Homebuilding your own boat in time of crisis/ PART 1
Trying to save money and build a sound, seaworthy and beautiful boat
We’re experiencing times of economical chrisis; this article is a sum of several experiences collected in the last few years , worjking side by side with homebuilders struggling to save money and not quitting the goal of building an appealing, sound and safe boat ; I’ll split the article in chapters , each one covering an aspect of the building, and trying to identify the possible areas in which decent money savings can be achieved.
goal reached: an idea 19 ready for launch, definitively a huge achievement for an homebuilder
About prices: prices that I give are all commercial prices for the italian or european market in 2014, of course you can find better prices digging deeply on local stores and web-stores, use my data only as a comparison.
Project selection: let’s say it clear and loud: this article will give you no advices on how to build a 40 footer spending as if you’re building a 25 footer; a wise selection of the project is the first step to launch a boat;
you may save something like 15-20 % on total budget passing from building a full optional boat to a however seaworthy, appealing boat which has got all that you really need to sail with no trendy frills on board.
That’s all, if you need a miracle , try to ask someone else, I’m just a boat designer 🙂 🙂
Hull structure
In this area we can try to save some money paying attention to details and waste, let’s do a list some interesting items and facts:
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plywood: go for a light oukume suited for marine building and select the vendor with best prices, avoid mahogany if you can, although it’s more solid and strong (and more beautiful too), it’s simply much more expensive than oukumè (at least here in Italy); avoid the temptation to chose cheap non marine plywood for structure, sailing in rough conditions is a serious activity that requires sturdy boats; you may save money ldecreasing the waste of plywood, that is to say you’ll spent a couple of extra hours of work doing some more joints on bulkheads and other parts; take your time to optimize the arrangement of parts on the panels (in some plans we suggest a “nesting” solution in a dedicated drawing); you may go for cheap plywood panels for interiors and furnitures, this will not affect seaworthiness. Locally you can find other plywood than oukumè or mahogany, suited for marine construction (in some countries birch plywood is locally used by shipyard), the quality of glue used among veneers is the key, ask technical specifications to the plywood producer to take a proper decision, in case of doubt ask the designer
the impressive structure of Lobster 31 hull
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epoxy resin and glass fabrics: tough subject… very few things to say: avoid vinylester and polyester resins , they’re simply not suited to build wooden boat, people who say the opposite normally stay (and work) very far away from wooden boats; one advice: just buy the 75% of the resin you need in a single big package, to save some money, and then buy the rest when you’ll have a clear idea of how much resin you’ll need to end the work, you may discover that the first drum of resin purchased was enough; avoid wastes: you’ll learn very quickly how much resin you have to mix for a single operation, so I won’t spend too many words on this subject. Select your epoxy system among those clearly recognized in boatbuilders’ community, avoid totally unknown brands;
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Epoxy “direct-producer”: there are a quite huge amount of commercial brand which sells epoxy on the market, but very few industrial producer, try to buy your resin directly from them, you may find better prices
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Glass fabrics and tapes: tapes are by far more expensive, you may go for fabrics cut in strips and use glass tapes only for few more delicate works; don’t throw away glass fabric clippings, there will always be a small patch of glass needed somewhere…
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solid woods: here we can have some chance to save a decent amount of money; the keywords are: try to select wood that is locally widespread and may suite your needs; in a ongoing building (Hirundo 750) , builders made a very good bargain switching from mahogany to european ash for hull, deck and cockpit stringers, with good results in terms of strength, flexibility and weight, and saving more than 50% of money involved in this single purchase; we took a deep look on technical bibliography to be sure that mechanical properties were comparable, then we took a direct look at the ash battens and boards, and everything turned out to be fine. They probably saved with this bargain about 600-700 euros (800-1000 US $), an amount of money that may be useful to purchase 4 size 8 winches, or 2 double speed size 16 ones, or 30-35 kg of epoxy, not bad at all;
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Steel fittings: some stainless steel fittings are quite easy to build, do it by yourself; all the parts which are simply cut by a steel plate, can be homebuild, that is to say: shroud and backstay chainplates and counterplates, and for some design forestay chaiplates; you just have to purchase some small plates of AISI 316 SS steel (avoid AISI 304 ss steel, mostly if your boat will sail in salty and hot seas), cut them with an electrical grinder , round the corners and drill holes (you’ll need cobalt steel hardened drill bit) as shown in plans; it won’t be a huge savings of money, but you can probably save 200-250 euros (300-500 US $) , that is to say you can buy other 12-15 kg of epoxy resin. If you have some skills in welding you may build by yourself some other steel parts, such as rudder fittings, stanchions and stern pulpits; for bow pulpit the main concern is to bend steel pipes, which is not something that can be done with a normal garage equipment; if you weld ss steel parts pay attention to use proper electrodes
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Hatches: they guarantee a good air circulation down in the cabin and they add esthetical value to the boat, but they’re really expensive, so a low budget solution may be to limit to one medium hatch or two small ones and go for plexiglass windows (about 80 € / m2, one single small alloy hatch is about 200-300€ ) to have enough light inside the cabin; fresh air supply may be achieved with a small solar powered fan fitted on the coachroof panel, most of our plans have detailed instructions on how to fit plexiglass windows;
a small plastic hatch and two big sturdy plexiglass panels may have a very good look and help saving some money
(picture from Emilio Alluzzi, “Mas que nada” owner/builder)
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lead ballast: there are some sources of low cost lead ; these are the ones that I’ve experienced in these years: plumbers, here in Italy most of old houses are plumbed with lead pipes, so when plumbers repairs old water systems, pipes are changed and the old lead ones are sold for scrap; tyre repairers: they use small lead ballast for wheels balancing, and they normally pay to dispose them; they’re quite small, so you’ll need a lot (thousands…) of them and you’ll have to weld them to take away the small steel clip they have, but you’ll probably get them for free, so it’s worth a try; old typographies (this is quite seldom, but happens !) : old ones used to work with letters made by small lead cubes, if these are still there, they’re now probably thrown away in the typography’s backyard, so ask if you can grab them for free or at a reasonable price
probably one of the best gift you can do to a homebuilder: a huge amount of lead wreckage ready to be welded
in the next part of the article we’ll talk about engines, deck gear, sails and rig, on-board systems, STAY TUNED