Estimate Man Hours to build a yacht......

After reading through this thread, I'm more convinced than ever that I made the right choice by deciding to build a sharpie. Aside from the fact that it suits my needs, there's the comparative simplicity and ease of building them. Here's a quote from Chapelle. Of course, I'm not comparing my skills with those of Lester Rowe, or his roughly finished open workboats with the weekend cruiser I want.

The son of Lester Rowe, a noted sharpie builder at New Haven, told me, in 1925, that it was not uncommon for his father and two helpers to build a sharpie, hull and spars, in 6 working days, and that one year his father and two helpers built 31 sharpies. This was at a time after power saws and planers had come into use, and the heavy cutting and finishing of timber was done at a mill, from patterns.

Obviously, his shop was building production boats using the production methods of the day. And I'm sure he and his crew didn't confine themselves to forty-hour weeks. Nonetheless, it gives me hope.

On the other hand, there's a website where a guy recorded the progress on Pangur Ban, his Egret sharpie. He started it in July of 2003, and in his last update he was getting ready to bend on the sails--in September of 2008! He hasn't updated since; I hope he didn't slip off the cabin top and break his neck.

I do not intend to build mine the way he built his: for example, sides and bottoms laminated with two layers of 1/2" plywood, fully glassed on top of that; custom-made blocks of his own design from scratch; turned his own rudder post from bronze square stock, etc. When it comes to building mine, I'd like to giterdun before I get too old to go sailing.

 

my theory is if your sitting in it sailing you cant really see much of what it looks like, looks are for other people

slap it together , paint it , go sailing

 

Troy

when you double the estimated building time they provided with the plans, you´re sure on the safe side!
Although some designs come with realistic estimations.

Which one are you going to build?

Regards
Richard

 

I was planning to build to my own design, based on the old New Haven oyster boats and racers, and I have a model started to work out the hull form and details. But I've been told the Smithsonian Institute has some unpublished plans by Chapelle, so I'll go with one of his if I can find one close to what I like. I was designing my own because I wasn't quite satisfied with any I had seen, not because I'm masochistic.

I'm far from a professional boat builder. But I'm a skilled carpenter and woodworker and I know how to sharpen my tools; my family has worked with wood for generations. And I've built smaller flat-bottomed boats and canoes.

 

Troy 2000
have at it man, get building. You will be utterly suprised at how much faster a skilled carpenter can build in wood. You know the little tricks of the trade that get the same job done in half the time or less with exacting workmanship---you know what I'm talking about. I am building a 47 footer and will have approx 6500 man hours invested when completed and many navel architects estimate that it should take 12000 man hours. So I hope I have given you some encouragement!
Have a Great Day!
Earl

 

Let me encourage Troy as well, please.

Unfortunately I made a statement about carpenters and boatbuilding, quite recently.
That was´nt in favour of the carpenters.

I´ll tell you why:
the average carpenter is the least person I need in boatbuilding!

He is too much trained in doing things "right" which are completely wrong when building a boat.
Apart from scarfing, fairing and handling the material in general, all carpenters I had the doubtful joy to employ, have been a nightmare on boatbuilding.

I, personally, employ better a willing concrete mixer, for wooden boat building, than the world champion in carpenting!

Not my 2 cent....
my daily experience.

Regards
Richard

 

I've heard it before, Richard; I don't take offense.

I forget who it was, but I remember someone writing, "when we hire a house carpenter to build boats, the first thing we have to do is teach him to sharpen his own tools properly." That's why I commented that I already know how to do that....

There are carpenters, and there are carpenters. I remember asking one of my younger brothers what he was doing one time thirty years ago, and he said, "I'm a carpenter now, too!" I said, "really? What do you do?"

As it turned out, he was part of a framing crew on housing tracts. A layout man and his helper would cut the mudsills and top plates for the walls, and mark the stud layout on them. The sawman and his helper would pre-cut all the 2x4's, and lay them where they went. My brother and another man would nail the walls together and stand them up; two other men would plumb and line the walls.....and so on.

I told him, "you aren't a carpenter. You're a two-legged nail gun. Go join a four-man crew and build some houses from top to bottom, start to end, rough to finish including cabinets, and you'll have a start on being a carpenter."

He never did become a carpenter, by my standards. But he turned into a good framer, who could put together production houses properly and quickly.

 

You´ve got it! No need to comment any further!
My best wishes (and do´nt hesitate to ask for assistance); FOR YOUR TASK.

Regards
Richard