Where can I find a plug builder

I worked over the phone with an older gentleman in FL that wanted to build his own boat, he bought a CNC cutter and started cutting foam to make the molds, I think it was a 30 something footer. He said he just wanted to do it as a project, money wasn't a barrier.

 

Hmm. Must be nice. Did he live long enough to finish it?

 

I didn't want to ask him that question, but was very curious about it, he finally said at his age he may never finish it, but it was just something he wanted to do. The first time I met him was at IBEX last year, he came by our booth and talked for a long time.

 

What do you mean by one off custom?

 

If you wanted to build one boat for yourself (one off, one and done, original design) having someone build plugs and molds isn't worth the cost, but if you plan to make several boats from the mold it becomes more cost effective, the more boats you build, the better the value of building the mold.

 

Id like to start a company building downeast boats I know a few guys who are interested in buying some if I build em

 

Hand plug builders are hard to come by these days, most of the industry has gone to CNC cut plugs from companies like Marine Concepts already mentioned. A CNC cut hull plug at that scale would likely cost you $130k - $150k. Plug building (either by hand or CNC) is commonly billed as a function of surface area and complexity, so you'd at least to know the surface area and basic details (keel? flanges?, etc). As already pointed out, the mold is also a significant cost to consider - having a tool built for you by a vendor can sometimes cost as much as or more than the plug (for a real production mold with a high quality surface finish). Obviously, there is a significant reduction in outlay if you can build the mold yourself, but the materials alone would easily run into the 5 figure range for a production mold this size. To your original question, there are many CNC plug routing shops in the US and Canada that do this kind of work: Marine Concepts and Vectorworks in Florida, Symmetrix in Rhode Island, Janicki Industries in Washington. You can Google 'Marine Tooling' and find these firms around. Keep in mind that any plug will need to be transported from the pattern maker to you, and the 16.5' beam you've called out will make that a challenge to do in one trip.