Help with displacement cruiser for retirement

You got "her" under control as we say in the old country, ---Geo.

 

CP, your plans and mine are similar. We are also planning on building a boat for retirement. While I agree in so many ways with all those sensible people who recommend buying in this buyer's market, I can't find anything close to acceptable.

Boats built since fuel and HP became cheap are simply too expensive to feed for the foreseeable future. I do expect that within two or three decades an entirely new source of cheap energy will be pervasive, but I also know I am an optimist.

When designing spacecraft, it's crucial to identify the "driving requirements" out of all the requirements. Driving ones are both fundamental to mission success, and they also force the solution approach.

For a retirement boat, I think mission success requires being able to own and operate on very limited cash flow, without significant peak cash flow. In other words, likely scenarios should not cost more than the typical retirement monthly income: Annual haul outs, periodic replacement of sails, batteries, canvas, pumps, wiring, motors, varnish, paint, plastic windows, etc.

Purchase or build money is far easier to come by, as that will get spent before retirement. After retirement, funds become dramatically more precious.

The things that usually disqualify an existing vessels are 1) complexity and it's related expense of maintenance and repair, 2) displacement and it's at least linear impact on cash flow (twice as heavy is at least twice as much $ to move or maintain) and 3) limited visibility and ventilation combined with noise/vibration/harshness (including uncomfortable motion) that leads to seasickness.

While there are some sailboats that get close (Santa Cruz 50 for example), this is going to be the last boat, and a sailboat of sufficient size and fun will not be live able for as many decades as a powerboat.

 

David, I think you're missing the crucial driving requirement. A retirement boat must, before anything else, be buildable given the time and money constraints of a pre-retirement guy and whatever helpers he can conscript to the task.

On a 40' power cruiser with a workboat degree of finish, I'd budget 12,000 hours of build time. Minimum. It may be possible to shortcut that process a bit by contracting with someone to build the hull to rollover stage, By that point a dedicated individual can complete the task without a lot of help.

Sam Devlin and his professional crew invested 1500 hours in this 18' 4" Pelicano.

 

I agree the Devlin boats are nice. I am way over the hill out of my gord and am haveing him build one. I asure you picking up an older fish boat with a good hull and rebuildable motor along with your willingness to refinish interior or replace fish hold with an aft cabin is the way to go. Eric and Brent Jesperson father and son BC boat builders did just that for themselves. I have run down the coast from Sidney to Port Townsend on that boat not fast but sweet. You will have to settle for 7-8K cruise at good fuel economy. Anything faster will suck fuel.Even with a semidisplacement hull the fuel burn curve is very steep after hull speed of 1.3 x square root of waterline length.

 

What do you think of this?

 

Richard Woods 36' power cat might be a good option. Rick

 

Agree, although i would rather see the beam held at the 14ft of the previous 34ft concept to make finding docks easier.
Steve.

 

Here is good size for a limited budget.
http://www.bluejacketboats.com/bluejacket_29.htm

 

Buehler

I am ordering 3 sets of study plans from Mr. Buehler - the 41, 41+, and 44 Diesel Ducks.

 

study plans in hand

I am now the proud owner of study plans for 3 of the Diesel Ducks. I am very taken by the 41+ and the 44. I am really having a hard time talking myself out of this........

 

The thing that often seems to happen with designs like the Diesel Ducks is that a lot can be done quickly, it seems, when its developable surfaces, frames made of line segments. But the truth is that no matter what shape the boat is, the cost of the hull, deck, and structure is very low. The real cost is in the systems and finish.

So you end up saving an immeasurably small number early on, but you get an ugly duckling.

Beauty may be skin deep, but ugly goes right to the bone. Once you have an ugly duckling, there is nothing you can ever do to make it beautiful.

Instead, all builders have told me to design it to be something beautiful that you will love. Its a tiny cost increment, but its the cheapest part of the boat. Don't cheap out there, or when you are in the years of hard work, sore backs, skinned knuckles, burning lungs, and eternally empty bank account, you can easily lose motivation, and all this will be wasted, and your time window will be gone.

If you are, like me, approaching retirement, you really can't afford to blow this.

Many yacht designers and naval architects will tell you that the first thing you should do before drawing a boat, is to throw away the straightedge.

Let me put it this way: imagine all the curves of Angelina Jolie were not.

 

Here is what I decided on. This is Devlin stich and glue on a large scale. Don't ask what it costs. This boat has big twins but the same boat with a smaller single motor and slightly deeper keel could be very economical to run.

 

I guess it's in the eye of the beholder, but I don't think they are ugly. I will certainly say there are other pretty boats. I really like Mr. Tad Robert's Halibut Schooners also....

 

Draco Volans

Mr Devlin certainly has some plans that I like -Josephine 40, Sockeye 42, Kokanee 43 are eye catchers.

 

Buehler's boats can look ok they have a work boat air. The one on the left has too much railing and tower work for my tast the green boat is better but probably just in an earlier stage of getting all glomed up. The pack a lot into the hull concept is apparent on these boats and seams to be very popular these days. I peresonally like a big boat with smaller accomodations.The Buehler look fits in well here in the Northwest. I do feel that an artistic designer like Devlin can build the same size boat with more eye candy.