Wansworth
Well-known member
Whathappened to buyinga bare hull and fitting it out?
What happened to the diy boatbuilders
- Thread starter Wansworth
- Start date
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
It turned out to be more expensive than buying a complete boat!
Blueboatman
Well-known member
They’re all in the hurricane fields rebuilding posh, coded boats
dunedin
Well-known member
….. which also turns out more costly than buying a boat that had not been wrecked
Stemar
Well-known member
... and that's without costing their time, but it's OK 'cos they're going to make millions as Youtube stars.
Blueboatman
Well-known member
Fame, fortune and floating fornication
Wansworth
Well-known member
But cost in the happy hours making your yacht?
dunedin
Well-known member
Where can I sign up ?
Wansworth
Well-known member
Don’t think my father was thinking about sex fitting out his freeward 30,but then Icouldbe wrong!Where can I sign up ?
The Q
Well-known member
Designed and built my own little keel boat 25 years ago.. never had the time to build another one..
Fr J Hackett
Well-known member
For every one completed to a reasonable standard there will be a couple of dogs, a couple that change hands and more that just sit there gently rotting away. There is a good example on the forums of someones expectations and vision exceeding his time or desire but not his ability because he seemed very competent if a little ambitious.
BobnLesley
Well-known member
Nearly twenty years ago I hauled out in a boatyard at Faversham, for three weeks of frantic labour before relaunching and heading for the Med. it was one of the best places we ever chose as it was full of guys building/restoring boats - over a period of years rather than weeks/months - ahead of sailing off into the sunset themselves. Between them they could provide any tool we were short of and when we found something we couldn't do, either one of them could, or they had the phone number for the man who could.
On our last night in the yard (between anti-foul coats; we finished about midnight by torch-light) I had a brew and a chat with the yard's owner during which I mentioned that I could never manage the dedication and more especially the delay to my dreams that those guys were enduring. In reply he explained how for virtually all of those guys, the pleasure was in building the boat and planning the cruise, the last thing they wanted to do was actually drop the lines and sail over the horizon. He even related tales of chaps who had finished their multi-year builds, sailed away and then returned within months; declaring that the boat wasn't quite right, so they'd sold it and were back to build an improved version.
On our last night in the yard (between anti-foul coats; we finished about midnight by torch-light) I had a brew and a chat with the yard's owner during which I mentioned that I could never manage the dedication and more especially the delay to my dreams that those guys were enduring. In reply he explained how for virtually all of those guys, the pleasure was in building the boat and planning the cruise, the last thing they wanted to do was actually drop the lines and sail over the horizon. He even related tales of chaps who had finished their multi-year builds, sailed away and then returned within months; declaring that the boat wasn't quite right, so they'd sold it and were back to build an improved version.
Poignard
Well-known member
Do you remember the ferro-cement boat craze? When people thought they could get a big boat for a lot less than one built of wood but failed to appreciate the high cost of fitting out a large boat.
Fr J Hackett
Well-known member
Yes I used to see the same one every year I went to Cornwall. For a couple of years it was just a mass of rusting reinforcing then one year someone plastered it, it stayed like that in a field for year until it eventually disappeared.
Keith 66
Well-known member
Simple answer "The RCD" The company that sold the hull was liable for all subsequent boats. Obviously they could have no control over how a boat was finished but were still liable for it.
Add this to it being uneconomic to build one offs the market for yacht kits largely evaporated.
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
I think that's the nub of it. An amateur is unlikely to have all the skills to finish a boat to a good quality. To produce an interior fit to the same quality as a boatbuilder requires cabinet-maker skills. Rigging a boat requires another set of skills, engine installation another, electrical work another and so it goes on. Most of us can manage to maintain all these things, but starting from scratch is a different kettle of fish. A boatbuilder will have specialist workers in all these fields; how can a lone amateur hope to match the skills? It's amazing that some do!
Fr J Hackett
Well-known member
They can but they are very few and far between, rarer than unicorn poo.
dunedin
Well-known member
Coincidentally I saw a very pretty small schooner in Canna last week that turned out to be a ferro cement Endurance 40. From a distance looked in very good condition.
But that is the exception that “proves” the rule, as seen many more abandoned hulks than that single boat underway.
Wansworth
Well-known member
Whilst looking for a boat a few years ago I came across two Macwester 26 completed by their owners.Bothshowed incredible skills in carpentry and upholstery but fell down on basic layout design and obvious actual sea time more fitted out as a cottage.
dunedin
Well-known member
I think there are some people who simply like doing shore based projects, like building a boat. That is their hobby, not sailing or voyaging. And that is fine. Even if they finally finish and launch the boat, many of them sell soon after rather than actually use the boat.
But if your hobby is actually sailing, best not to waste years, perhaps decades, of your prime tied to a project ashore. You will never get these years back.
