cheap boat plans

I sometimes wonder why I try.

 

But thank you for trying, just the same.

 

Plans are a small fraction of the total cost. I do not understand the rage for free or dirt cheap plans.
Most of the time they are outdated plans, true pieces of naval archaeology. Some are paleontology. They are useless, they often ask for classic wood, which demands experience even for a pram, are heavy and slow. If you have not a suitable wood, well dried, straight grained you are going to suffer. If you make it with sh*** wood you are going to spend hours to obtain a piece of junk.

It's the same for experimental planes, people buying plans of things which have the aerodynamics of a barn, and the famous cheap plans are a 2 sheet of stencil on bad paper, have no scale, and no detail. Not even good as toilet paper.
I helped recently a Mexican friend for his 2 seater 80 HP and convinced him to buy recent plans in modern materials of a modern plane with advanced aerodynamics, detailed and complete even for the hinges of the doors. He was crying to pay 5000 bucks for what he believed to be only sheets of paper when he could get plans of prewar plane for 200 bucks.
He received 3 kg composed of more than 30 plans on mylar (even the electrical circuits with size and quality of the cables, breakers, redundancy, security etc...), a CD with all the details, a complete manual book of 180 pages, list of materials, list of providers, list of engine options, list of the needed tooling, model of the plane parachute (when you fly over the jungle better to have a plane parachute, if the engine dies you won't die with him) ciphers for the certification (there not legal experimental category in Mexico, you have to certify an ULM like a Boeing 767) and even plans of the shop made by an true aeronautical engineer, a French guy.
The profiles are state of the art modified Wortmann and the plane after 2 years of hard work and 45000 USD flyes now cruising at 240 kph using just 12 litres/hour, max speed 285 kph with 85 HP, lands at only 65 kph, takes off in 120 meters. He is happy, now Merida, 280 km from Playa del Carmen is at 1h20m of flight with 16 litres of ordinary gas instead of more than a 3 hours driving a car and 33 litres of gas plus the 300 pesos toll of the autopista...Or some old style plane flying at 120 kph guzzling 45 litres/hour of avgas at 5 bucks the litre. Simply he got what he paid. And saved money because without the dossier sold by the engineer with the plans, the certification would costed more than 5000 bucks of hiring an engineer to calculate a dossier, plus some corruption costs. Or to have a fake certification like 95% of the experimental planes in Mexico, in case of accident it's a few years in a Mexican prison with a bunch of narco psycho killers. Plane plans are a very serious affair.
The same for a professional boat builder; working with plans made by a serious naval architect, who will be expensive, saves in reality money.

Some will say that I'm exaggerating about a pram plan. It's the general principle that it's important: you get what you pay for plans, there is no free meal. Brain juice, knowledge, experience and hard work have to be paid.
I would prefer to pay the small price for a very detailed plan, no guessing or obscure points, with list of material and so on. When you begin to make a complete estimation of materials even for a pram you'll be surprised of the needed time. To pay a few bucks to get this list complete even for the screws it's a pleasure.
And I'll drink a good Campari orange to the health of the designer. You have saved hours of excel sheets work. You have plans for a suitable material needing only 30% of the work on the classic boat. You won't need to see several mills to find a suitable wood, and examine 400 planks to find the long good planks (scarfs are a lot of work); quarter sawn cut, no knots, straight grained, not susceptible to warp when drying. It's now harder to find than a honest politician.
When the boat gets bigger, the problem gets worst. I have seen a set of very cheap plans of a hard chine 28 feet sail boat which were a total piece of garbage. For an experienced builder at first sight you would see that the bow could not be made without a serious struggle...the plans were not exact and had to be controlled by lofting the entire lines. At first sight there was mistakes of about 2 cm full size. There was not a good offset of dimensions. The details were monkey work. That's tiring. I'm going to chill now. That's all folks. Have a nice day.

 

Selecting designs from century old plans is generally not the wisest option. The MotorBoating and Rudder offerings are historically interesting, but still antique designs. For example the "Ideal" series are 93 and 95 year old plan sets and they're not very complete, include techniques and material that just are practical or available any more, plus there's no one you can call if you have a few questions. Simply put, we've learned a lot since these designs where published, materials and techniques have also advanced considerably as well, so be careful what you wish for.

 

Ilan Voyager, that was a good reply. It was done well enough that maybe we'd ought to archive it, and others like it, so that it can be pulled out and posted at some of the frequent requests for free plans. We could easily assemble a whole book of them. Cut, paste, and save a lot of keystrokes.

It is understandable for a prospective builder to search for ways to control his costs. In the case of an inexperienced builder, the last place to economize is the plan set. It is hard for us to persuade those new builders of that counterintuitive reality.

 

Some good advice in the replies I think, but no one has mentioned the obvious option to simply draw your own plans, either with paper and pencil or with a computer. The 60's and '70s were a tremendous growth period for small sailing cabin boats and they all needed a tender, espeicially since there were few marinas. Good quality inflateable boats were relatively expensive in those days so the cheap option for those who had little money to spare after buying the yacht was to knock up a pram dinghy from a couple of sheets of plywood. Many of these home made pram dinghies were not made to published plans. People had an idea what they needed, took a look at what other people had done, drew some sketches then started sawing. And most of these boats served the purpose for which they were built, we are talking about a rowing pram dinghy - not an aircraft that is to fly at 280km/hr or whatever! And I think there is some satisfaction in both designing and building your own boat, even a small and simple one.

 

Think about this carefully. Do you REALLY want the cheapest plans out there?

 

I have a copy of "Build the New Instant Boats" by Harold "Dynamite" Payson.
It cost me $8 at half price books. You probably can find a lot of them used.

15 different boats you might be able to build from the book, or you can order plans from the designers widow.

Contact information here: http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/r/plansindex/bolger/bolger.htm

 

For an 8' dinghy pram/boat there are so many free plans out there and it's such a simple thing to make, that there doesn't seem to be any rational reason to pay for plans.

 

C'mon you guys, he is talking about an 8' pram, not a $40,000 yacht.

There are free dingy plans of modern design out there from Batu and others, you just have to look for them (see links below). The older plans can be "modernized" by anyone that knows about modern wood working by applying a little careful thought. but even if you do not want to do that, there are lots of free or low cost 8' pram plans out there, or even Puddle duck plans.

The design has been around a long time and it seems everyone that sells plans their own version, usually for free or a very nominal cost. He just needs to go find them. Personally, except as a "practice" first project, these types of boats have very limited performance and utility and I would not waste any time building one. I would look for something in the 12-14' range, much bigger, but a far more useful boat for enjoying on the weekends with family.

Here you go, modern stitch and glue, with detailed instructions:

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/00/DM2000/columns/slogging/ApplePie/ApplePie2.pdf

More free designs from this website here:
http://www.christinedemerchant.com/free-stitch-and-glue-boat-plans.html

Here is another one, with full size templates to down load and print out:
http://www.windandwet.com/boat/pram/plan.php

Here are some more stitch and glue free boat plans for modern designs from one sheet plans and larger:
http://koti.kapsi.fi/hvartial/

another one:
http://www.boatdesigns.com/Drift-Prams/products/738/

 

Bateau's D5 dinghy: http://bateau.com/studyplans/D5_study.htm?prod=D5

http://www.bateau2.com/free/D5_free_m.PDF

 

Flo-Mos reference to the Bateau pram is the best deal in town. There you have free plans for a decent S & G dink and even a bill of materials along with brief building advice. The presumption is that the builder will have sufficient skills and tools to do the build.



.

 

I think this dink is available as a kit too.

 

The pram is pretty, very pretty it won't be so cheap with the sails, hardware and expensive varnish work. The savings on the plans will pay a simple pulley (the kind that gets stuck with a 20 pounds stress), or a few yards of ordinary rope, or a few spoons of good UV varnish. Or maybe 2 good quality brushes, if you find a bargain.
I wonder how many clones of the good old Optimist have been drawn. Thousands surely. The problem I've with the Optimist (and clones) is the weight carrying capability as they are small (it was the purpose of the design...)
With children it's a great sail boat, I've made a few, in French mahogany CTBX plywood, all painted with cheap automotive acrylic paint so they could stand lot of abuse, accidents, hits, etc and easy to repair at the end of the season for our sail club...
For a guy alone with a 2-3 HP outboard or rowing (best with a Chinese sculling oar far more practical, with that you can pull a barge) it's OK, I had one for fishing in sheltered waters. My 200 pounds was the weight safety limit if you want to keep a decent freeboard.
But carrying safely 2 or 3 adults...it's a claim I won't sustain. Except on mirror flat water for 50 yards in a marina, 3x200 pounds guys trying to row 200 yards against the wind and waves in a open mooring in the Caribbeans with this pram must be a great fun to watch, but with a boat ready to rescue them...

 

I'd just like to point this out

http://www.amazon.com/Newport-Vessels-8-Feet-10-Inch-Inflatable/dp/B004BCSRIK

And I would challenge any and all to point to a design with a 3 person + small ob USCG rating and a bill of materials that adds up to less than $860. The only thing not to like is the weight. You can get-er-done for 10 pounds less weight if you are clever and fussy.