I've bought a mould for a boat !

[Billows]

I'm sure it would all be fine, that is until it wasn't. If someone was to die in an illegally sold boat I expect the nice people from MCA, HSE and Trading Standards would be quite persistent in their quest to put you out of business, confiscate all your assets, and send you off to prison. They are civil servents. They are good at that.

Maybe you could make garden ornaments...set in concrete

 

[Sailingsaves]

Better photos here. I'm lucky enough to have a friend with the big garden to store mould and let me work there.

Definitely going to knock up some decent CAD designs using buoyancy units fore and aft and elsewhere to also act as 'seats'. Then see if I can get some rich person or people (like the owners of Sunbeam the fishing smack) to order a boat. Then sort red tape out.

That is a category C fist aid kit in the bow to give an idea of scale.

Second and more likely option is to build myself the best tender I have ever had. Still got a couple of good outboards tucked away.

Anyway, off to fix the car now. LEDs all replaced for other chap - no constant voltage or current drivers! No wonder they were melting.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I have to say that that looks as if it will give you a very nice hull indeed.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I have to say that that looks as if it will give you a very nice hull indeed.

Indeed, it looks very nice. But it will need either bulkheads or thwarts to give it lateral strength, I should think. And for sailing, I'd imagine it would need a fair bit of ballast as well as a centre-board or similar.

 

[cryan]

It is a nice looking hull. I still think your market will be lake fisheries.
I would not worry about making it lightweight as any weight saved on construction would need to be added in ballast to get it down to the waterline. If you are going to go ahead. Make one, do all the sums and testing, fit it out to a good standard then put it on a nice trailer and get round a few trade shows with a marquee and try and get orders. Buoyancy tanks will not be needed for that market but some under thwart storage or bow storage might be marketable and would give some added air space . Perhaps mould in a battery compartment amidships under a thwart and mould in the cable conduits to hide them so as you can fit an electric outboard(which are popular on fisheries) without batteries and cables causing a trip hazard. Perhaps an inbuilt charger with a wandering plug cable so you don't need to remove the batteries?

 

[JumbleDuck]

Indeed, it looks very nice. But it will need either bulkheads or thwarts to give it lateral strength, I should think. And for sailing, I'd imagine it would need a fair bit of ballast as well as a centre-board or similar.

Bulkheads and thwarts ... yes, of course. And I doubt if it can easily be made into a sailing dinghy. Too narrow and rowing boat-ish.

 

[northwind]

Out of interest, what do you think its going to cost in materials to produce a boat from the mould?

 

[Lakesailor]

I forgot to comment on the thought of using it as a tender. Erm, it will be incredibly heavy to haul up on the beach.

 

[lpdsn]

An interesting report. Also a good reason why not to build and sell new boats in a half baked way. It's unfortunate that all this red tape places the hurdle high for new businesses, but it does get unsafe rubbish like that Polish boat off the market.

I'm not so sure that story counts as a success for the RCD. That much bureacracy and red tape should really get the boat off the market before someone dies.

 

[Tranona]

I'm not so sure that story counts as a success for the RCD. That much bureacracy and red tape should really get the boat off the market before someone dies.

Maybe - but such incidents are extremely rare. There are always people prepared to break the law (or at least consider it as this thread shows). Fortunately it is difficult to make money out of small boats so little incentive for people to break the law.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I'm not so sure that story counts as a success for the RCD. That much bureacracy and red tape should really get the boat off the market before someone dies.

How bureaucratic is the RCD for manufacturers? Is it a case of designing to a few basic and sensible guidelines, getting an independent test company to certify that the guidelines are met and do some stability checks, and then write a manual and attach a plate? Or is there more that I don't know about?

I would imagine that it's less bothersome than bringing a new car to the market, and a whole world less hassle than a new aircraft.

 

[Lakesailor]

But far less profit margin or volume.

 

[boguing]

The OP might be able to make a modest profit by supplying mouldings. It is a tricky one to lay up if you haven't done clinker before, care needed on the tight radii to avoid too much gel and/or bubbles.

If you can mould one (and have tanks, rudder etc. mouldings as well, which you price as extras, normally about twice the margin on the hull) in a day and would be happy with £100/150 profit, it's possibly a good idea if you can get speed and quality sorted. Treat it as holiday or 'own boat' money. Don't aim for too many, because your neighbours are going to live in a haze of resin fumes.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Maybe - but such incidents are extremely rare.

Were there many more such incidents before the RCD came in?

 

[Searush]

Were there many more such incidents before the RCD came in?

I don't know that anyone recorded them, but why all the effort of bringing in the RCD if there wasn't some sort of perceived problem to solve?

 

[Tranona]

Were there many more such incidents before the RCD came in?

The RCD is not specifically about "safety", it is a common standard for design and construction. The case referred to is important not just because there was an event that resulted in loss of life, but because the seller claimed the boat was suitable for particular conditions when it was not. The law was broken because the buyer (who died) believed that the boat he bought was built to a standard when it was not.

 

[Tranona]

How bureaucratic is the RCD for manufacturers? Is it a case of designing to a few basic and sensible guidelines, getting an independent test company to certify that the guidelines are met and do some stability checks, and then write a manual and attach a plate? Or is there more that I don't know about?

I would imagine that it's less bothersome than bringing a new car to the market, and a whole world less hassle than a new aircraft.

No, it is not particularly onerous if you are a well organised large scale manufacturer who can spread the initial costs over long production runs and have the systems in place to maintain the standards and have records to confirm it. When it came in the RYA and BMF put a lot of effort into helping small builders comply, but the reality is that few have sufficient volumes or can charge high enough prices to absorb the costs. It can be done as the thriving specialist market for "character" boats indicates, but not if you are trying to sell low cost tenders!

 

[JumbleDuck]

I don't know that anyone recorded them, but why all the effort of bringing in the RCD if there wasn't some sort of perceived problem to solve?

The ostensible reason for bringing in RCD was to harmonise regulatory systems across the EU, and was for the benefit of boat manufacturers, not end users. That doesn't necessarily mean that there were problems with any of the pre-existing regimes, just that the inconsistency was seen as restricting trade.

 

[prv]

The ostensible reason for bringing in RCD was to harmonise regulatory systems across the EU, and was for the benefit of boat manufacturers, not end users. That doesn't necessarily mean that there were problems with any of the pre-existing regimes, just that the inconsistency was seen as restricting trade.

I can well believe that the Germans had mandatory boatbuilding standards for many decades before the RCD, and probably the French too who do like their state bureaucracy. Did we have anything similar here?

The cynical explanation I heard was that the RCD was encouraged by the bigger yards, as it raised the barrier to entry for any smaller outfits who might try to compete with them. No idea if there's any truth in it though.

Pete

 

[TimBennet]

No idea if there's any truth in it though. Pete

None. The initial push came from the big American and UK powerboat builders who were frustrated by having to build boats with different specs to meet the safety regulations in Italy, Spain and France. Each had very limited but specific requirement that had been formulated in response to accidents, mainly in their parts of the Med.

But the drive to 'harmonise' these standards to facilitate trade was then seized ( mainly by UK academics and underemployed firms of naval architects looking for another revenue stream), to grow into an all encompassing, all controlling behemoth. EU and UK governments had almost no input, with it here being palmed off to Trading Standards to enforce.