Good places in the US for building a cat

Hi Theo,
I live on the coast of Georgia, on St Simons Island. It is a quiet, safe, clean place in which to rear teenage children. For a couple of thousand a month you can rent a nice three bedroom home that is walking/biking distance from most anything you would need.

Most likely you would have to rent a separate spot to build the boat on. I was lucky in that i built my 36' cat in my garage underneath my house, but my particular design is demountable. I was able to finish the boat at home and then break it down and truck it to the water. You might be able to do something similar, but the other option is renting a spot across the river in Brunswick. There is plenty of space for such projects over there, and rent is relatively cheap. There is also a warehouse section on St Simons, right next to the airport, you could rent a bay over there (about 700/ a month I think), build all the hull sections etc, then take it to the water's edge and finish it maybe.

As far as materials availability, it is a good as most anywhere else, since the internet. There is plenty of cheap unskilled labor here as well as a handful of more boat savvy types.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

I am in a sort of similar position to you except I do not live full time in the USA. However I have an American wife.

We had our latest boat (Skoota28 powercat) built in wood in Washington and launched in Port Townsend. After 3 years in the PNW we trucked it to Texas in October and since then have cruised the Gulf coast and I write this on board inLake Worth Florida. I have anchored in every state of the US.

The PNW makes sense as a building area, cheap rents and lots of skilled workers with low wages. I would avoid anything south as it gets too hot. So you waste personal energy and air conditioning is expensive to run 24/7.


I also spend a lot of time in the San Francisco Bay Area which is also good for building and lots of multihull experience

Lots of good suppliers in the PNW. One thing to consider is where you will get a mast as they are very expensive to ship

You also need to look at the tax angle not just for materials but also usage taxes etc

If you look at my website you'll see photos of 20ft wide cats going down 14ft wide Cornish lanes.

Many cats are built in sections and joined by the water. Easy to do building if in foam sandwich. One of my customers actually built his boat in three different countries. Starting in the UK then Belgium and finally Holland

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

Www.sailingcatamarans.com