Estimate Man Hours to build a yacht......

[AppleNation]

A bit of a broad question here...

How many man hours does it take to build a yacht?

And how does that change as the boat grows in size? i.e. does it take double the time to build 60 foot compared to 30 foot?

I know this is almost a how long is a piece of string question.... but what is your experience on long it takes.... and is your epxerience a hobby or professional build?

Thanks all.

 

[JeroenW]

The relation between man hours and length is definitely not linear.
To give a few examples, this guy is building a 39 foot trimaran and currently has built the two floats and is putting the main hull together now and is above 4000 hours already. He documented it nicely here:
http://www.fram.nl/workshop/figures/timeandcosts.htm

I came across another project where they built a steel 40 footer and he mentioned it to be close to 12 000 man hours.

It all depends on the amount of detail, experience, type of materials,...
I found that some designers are optimistic when they give an estimate of man hours needed to build.

I think best is to look for people who built the same design and check with them. Did you have anything particular in mind? On this forum the more details you give the more detailed your answer will be.
Generic question meets generic answer.

 

[AppleNation]

Thanks Jereon.

Just looking at building a 40-45 foot yacht..... and am trying to work out what the costs are going to be if I do some myself and sub-contract a lot of the work...

 

[JeroenW]

Well if you look at the site I specified there is some information there regarding cost as well.

 

[marshmat]

As a very rough first approximation, for a given class and quality of boat, build time and cost will go roughly hand-in-hand with displacement, ie. as the cube of the length.

This seems to be a reasonable approximation for boats of similar type and similar quality- for example, given a 30' and a 50' fishboat from the same port, intended for roughly similar use, it would be a reasonable guess that the 50' will be about 4.5 times heavier, 4.5 times more expensive, and take 4.5 times as many man-hours to build as the 30'.

Such comparisons break down when looking across classes. A 30' offshore luxury yacht might cost twice as much as a 30' coastal cruiser, which itself might be double or triple the price of a working fishboat of the same length. Systems, luxury, electronics, fancy teak interiors, racing carbon masts versus aluminum or wood, etc. all make an enormous difference in the price.

 

[JeroenW]

This is the link to the 12k manhour boat: http://www.joana.ca/_mgxroot/page_10734.html
But it is 53 foot actually.

 

[marshmat]

I've seen Joana on the hard a few times in the last few years. She's based just around the corner from my place. She's a gorgeous boat, appears solidly built, and looks to be very nicely outfitted for long-term cruising. I haven't seen the interior, but you can tell by looking at the hull, deck and rig that a lot of effort has gone into getting everything exactly right.

 

[Landlubber]

A 40 footer can be built in about 8 to 10 000 hours, such as a displacement yacht. This would be to WW standards and finished as such.

that would be for pro boatbuilder.

 

[AppleNation]

Thanks all.

I'm getting quotes of about 15k man hours for one-off boat... Ouch !

Landlubber - much prefer your estimate....

 

[StrandedMariner]

It always takes twice the amount of hours you think.

 

[Guest62110524]

well i,ve done 32 yachts
I can do a 40 footer in 4500 hrs, metal alloy with good woodwork,

 

[AppleNation]

Wow. Great.

How is your composite work?

 

[Guest62110524]

Wow. Great.

How is your composite work?

sorry i no NOTHING abt that sticky stuff

 

[Landlubber]

whoosh, that would have to be in production to do those short hours, but entirely believeble just the same, good on ya.

 

[AppleNation]

and how about if i already had female moulds for deck and hull ?