What happened to the diy boatbuilders

[ridgy]

There are a few about. This keen racer chap in Australia sold his perfectly good AWB so he could build from scratch a Dix Didi 40. Having achieved this great feat within 2.5 years he then raced it for a while before deciding it was just a fraction slow. His solution to this is to build another one with a deeper keel and taller rig:

Next Passion | Passion X

 

[Boathook]

DIYers seem to build motor boats as this thread. Steel boat build - Almarine 1200fa

 

[AntarcticPilot]

They can but they are very few and far between, rarer than unicorn poo.

I know a guy who could probably do an excellent interior fit - he was apprenticed as a metalworker, and has amazing skills at getting things to fit round unusual shapes, I got him to lend a hand laying floor tiles in my bathroom, and the casual skills he displayed in getting tiles to fit round the loo and basin pedestal were amazing - as was his patience and attention to minute detail! He'd be the ideal guy to fit things to the complex curves of a boat's hull - he's a good woodworker, too - fitted out a van as a camper for his daughter. But he knows his limits and won't touch things like electrical work. But as you say, skills like that are few and far between, and having ALL the skills required is probably not going to happen. So inevitably you get something that is like the curate's egg - parts of it are excellent!

 

[KevinV]

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.

Mine falls into this category, strip planked, built from (Selway-Fisher) plans by a retired gent. He sailed it a bit, then sold it. All the woodwork is well executed, but amongst others, the running rigging makes little sense - as if done by someone who has read the book, but never actually spent time sailing. The best example is the nice s/s fairleads which have been installed the wrong way round from new.
My gain, I couldn't possibly find the time to build, but she's pretty as a peach and I'm having a lot of fun getting her cosmetically up to scratch, improving her, or at least making her my own in the time I do have
Edit - as I quite enjoy a project it's not beyond the realms of imagination that I might well sell again after a season or two ?‍

 

[slawosz]

For example, Class Globe 580 is a mostly DIY boat. Lots of builders worldwide: Builders’ blog
Its based on Setka, little more here:

Some modern projects here: Janusz Maderski, JACHTY - budowa, konstrukcje - Janusz Maderski JACHTY - BUDOWA, KONSTRUKCJE sadly in polish only. Lot of modern boats for DIY building.

But I think that the current availability of old, strongly built boats replaces the need for building with restoration.

 

[Stemar]

I think that the current availability of old, strongly built boats replaces the need for building with restoration.

Unfortunately, it sounds a lot easier - and it is, but plenty of people don't realise how daunting and expensive a project boat is. Unless you're really lucky, you'll spend less on a boat in sail-away condition (is there such a thing?) than you will on buying and fettling a project of a similar vintage. You really have to be a completer-finisher type or you're likely to run out of steam, money, wife's patience or whatever and it won't get done.

 

[Praxinoscope]

In Aberaeron were proud to know and support Dave Sinnet-Jones, who self built three boats over the years, the most well known being the Steel Hull ‘Zane Spray’ Bruce Roberts design, in which he completed a single hanamed round the World passage.
His last home built yacht ‘Liberdade’ was a junk rigged modified design of Joshua Slocums’ ‘Liberdade’.

 

[Tranona]

Happily, one of them is alive and well. My first 2 boats were home built, a 14' sailing boat with a cuddy from a kit by Charles Green and the second a Sadler Sea Wych from bare hull and a pile of bits. In those days (mid 70s) not only could you save a considerable sum by doing it this way, but the boats were simple and there was a good supporting infrastructure of suppliers for materials. Unlike today there was limited supply of secondhand boats and those that were for sale often cost as much as a new boat and more than building from a kit. My early sailing was on a Sabre 27, one of 3 built by a group of Gas Board engineers at a cost of less than half that of a new one to the same spec.

So, very different world and as suggested already many such projects failed, particularly with larger boats where the amount of work runs into thousands of hours. My Sea Wych took about 9 months to complete and get sailing and you could do something like a Cobra 800 in less than 2 years. However once you got to 30'+, particularly if aiming at a bluewater boat 5 years was not unusual. The first Golden Hind I sailed on was completed from a wooden hull and deck in about 4 years. I sold the Seawych for my Eventide 26 which was then (1980) quite a modern boat and that satisfied my DIY boatbuilding urges for the nest 30 years of modifications, refitting , 2 new engines etc - with a lot of sailing in between. I always intended to build another boat and have a set of plans for a MG Riptide (wooden single chine version of the GH) but realistically now it would be a 5 year project if I could find somewhere to build it and cost more than I could even guess at! Good thing in a way that we were seduced by sailing in the Med and were fortunate enough to be able to afford and run the Bavarias. However just sailing is not enough for me, hence my GH project boat. No significant structural work and should be sailing by August but plenty of the manageable " improvement" work that I enjoy.

 

[Poignard]

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.

Windboats of Wroxham used to exhibit their ferro-cement yachts at the Earl's Court Boat Show. The finish on the exterior of the hulls was very good.

But until a few years ago no boatyard was complete without one or two decrepit amateur-built ferro hulls (hulks!) sitting unloved and unwanted in a corner!

 

[dgadee]

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.

Saw a nice one slowly going down coast of Portugal. Thick, solid teak decks. Had done a world tour under previous owner. Current owner said insurance impossible to get on a cement hull.

 

[2hullsonemarinaberth]

How do you find these guys that love boat building for fun? Would love to find one that would work on my boat refurbishment in Essex, and then I would take them out on the boat several times so they could see the benefit of their work, or they could work out how to do it better next time.

 

[Tranona]

How do you find these guys that love boat building for fun? Would love to find one that would work on my boat refurbishment in Essex, and then I would take them out on the boat several times so they could see the benefit of their work, or they could work out how to do it better next time.

Interesting idea, but I fear the real DIY would not want to touch anybody else's boat. It is a very personal thing and while they might (as I have done) help out with others either to fill a specific skill gap or where it is a 2 person job the real pleasure is not having to answer to anybody else and doing the job from conception to completion. Sometimes this means that DIY boats are idiosyncratic to the point that nobody else would accept it!

 

[Daydream believer]

My father built a silhouette in 4 weeks start to finish back in 1958. In those days loads of people were building small boats such as the Caprice & even the Debutante. The top (3rd floor ) of the London Boat show was all about Boating on a Budget & was always crowded.
I Stripped my second Stella to a bare hull which was in a sorry state. It was fastening sick & some of the planks were either rotten or sprung. I then rebuilt the entire boat. It took 2.5 years, but I was building my second house at the same time & working.
I always wanted to build a bigger wooden boat from scratch, but did not have time & anyway I had a Stella. I do not see anything in wooden boat construction that would phase me. It is not actually so difficult as some try to make out if one has the facilities

 

[dunedin]

My father built a silhouette in 4 weeks start to finish back in 1958.

Not bad, but to be fair the 17 foot Silhouette is tiny - I think my current boat’s stern locker has more interior volume than the entire Silhoutte

 

[Rappey]

A great thread
Ferro boats - an article was entitled " where have all the ferro cement boats gone" basically all the badly built ones have either sunk or are rotting away in the corner of some land. The good ones are afloat and because they are built properly they are also very hard for the average person to identify amongst all the other yachts.
As for diy boats, many were built in little boat yards that were cheap. Nowadays the yards are "poshed up" and priced accordingly.
A guy in our club many years ago bought a rustler 36 hull and deck moulding and proceeded to spend the next 9 years fitting it out.
He obtained something like a teak church floor cheap and had enough to fit out many boats.
His boat is amazing inside. So much curved solid teak and looks even more amazing than a stock rustler, and this guy was a civil engineer ....
30 years ago I had the desire to aquire a hull and fit it out. Bought a dismasted yacht that had been left in a corner of a yard and had two ft of water inside.
The interior was diy, everything was square or similar. Restoring/repairing something is not the same as building something.
I ripped each section out and completely rebuilt to my own design. I enjoyed it.
If your mechanically minded and have good practical skills then you can do most things. You can read and watch online from professionals, draw your own conclusions and put it in to practice.

 

[Tranona]

Not bad, but to be fair the 17 foot Silhouette is tiny - I think my current boat’s stern locker has more interior volume than the entire Silhoutte

It is not the volume of the boat that determines the amount of work, but filling it! The cabinet work and increasingly the systems are what eats up the time and money. Making everything one off, climbing in and out of the boat and often forgotten the time involved in planning how to do things (and redo them when you get it wrong), ordering materials and so on mean you time spent actually progressing the physical build is only a fraction of the total time expended.

This is where the modern production builder wins. My Bavaria was assembled in less than a week, but behind that is all the time spent refining the design and layout, CNC machining all the components, pre assembling the interior furniture and so on. The slick kit producers like Hunter were able to do a lot of this to enable builders to assemble boats to the same standard as factory completed. However as the boats grew in size and complexity not only did the work required for a home build increase but the cost saving shrank. Then the RCD added another layer of complexity.

 

[Neeves]

There is, or was, an industry devoted to home builds, or multihulls, in Australia. You bought routed profiles, glassed foam, and put the whole thing together. Schionning and ATL were major players. This idea developed and one development was the Fusion 40. The major requirement was a big shed. The Fusion 40 was a series of mouldings delivered in a container which you glued together like a giant Airfix (?) kit and finished off with an empty hull (well 2 hulls). They sold mouldings for the interior furniture.

I built transom extensions and a helm station from glassed foam. It discouraged any further thoughts of home building. I soon discovered the building part (which was quite enjoyable) was the easy bit - most of the time was spent in faring and then faring. I did wonder if I fared more material to waste than I actually used.

The Fusion 40 worked quite well as the only faring was the taped seams. I know of some excellent Schionnings home builds but I also know of some awful examples. We have a one off Grainger (another cat) on a swing mooring near us. It looks professionally built and this is another development of the concept - you choose your designer (all multihulls) and there are a number of well known designers. You have him tweak one of their existing designs - you find a professional builder and they do all the work under your 'direction'. A lot of these builds have moved offshore as there is still much faring and its cheaper in Thailand or Vietnam. Sadly Covid has interrupted much of this and I know of a Freeflow 50 being built in Thailand that is entering its 3 rd year of build.

But 'home build' is still alive and well in Australia, possibly because we have more space and, usually, better weather. Most, or all, I know are multihulls - which again are popular here - again as we have more space (to keep them when completed) and maybe because the engineering is easier.....???

If you are interested google 'Fusion 40', 'Schionning', 'ATL composites', 'Grainger Designs' - and there are others......

Jonathan

 

[Daydream believer]

Not bad, but to be fair the 17 foot Silhouette is tiny - I think my current boat’s stern locker has more interior volume than the entire Silhoutte

Of course. But the thing is that hundreds were building these things & learning the joys of sailing. At the age of 12, I took it, with a friend, for a weekend "cruise" . The story won a prize in the Musto competition " "The magic of sailing".
It was the "affordable" gateway to sailing. I do not see many 12 year olds doing that now, although some might. To me it seemed quite "normal" & I expect many teenagers felt the same, having learned the basics from messing about with their dads. It spawned a generation quite different to the one we have now. The entry into yachting has changed forever. In many ways it has become harder, inspite if the availability of "project boats"
It is the loss; whether it be good or bad; of that skill set that is the reason for the OP asking "where the DIY builders are now".
But to take that one step further. Give me a choice between; a knackered old GRP boat in a marina miles from home, with dodgy head lining, electrics, engine & all the other scrap that needs replacing ;or shed next to the house, some sheets of plywood, a set of plans & some wood working tools & I know which I would take .

 

[Poignard]

Lifeboat conversions. Another type you don't see anymore.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Lifeboat conversions. Another type you don't see anymore.

A lifeboat conversion was my dad's first cruiser.