. Since I did my first 20,000 miles without self tailing winches, I dont consider plain winches as a big detriment on that size boat. If a person decided that the funky interior could not be salvaged, it would only take a couple of days with a sawzall to strip it and do what you wanted. My point being that if a person had a yard build them a hull with rig and engine,sails,etc, that it would probably cost ten times what the opening bid is, and if a home builder decided to do it himself, it would still cost 3 or 4 times as much and more than likely have the look of a home built boat, after 2 or 3 years of hard work. I agree completely that the stove belongs in some deep woods cabin, but I think the boat has much good potential._____ Of course, this is just my opinion._____Grant.

[hpeer]

If I didn't have 2 steel boats already this one would be of great interest to me.

Older Aluminum, but lots of great features at a good price - $26,000.

38' ketch with a SPARE ENGINE.

Aluminum Ketch in Sailboats | eBay Motors

[BillAU]

G'day mates,

As this seems to be the place on CF to find information on steel yachts, I wonder, does anyone on here know anything about, Morning Mist Bilge Keeled line of steel yachts? Apparently they were designed by Build A Boat Company. (I believe Build A Boat Co' were an Ozzie company) I have been searching the net for any information on Build A Boat Company and the plans for their 42' Morning Mist Bilge Keeled but so-far, I've found nothing.
Why do I ask, I'm thinking of making an offer on a "almost finished" 42' steel yacht and the agent has informed me, the builder has died and there are no plans that come with the boat.
Any advice on these boats or their designer would be greatly appreciated.

Bill
Australia

[Lagoon4us]

Bill try searching under 'William Bollard' as he contributed to 'Build-a-Boat quite a lot.'

[GordMay]

I see listings for the “Build-A-Boat Plans Co”

U 2, 24 Waine St
Freshwater, NSW, 2096
Tel: (02) 9938-4933

Alternate Postal Address is
PO Box 474 Brookvale NSW 2100
Tel: 02-9938-4933
Fax: 02-9905-0018

The phone number is consistent 02-9938-493.

[BillAU]

Originally Posted by Lagoon4us

Bill try searching under 'William Bollard' as he contributed to 'Build-a-Boat quite a lot.'

Thanks mate, Billy Bollard and his brother, Jim I think, have passed away. He did not design the Morning Mist line of yachts.

Originally Posted by GordMay

I see listings for the “Build-A-Boat Plans Co”

U 2, 24 Waine St
Freshwater, NSW, 2096
Tel: (02) 9938-4933

Alternate Postal Address is
PO Box 474 Brookvale NSW 2100
Tel: 02-9938-4933
Fax: 02-9905-0018

The phone number is consistent 02-9938-493.

G'day Gord, they do not have a website so I called the number and had a talk with the proprietor about the Morning Mist line of yachts. He informed me, his company sold the plans for that line of yachts, apparently there's quite a slew of them. He also told me the name of the designer but I forgot to write it down, anyway, as I now have a contact for the plans, (the bloke is sending me a plans catalog) my next move will be to go visit the boat and see for myself just what needs and does not need doing.

Cheers mates,

Bill
Australia