70ft+ steel , cheap plans

Originally Posted by shu

Peter,
Please heed what the others have said. A competent designer will tailor the plans to your needs. And if your needs are to save money, the design you get will be optimized to do just that. The amount you save in actual $ (not to mention frustration, wasted time, etc.) during construction will far exceed the design fee.
-shu

Ti li si be Chu?

[Roy Abrams]

I have a design which is both to save mony and time its not optimized its full complete to the last detail its not to be changed to suite your needs. This is where design becomes money

[Brad Kelneck]

The Metal Boat Society is a great suggestion. Regarding Bruce Robert's designs, I suggest you check out 'skeg failure.' Simply put, many of Robert's designs have inadequate support for the skeg (they are merely welded to the hull plating). The result is that they flex in a seaway and eventually, the skeg and an area of hull plating will fracture and fall off. There are a number of documented cases. At one point, apparently, Roberts was claiming that his skegs were 'sacrificial'. Give me a break! The only thing those design specifications will sacrifice will be your life.
Brad Kelneck

[Schoonertack]

I have to say that anyone that has done any remedial work,, ie. maintenance on 30 to 40 foot displacement or planning boats, for that matter where every useless option and pound of fluff has been added to maximize wow factors for whatever reason. Has thought to themselves that if this boat were 20 feet bigger and all the crap wasn't here I wouldn't mind working on her. There is nothing that speeks of better design work than a boat that floats on her marks, and has room to turn a wrench. Schooner

[THERIAULTMARINE]

Did You Ever Come Up With The Final Decision On Your Economical vessel in the 70 foot range?


Wish You All The Best,

Theriaultmarine

[SeaDrive]

If you are all serious, I suggest you spend nothing on plans and buy a used boat. It's going to be cheaper. At present, Yachtworld lists 67 steel sailboats between 65 and 75 feet. Prices are from $60,000 to about $1.75 million. At a rough and ignorant guess, I would say you want to spend a minium of $500,000 (purchase plus refit) to have a seaworthy craft.

How much do you think it would cost to build?

I've got a copy of his book on metal boat building. His plans for rudder skegs are
dangerously flimsy. Apparently, a couple of boats of his design have been sunk due to this flaw. (see http://www.metalboatsociety.com/ for details.) In the book, he states that skegs are too small to reinforce like keels, so he doesn't! If I were building to his plans, I would make a bigger (longer fore and aft) skeg, and reinforce the skeg and adjacent hull structure as for a fin keel.

Originally Posted by gonzo

genesis:
Is that Bruce Roberts built professionally? He has a good record as a designer and would be a great source for stock plans. Cheap plans usually mean you are on your own. They don't include construction details, welding schedules or structural calculations. If you are experienced enough, a set of lines is fine. However, be prepared for the two weeks of solid math to get the rest.

[RobRoy]

Hi there, Hows the plans coming along, I know where your coming from, Ive been looking for 3 years, until I happened upon a set of 71'6" Ketch rigged plans, we are now well on the way to her all steel hull completion as a bilge keeler, she has a huge saloon 5 double cabins 2 singles and a masters cabin, however iam making some changes to that to encorporate a cinema room and gymnasium. Still long way to go, but if your not willing to shell out at least 20g now then your not going far. Iam expecting final costs to be around $700g and as iam doing nearly all of the work myself being a shipwright I think this is a reasonable amount. If you want to know more about my plans email me at idunnoh@hotmail.com

[tschienque]

I always thought George Buehlers wood (and later) steel plans were good value.

I met and spoke with George many years ago at a Metal Boat Society meet on Whidbey Island and found him easy to talk to and he offered great practical advice.

His 64' double ender Coelocanth http://www.georgebuehler.com/Coelocanth.html looks about what you're looking for. For a small family (4 - 6) his 50-60 footers would do fine!

Try getting his Backyard Boatbuilding if you're in the planning stages - great value!

Yup, I'm a big fan of his big beefy boat concepts!

**NB If you really want to go "cheap" some of his plans are in his Boatbuilding book, but you won't get the boatbuilding manual (350 pages) or support during the build from the designer that you get when buying a set of plans.