I'm having rowboat built - is it overpriced?

Whilst I realise this isnt the veritable oil tanker you are looking for, its a fun boat able to take a passenger and will still giving you a good work out without the hernia.

http://www.virusuk.demon.co.uk/yole/index.html

Where are you in CH by the way?

 

Definitely a fun boat. A week ago I went to see a retailer for Virus boats and had the opportunity to try out their sliding rigger - I want one.

Call me paranoid, but I have this thing about not giving out information on the Internet that might let *THEM* know who I am and where to find me.

 

Ok. I lived in Lausanne (Pully to be exact) for 5 years and there were 2 Virus boats in Pully port and a local school that had about 10. There was a distributor on the other side of Geneva, dont know if he's still there though. I used to have a FirstClass 8 on Lac Leman by the way but in truth there was rarely a decent wind.

The virus is one you could throw in the water at 5 minutes notice and have a good workout.

 

to Rick

that sounds like a good approach
Also what the owner should do is reallly search the company If in doubt he should take some sort of INSTRUMENT BY WAY SECURITY over the materials he has paid for
I will copy your post and frame it and put it where I can refer)

 

4oz sq yard = 125 g m² roughly .... known as "surfboard cloth"
and this:
http://boatbuildercentral.com/howto/ply_test.php
could help Mark too.

Regards
Richard

 

Think hard!

The estimate may be reasonable for a one-off design, but the concept suggests to me that you have not considered all aspects of the problem. A single sculler can row a light, narrow 27' boat at fairly high speed. Adding two passengers weighing 300 lbs. or so would slow it down. Seating them abreast would necessitate greater beam, as you know, but that would increase the surface area of the boat. Surface area, itself, is the greatest source of resistance. While a racing shell is stabilized by the oar blades, passengers without oars (and possibly with unequal weights) would need a more stable hull form, increasing surface further. Combining the concentration of large passenger weight and the greater beam, the light materials used for a single scull would provide inadequate strength, so the hull would have to be made of heavier materials as well. In the end, you would have a boat that is slow for a single rower, hard to steer, and clumsy to handle on water or land.

The last point raises a different set of problems. Even if you have a place to moor it, a light, wooden boat should be stored out of the water. If it were launched by hand, the weight and bulk would require more than three people to launch it. If it were stored on a (long, expensive) trailer, you would need a tow vehicle, a large parking area and a long ramp. If you plan to transport it some distance to water, a long trailer will make travel awkward and will have to be parked.

At last, you may want to consider a different way of enjoying life on the water. Perhaps one or both of your passengers will have departed, work may take you elsewhere, or physical impairments may make rowing infeasible. Will you find a market for your dream boat? When you count the cost, it is proper to think of the expected depreciation, not the initial investment.

Professional designers and builders may be worth their hire for an unique work of art that will attract wealthy collectors, but you are not in that category, nor is your boat. To me, the only alternative that seems to make sense is to buy a stock rowing boat large enough to carry three in tandem. For relatively calm water, that could mean a German touring gig, such as produced here:
http://www.baumgarten-bootsbau.de/html/englisch.html.
Possibly a 2X+ double scull with cox could be modified to replace one of the sculling positions with a second cox seat. For open water or portability, something shorter, like a Chesapeake Light Craft Chester Yawl
http://www.clcboats.com/shop/boats/rowboats/sliding_seat/CLC-CHESTERYAWL.html
A fiberglass Whitehall
http://www.whitehallrow.com/row_boats.php
or others on the market would be more practical.