fastest home build method

conversing with rusty barge about his cat idea got me thinking what is really the fastest boat construction method for building at home. s&g. ply on frame, lapstrake ply. strip plank. is steel a faster material to use than ply or alloy. i would like all you forum members to list what your prefrence is. thanks in advance.

 

I think it depends on the size, shape and your skills. If you want something that floats and gets built fast, a plywood boat with plank sides will do the trick. Doesn't need chine logs or fiberglass.

 

Yes, and it all depends on the design of the NA --- or the designer.

 

As always, it isn't the hull shell that takes the time. It's what you put in it. So the quickest way to get a boat on the water is to have tiller steering, outboard engines, minimal electronics, AA battery powered lights, no oven, no fridge.

It is also much quicker if you have no need to line the interior to hide the hull structure. Even slower/heavier/more expensive if you have to build an interior inside the hull shell.

You also do need to factor in the usage costs, like fuel use, marina charges, insurance, depreciation

So you cannot simply say X is the cheapest way to build the hull shell and thus the cheapest boat

As I say in my website, somewhere, it is easy to design something. What is hard is to design are simple to build low cost solutions. And home builders face different problems to production yards. In the latter time saving is important as hours cost. In home building its the materials (plus maybe shed rent). But even more important is the material handling. Few home builders have fork lifts, overhead gantries, or cranes to help. Indeed many home builders work entirely alone so moving even one sheet of plywood is hard enough.

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

Picking up Gonzo's eloquent reply. Whether a simple bath tub boat or a full blown ocean sailing or a high speed motor cruiser etc...no two boats are the same.

What is for sure though, any boat is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Thus, focusing upon one discipline (time to build) is missing the big picture. Far too much goes into the design and build and should be tailored for your exact requirements, ergo, no two boats are the same, nor the objectives.

 

good replies but i was asking about hull construction methods not fitout. please give your thoughts on actual construction methods . that is a large enough topic for 1 thread. thanks.

 

Well obviously the fastest way to build a shell is to layup a solid grp one in a mould. Preferably using a chopper gun. Making a hard chine mould for a catamaran using melamine faced mdf is quick and cheap, maybe 2 weeks for a 9-10m hull. Then you could make two hulls easily in a week, both with gelcoat finish so no painting or fairing to do.

And that is how my Skoota 32 is done, except for the chopper gun bit of course, as its a foam sandwich hull

So buy the plans today and by end of June you would have two hulls ready to fit out. But I think it more sensible to make foam sandwich hulls rather than solid glass even if it takes 4 more days

Richard Woods

 

I think Kurt Hughes advocates this method for home building; very sensible and practical.Although its counter intuitive , its much quicker to build a female mould and pop out a single hull than build with ply and epoxy .

Sanding down a door in the house for a coat of gloss is more sanding than I want to do ...lol.

 

How long does the boat need to last?

 

I've been using that system for years and I especially recommend it when building interiors, after all most galleys etc are flat panels even if the hulls are not.

Here are two photos of the Skoota 32 half mould and a gelled hull. The half mould taken from the stern at about WL, the gel from the bow. The keel bottom is to the right, the side deck (which will be trimmed back) on the left in the gelled photo. There are flanges built in all round so little or no fairing/ filling/sanding when joining. I should have more photos later of the complete half hull/sidedeck

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

By far the fastest way to build a small boat is plywood with minimal timber and no mold. In that sense, it depends greatly on the design. A friend and I built a Bolger Teal and oars ready to float from raw stock (no prep work allowed) in about one our and some minutes (I forgot exact time). For that kind of boat, no other method comes close.

I've often judged contests of Bevin Skiffs and similar boats that take two persons about four hours for the faster workers.

For a boat show, we have also popped bare hull of a S&G 10' dinghy off a mold in one hour, waited a couple hours over lunch for the epoxy to set and did the bare interior in another hour or less.

The solid wood planked fishing skiffs my Dad and I used to rent for a day on the lake probably could be done in very short order as well. Not quite ready for the water yet as they would leak until the planks swelled, but the building time was short.

So as others said, it depends and you will not get a single simple answer.

 

Last summer I needed a dinghy for my sailboat and built a plywood bottom with pine sides punt. I started in the morning and was painted by mid-afternoon and in the water early next day. That included the seats and oarlocks. A fiberglass boat would probably not be ready to come out of the mold yet. Also, it didn't need a mold.

 

I assume the OP was talking about building a long lasting 30ftish powercatamaran, not a dinghy

RW

 

i did not state how long it had to last because the question was posed about all the current methods of boat building.

 

Got a quote for a GRP kit from Richard Woods Cat builder; look at my last post of steel cat thread...

Complete shells seem to cost about £3500/ft, kits about £1500/ft.

PS: steel about £1000/ft for complete fabricated shell .