Brand new boat build vs refurbish? 50 ft Willard type hull

So long story short (but still long) I was looking at selling this boat I have. It's 99 percent exactly like the buyers businesses other boats. The buyer came by with his mechanic and fiberglass guy. The mechanic said everything looks good. The fiberglass tells the buyer oh it'll take me 40k USD to refurbish it to like the your other boats, but then he says oh you know I can build boats let me give you a quote.... In three days he says I'll charge you 140k to pull a mold and build this 50ft boat exactly like yours ready to drop the engine in and go. Also after coming up with this 140k fresh build number he decides it's going to be 70k to refurbish mine to make it exactly like theirs.

I'm the seller and I have my doubts on the fiberglass guy being able to build and finish the boat for the quoted price. (the builder would be under contract so in my opinion will probably cut corners, I don't know this for a fact, the business has used him for refurbishing before but never a mold and new build)

Overnight the refurbish quote went from 40 k to 70k although some of this stuff was ladders etc but they would still be included in his new build price. Is it just me or do these numbers not make sense? Even if he were to rebuild the whole top deck/roof structure of the boat that's only like 1/4 of the boat.

I'm just wondering if the fiberglass guy is just saying this so he'll get the new build contract because I assume (somehow) he'll make more money. Also apparently he expects to build/pull mold in November and have the boat finished boat by April.

A lot of this just doesn't add up to me and even the buyer was questioning it. The buyer is a friend of a friend so I wouldn't want him to get taken advantage of because honestly I think he would be better off purchasing my hull and I'm not just saying that to sell it because I don't need to sell it.

I spoke to 3 different fiberglass guys and all of them agreed that something doesn't add up. One had provided a quote to pull mold/build boat for 180k.

 

Something smells rotten in the state of Denmark.

 

To start with, you don't have to give him permission to take a mold off your boat. Also, there are copyright/desing protections for splashing (taking molds of existing boats). Further, making a proper mold costs more than a bare hull. It has to be stiffer to keep it from deforming, so it take a lot more material and reinforcements. In short, he can't make a boat for that money. The engines alone would be over 1/3 of the budget. That doesn't include the rigging, electrics, inside cabinetry, hardware, piping, etc. It would be really easy to prove he can't make it. Ask for a proper itemized estimate with labor and materials for everything.

 

The (buyers) fiberglass guy would take the mold off of the buyers boat which is exactly like mine. (same hull, 1 percent different interior/topside) These are sparce dive boats that are basically just open. The engine they use was another 40k for a total of 170k plus or minus.

 

I'm not saying he can't build the mold and the boat for 130 or 140k but I have doubts.

But moreso how could it possibly be cheaper or the same to pull a mold and build a brand new boat than to fix mine which is already built even if he had to refurbish the whole topside and paint it. 70k he said.

 

Also this is a 3rd world country, they don't have much for laws at all what less one for building a boat.

That's why the quotes are so cheap.

 

I would also assume the fiberglass lamination is not going to be to he same standard as a Willard. Is this a Navy utility launch?

 

Yeah

 

There is no way he can build to the same quality. Also, he doesn't have all the engineering data to know the type of fiberglass/resin, laminate schedule, structural reinforcements, etc. I'm sure he got greedy and thinks it's easy money but doesn't know what he is getting into it. The mold alone will take 1/3 of his budget to do it right.

 

Yes this is what I was thinking, Also I don't believe a passenger boat would be something you want to "guess" on. I think they're just seeing the word "new" and thinking because of that it will be better. However a lot of time that's not the case.

 

“When in doubt — pull out!”

 

It'd take me about 2 years to prep a used 50' hull, make the splash, return the hull to service, layup the mold properly as a production mold, build the frameworks for it, and wax it for the first skin. Then I'd be ready to start on building the boat. I think my buddy paid about $120,000 for the molds of a 12' x 10' fun boat for Mexican beach resorts that ran 10hp outboards and held 2 pax. And that was 30 years ago! But he got more than 100 boats out of it before sending it back for a refurb and rewax.

I'd figure the parent hull would consume $10K in materials for prep and take at least two months. The mold would need about 4000 pounds of fiberglass. So about $10k for resin and $10K for the glass. $1500 for tooling gel. Probably 1000 pounds of steel for the frame. Maybe $1 per inch of steel tube frame. If labor cost equals material cost for fabrication, you're at at least $70k just to fab a decent mold. You still have to wax it for production. And that's only 35k in labor for two year's work.

What does it cost to haul and transport a 50'er to the job site? $3k-5k?

 

It depends on how good the fiberglass guy is, not only at his job but also with his calculations. I say this because it is indeed doable for the stated budget. To all that doubt it I just want them to remember that the minimum wage in Honduras was just raised to ~300USD/month, and that one can get polyester resin and fiberglass for 1-2USD/kg from China. Of course that's not the end of the story, there's a large overhead getting the materials in country and other costs to consider, but even if the profit is zero or maybe even negative, the big reward for the guy is having a complete tooling set for a locally known design. How much money he makes on this boat is irrelevant, this commission propulses him from repair guy to manufacturer with minimal or even zero investment from his own pocket. Next boat he sells from those molds will make money, and lots of it.

Of course the end result will not be of the same quality as the original, he isn't going to use fire resistant resin, the flotation foam might not be so good, his stainless work may possibly be of a lower quality, etc. But, if he's good enough at his job he will produce a boat of sufficient quality that any problems won't manifest for 10-15 years. During that time the customers will be happy and grace his door with their presence, and afterwards they'll come to him for repairs or new boats, because if the price is right the boats will have turned a profit for their owners a long time ago.

Now for the friend's friend his thoughts should be simple. First get a quote from someone else regarding the refurbishment of your boat, because the current guy does indeed have an interest to overstate it. Second, one of his boats will be out of commission for at least a month while it's prepped as a male mold. Third, he should think about getting into business with the fiberglass guy, after all he provides the capital and IP to jump start his new business, so he might as well profit from it.

 

What killed the budget on the bare hull re furb was labor, with labor cost like that... it would have been no problem.

Seems like your going to want to do all the surface prep to the hull regardless, seems like that work is the same unless you want to splash a hull with the same acquired faults.

 

@Rumars And it looks like there will be a steady market in Venezuela for the next couple years if we keep sinking the drug boats.