Cheapest cost to self-design & self-build a 45ft sailboat

I think your time estimate is so far off that it's not even wrong. I'm thinking more like 10,000 hours. And even that might be a bit skimpy. The size you are talking about would likely displace at least 19,000 lbs. That's a whole lot of boat. Also, time must be traded against cost, if you are doing the build yourself. The reason for this is that you will have to do a lot of scrounging and bargain hunting as you go along. Except for the hull building materials, nothing is going to be new. And a lot of stuff is going to have to be jiggered to make it work. To get an idea of what you may be getting into, you aught to check out "Salt & Tar" on YouTube. They built a 35 footer over a seven year period. The boat they built was extremely simple. It was made of wood planks and has a single-chine bottom. It has a re-purposed diesel which is conected to the proppeler with an automotive style drive shaft. The man who built it had done numerous boat restoration projects, including both wood and fiberglass, so he was no novice.

To keep your building time even within 10,000 hours, you are going to have to go with an extremely simple hull design. Probably a flat bottom with flared sides and a bolt-on keel. Your choice of hull building materials will likely be limited to plywood, steel, or aluminum, with aluminum, because of its cost and difficulty in welding, being a distant 3rd choice. Any other material choice will likely add tremendously to your building time.

Your rig choice, too, may well be tied to your building time and cost limitations. If you go with a Marconi (Bermudan with Spreaders) rig, for example, you may be able to get used spars and sails that are good enough.
You can go for a cutter*, ketch** or even schooner set up with this type of rig.*** A sloop would require roller-furling, which would likely cost you more than the rigging needed for a second jib. The ketch and the schooner rig would require two masts and more standing rigging, but would be easier to make self-steering without a vane or autopilot.

The finish of your boat is likely to be more work-boat like than yacht like. Getting a yacht quality finish takes loads of time.

The best keel for your project will likely be a long, shallow type, to better distribute its loads along the length of the hull, and allow the use of concrete and steel, rather than the more expensive lead for ballast. It won't have to be the length of the waterline, and you can have a separate skeg and rudder.

Cave-lockers, with good doors or hatches, are a good alternative to drawers and are a handy way of dividing your stowage up (and keeping everything in plae during rough conditions), without having to go through a lot of time consuming cabinate-making. See the YouTube channel "Wind Hippie Sailing" to see a a good example of such.

*A cutter is a single mast rig, with the mast stepped further aft than that of a sloop, and has a second stay, which runs parallel to the forestay, on which the second jib (aka staysail) hanked to. It usually requires a pair of back-shrouds, which connect to the mast at the same height as the inner-fore-stay.

**A ketch rig has two, masts with the the taller one being in front of the shorter one.

***A schooner rig has two masts with the masts either being of equal height, or the taller one being in the back.

 

IMHO the hull is the easy part. It took me (35' epoxy strip plank heavy GF sheating) about 800h total. After that all work with interior, installation whatever, wiring plumping etc is the time consuming part.

 

35 ' Hull

800 h

35 x 10 x 2 = 700
35 x 3 x 2 = 210
10 x 3 x 1 = 30

= 940

35 x 10 x 2 x 0.66 = 462
35 x 3 x 2 = 210
10 x 3 x 1 = 30

= 702

(940 + 702) / 2 = 821 h

 

I collected lead from shooting ranges and one old keel of derelict boat. Costs mostly some diesel to collect the stuff and 1k € for moving that donor vessel.

 

[QUOTE="messabout, I did not know what I did not know.[/QUOTE]

How true. Alternatively, "I do not know what I do not know, so I assumed that what I knew was everything" (and made me an expert on the subject)

 

It wouldn't hurt to point out that the original poster posted the question in 2018 and never came back.

 

only uninitiated and/or arrogant person would assume he could do the same! Better assume double.
You are probably a professional woodworker or this wasn't your first build.
"the hull is the easy part" are the words to be remembered! Add: & the cheap part!
For a comparison:
I as a 20 yo first time builder, maybe a little under-average-skilled, certainly not optimally organized & extremely low budgeted, but extremely motivated, principally "technical" person (more theoretically than practically though) in the 70s took 4400 hours to build an extremely spartan 34' Wharram cat, a boat that requires only very basic building skills. The boat had no plumbing, electricity or electronics to speak of. As a first time builder I did not know where to put the emphasis on care & where optics were superfluous, so I took extreme care everywhere.
The 10.000 hours for the 45' er will quite probably not be enough for a first time unexperienced builder.

 

???

 

Confirming that old rules of thumb work

But I don't know if this archaic estimate can go beyond the 20-35 feet range.

That is 1 hour per square foot of hull: i have averaged between a box (not counting a side and assuming 10 feet of beam) and a kind of triangle (0.66 instead of 0.5)

 

35' Hull

800 h

 

which of your numbers is what?

 

I think OP was looking for a used Formosa 51, but he just didn't know it yet.

Approximates old frigates, carracks, pirate ships? Check.
Has pirate ship windows in stern? Check.
Has gangplank? Check.
Less than $89k, including some DIY refurbishing? Check.
Likely to hit the water before OP runs out of money/motivation or dies of old age, assuming that hasn't already happened?... Check.

 

Well hell. Now I want one.

 

Did This include lofting and setup?

Also, with a more complex hull shape, fitting bulkheads and shelves becomes more difficult due to constantly changing bevels and curves. I have watched it be done with astounding efficiency on YouTube, by use of cardboard and segmented plywood templates. But I think it would have gone quicker with straight edged sections and constant bevels. Drawers are convenient, but I think they take up a lot of space compared to how much gear they can stowe. They also require very careful craftsmanship to build, which is time consuming.

I suppose one could limit the electrical and the plumbing to the absolute minimum, atleast for the first few years of ownership, then add more later as it is seen as needed.

With my mobile home, I have gone in the opposite direction, as far as the plumbing goes. The park sewers drain very slow and get easily overwhelmed. So, the drainage of the kitchen sink tends to freeze up during the winter. It also builds up with crud and gets blocked that way. I could go to the city government and complain. But I could then end up with them shutting the park down. So I disconnected it from the kitchen sink. The kitchen sink now drains into a five-gallon bucket which I dump down the toilet. Yes, a little convenience is lost, but a major source of heartburn is eliminated as well.

If I were building a large sailboat, I would see the instalation of the engine and its support systems as a mjor part of the build. Same to goes for the mast and rigging. I would try to keep those as simple as possible. Except for running lights and interior lights, I would keep as much of the electrical as close to the cockpit as practical. There would be no pressurized water system on my boat. Everything would be hand or foot pumped. I would definitely want to try a composting toilet for the head, when in port, and a flush outside one for at sea. This way, I won't have to deal with a black water tank and its associated plumbing.

As tempting as it may be to have all the conveniences of home on a boat, such must be weighed against the added complexity such requires on top of the maintanence.

 

Yes, lofting and setup included. I made the bulkheads after the deck was in place so concur about the bevels and curves, but eventually with templates it was pretty easy job. Most time goes waiting epoxy to set thus with planning carefully to work on multiple targets spares working days (but not hours).

BR Teddy