boat costing in quantity

this sounds more like some government grant money out there searching for a program of "innovative" approach to education. There is no sane investor that would put such money up in such quantities, so this has be a government grant. super costly, no clear objectives, and tax payer funded to acheive some kind lofty sounding but vague goal.

social experimenters who work for the deparment of education (a stupid wasteful federal department), ignoring what we know has worked in education for several thousand years, have some tax money skimmed out of other equally wasteful education funding to experiment with "new" ideas in education.

I would further speculate that the OP is not necessarily the bad guy here, but is looking for an idea to put fourth in a proposal to get some of that money. It was not his decision to make the money available, but perhaps wants to try and "win" some of it for what appears to be an ill formed idea about using boat building as a means of education by using a real, hands-on project.

Therefore profitability and hiring skilled workers are not the objective, but rather some vague notion of "education" for perhaps unemployed workers, or high school aged drop-outs. That is why disposing of the boats once built is of secondary concern. Of course most of the traditional education skills would be more suited for design stage rather than actually building (mathematics, science, chemistry, good writing skills, computer skills, etc.).

It is already sounding like some ill-conceived government program, it will like just waste a lot of money and results in no one being educated.

To the original poster: there will be nothing to learn without a real workable business model. the only thing to educated anyone in is how REAL business operates, and the skills necessary to make them successful. What you have outlined here is a waste of time and money.

With your current model you would be better off making public art and donate it to city parks and town squares across the country. No one will be harmed by badly done art.

 

I think another idea for disposing of $50 milliion is to apply it to efforts to recycle dead boats. As I have posted before on this forum, dead fiberglass boats is one of the things clogging up our environment and landfills. More money needs to be devoted to infrastructure to collect and process fiberglass. More research needs to be done to find out more uses for recyclable fiberglass. This would be money much better spent.

Eric

 

Look into R/C boats, about 4ft long, you can make 200 of them no problem,
and students can even sail them, have races, come up with innovated designs,
team building, etc, etc. Can have competitions and scholarship awards, etc,
nice way to burn up cash combining boating and education.
Government program? Unlikely, more like billionaire charity/inheritance plan.
I mean what do these guys with $500 million do with it, you can only buy so many megayachts.

 

those worth a half billion or more did not get that way by wasting on fruitless endeavors, even when they donate to charity they want to see it spend wisely.

Eric, it is not a question of where government money should be spent, our illustrious elected officials have already decided that for us (and our children, and children's children). This just just sounds like a large chunk of money was allocated to "alternative education grants", and it is waiting for people to submit proposals to get it. how do you think all those stupid and wasteful alternative energy grants got squandered?. Tax revenue stolen from those working and productive members of this country, and allocated to government programs on the basis that is "stimulates" alternative energy, education, etc. I can not believe those in charge are really that ignorant (or maybe they are, or they think we are), it just looks to me like graft in the form of government programs. without any clear objective, no one can say that handing out these millions in grants was wasted.

 

This is definitely one for the "Ain't Gonna Happen" file.

 

Your assumption and his statement are inharmonious.

You have to be careful when equating money with intelligence or morals, common sense or a sharp mind. Don't forget greed, avarice, dishonesty, monumental egos, old money, thievery or plain dumb luck. And even though people might have somehow accumulated money when they were young, the money can last longer than their wits.
.

 

You have a good point Eric, but currently we'd need congress to act and likely state ratification or acceptance on a new federal overview, of something that is currently a state run operation. Maybe this would be different with documented vessels, where they'd have more leverage.

With state budgets the way they are, just collecting the abandoned is difficult to find funds for and typically, one of the first budgetary issues to get tossed on a shelf, when the economy turns down. The ones that are hazards and have to be snatched up, just get thrown in an incinerator, maybe if lucky, offers some energy for power in some.

 

you could be right samsam. I recently read about how dirt poor families in Texas inherited thousands of acres of very poor farm land, yet had multiple generations of really BIG Rich after oil was discovered. Some even worth in the billions, same would be true of Oklahoma, which is another state not known for producing a lot of brilliant scholars, but a lot of oil tycoons.

 

A 35 footer is too much for a teacher's summer vacations and weekending it will go on forever. I don't know if the same sense of ownership and accomplishment would be had by building only a small piece of a boat. And the ongoing maintenance on a fleet of 35' wood boats is a task. How about building smaller 16' boats and offering sailing events for teachers and their families, maybe rotating sailing camps each year.

 

Lots of wisdom being contributed here.

The fallacy of stitch and glue being the cheapest way to build has been well covered - hulls are only a small part of the build. All the 'cheapest' commercial boats are fiberglass from moulds.

The biggest saving is the finish. Its easy to spend the same amount on a good paint job as the cost of the hull - some larger boats cost more to paint than the hull itself. Then, all those videos of stitch and glue, conveniently skip over the hours of sanding prior to painting.

Sam Devlin has typical build/finish times in his excellent book - I know they are a bit optimistic. Even so, they are not quick builds.

 

Labor is the biggest savings, in production building, regardless of the tasks. Finishing is a big on, but so is finish joinery, equipment installation, etc. On a 30' yacht, just installing an interior can be 50% of the labor involved in the build, unless the interior is just a tub or liner.