Motor Yacht design companies

[fmaz]

Been an anonymous reader of this forum for a while now, but first post here.
During many of my reading, I've found lots of people not recommending Bruce Robert and Glen-L as some plan allegedly contained mistakes or lacked details. Fair enough.

But I'm having hard time finding companies for which at least few members would talk positively about.

Now I know that human nature make it so that people always tend to voice a complaint over a praise... but I'm an optimistic person in quest of constructive content, so I though I should register, and ask.

What are the companies that offer Motorized Yacht design ?
For the reference, I was looking at:

Bruce Robert - Euro 1400
Glen-L - 44 Mirage FG


Thanks !
Francois

 

[WestVanHan]

Welcome to the forum,Francois.

I can't say much about the kits,and I'm sure you've read about Roberts and his way of doing things.

Now-the Roberts boat you are looking at is a nice rendering but in actual life they look nowhere near as nice. Trust me,I've seen one-flat panels,sharp corners (but I guess you could weld in piping) and angles all over.
But maybe you like that-fine.
I had the same idea years ago-I'd suggest really adding up all the costs for all the materials, unpaid time off of work, storage,etc and for me it came out it was 1/3 cheaper to buy a good used production boat that was larger,has a beautiful interior,etc etc that turns heads in admiration.

You are looking for aft cabins...for $80-100k you can get a fairly recent vintage Carver,Sea Ray,Bayliner,Silverton,etc in the mid 30's range.

Sure,you can build it cheap with painted ply interior, a couple foamies,some buckets, a camp stove and battery powered LED lights.
It's hard enough selling boats,and selling a home built Roberts boat is well nigh impossible.

An older fellow in my area had a completed hull like that 1400 for sale for years-no windows,just the welded up hull.IIRC he had $50k into it and the ads went from asking $40k down to $15k and don't know what happened to it.

But..we don't know if you maybe have a steel shop,cranes,welders,and are a semi retired welder looking for a hobby. If so,that's great but keep in mind the hull is but a small amount of the cost.

Myself,if I ever got the foolish idea to build again I'd stay local and get Tad to draw me up something,or one of the regular helpful posters like PAR,Daniel,Alik and sorry I've forgotten the other's names

 

[fmaz]

Hi WestVanHan !

But I don't want to side track too much, I really want this thread to list available design companies that offer motorized yacht plans.

Ps.: I know the hull is 15-20% of cost
Ps2.: Yes I've read about Robert's way of doing things (including the thread about the guy accused of stealing from him )
Ps3.: I also looked at 2nd hand boat option on yachtworld ... but just as I've read from another member here, I want this to be a project I can be proud of, "before sailing into the sunset" I think was the words of the other member. I could compromise and get a good hull/motors and just strip and redo the interior, but sometime "compromise" turn out to be closer to "half-***" than anything.
Ps4.: I was looking more for fiberglass project., since I don't consider my welding skills good enough for a project that size.
Ps5.: Not buying a boat to resell. If anything, it will go either at the dump or on my will, or donated, but I don't see any "investment" or "resell value" in this kind of project.
Ps6.: foamies and buckets ? Haven't you heard about steel drums and duck tape ?!

 

[FMS]

Have you built other boats before? Start small and work your way up.
Based on your question, I would advise seeking both a naval architect and a full time professional boatbuilder to oversee the project.
The slow economy should provide opportunities in this regard.

 

[fmaz]

Have you built other boats before? Start small and work your way up.

Thanks for the tip

... no wonder everyone keep buying Glen and BR, since everyone keep other companies secrets.

Just so that this topic help other reader in the future:

Motor boat:
www.bruceroberts.com
www.glen-l.com / www.boatdesigns.com/Boat-Plans-Kits-Catalog/departments/2/
www.tadroberts.ca
www.brayyachtdesign.bc.ca
www.vgyd.com
www.sparkmanstephens.com

Sail boat:
www.clcboats.com
www.bruceroberts.com
www.glen-l.com / www.boatdesigns.com/Boat-Plans-Kits-Catalog/departments/2/
www.devlinboat.com
www.dixdesign.com
www.simpsonmarinedesign.com
www.tedbrewer.com
www.devilliersyachtdesign.co.nz
www.stadtdesign.com
www.radford-yacht.com
www.tadroberts.ca
www.brayyachtdesign.bc.ca
www.farrdesign.com
www.vgyd.com
www.sparkmanstephens.com

Small projects (Kayak, Canoe, etc..) :
www.clcboats.com
www.glen-l.com / www.boatdesigns.com/Boat-Plans-Kits-Catalog/departments/2/
www.devlinboat.com
www.bearmountainboats.com/kits/
www.pygmyboats.com
www.shearwater-boats.com
www.bateau.com
www.tadroberts.ca
www.boatplans.dk
www.georgebuehler.com
www.bearmountainboats.com
www.northwestcanoe.com


I'd love to to a table with Plan / Kit / Wood / Steel / Alu / Fiberglass / Country , but I'm not sure we can add table to the forum.

 

[PAR]

I'm not really sure what you're looking for Fmaz, but Bruce Roberts and Glen-L are quite different. Glen-L is a "plans house" where they sell designs from several designers (many now dead, though a few still kicking). They just reproduce plans and sell them. These plans tend to be a bit dated, but are still quite valid, particularly if interested in a particular style, no longer available.

Bruce Roberts is a designer and though he's designed quite a few yachts over the years and sold the rights to all of his early designs, back around 1995. His business practices since have been less than scrupulous, as he attempts to scratch back the business he once had and sold off.

As to other "plans house" well there are a few, but a complete list of the offerings of plans houses, designers and NA's in the country would be extensive and I'm not so sure necessary. Your list is quite incomplete, not even having several of the well establish designers and NA's on this forum, let alone nationally.

Lastly, adding the redundancy of sub-categories for aluminum, wood steel, etc. doesn't seem reasonable either, as most designers offer plans in all (or most) materials. National listings does seem logical, though with data transfer and upload capabilities being what they are, maybe less as important as it once was.

 

[fmaz]

I'm not really sure what you're looking for Fmaz

Let me rephrase to:
I'm looking for names of some of the well-established companies that offer good quality designs and plans for a Motorized Yacht ?

 

[FMS]

http://www.boatdesign.net/Directory/Designers/
http://www.boatdesign.net/Directory/Boat_Plans/
http://www.woodenboat.com/boat-plans-kits
http://www.woodenboat.com/powerboats-offshore
http://www.boat-links.com/linklists/boatlink-16.html#plans
http://www.boat-links.com/linklists/boatlink-17.html#plans

 

[fmaz]

Thank you !

 

[JSL]

Quite a few of the 'sailboat' designers listed (re FMAZ) also do powerboats/motor yachts.. & vice versa