Help is needed refining Erics' uneducated guess (other than the hulls).
A good rule of thumb is that you will not save much money on a homebuild boat. You will save some, but not more than 20 %, probably only 10 to 15 %. Note that for these savings you'll have your boat 2 years later than just buying one, because .. you have to build it yourself !
The choice for homebuilding should be made on the following considerations.
-1- The thrill of sailing a product you have build yourself. Especially if it only weights 110 kg, makes a long nose to the big builders.
-2- The superior characteristics of ply-epoxy hull construction. Dents are a thing of the past and when done right the hulls are stiffer than glass/foam.
-3- The ability to fully adjust the layout and design to your personal preference.
-4- The ability to choose yourself which parts are used. I found that parts of different brands are good at specific usages. A builder will normally order all from few sources. As a homebuilder you can pick the best from a wide range of supplier.
A good rule of thumb would take a new price and deduct 15%-20% and then you have a good minimum investment estimate.
Blade F16 => 11.800 * 0.85 = 10.000 USD spend before the boat is fully build up as a doublehander F16
Talk to Vectorworks Marine, they have a big batch of masts. I payed 800 Euro's for a superwing mast including European taxes (about 22 %) and shipping it over from Australia.
Is there an option to the superwing?
Absolutely but don't expect to save much money if anything at all. The Superwing is very inexpensively priced. Options are Stealth Marine carbon mast or one made by Saarberg. The last is working on a doublehander carbon mast for the Blade F16. Of course you can also order a customized singlehander carbon mast.
If really pressed you could also consider a cut down Nacra F18 mast. These are the most flexible in the F18 class next to the Capricorn F18 and thus you won't end up with a telegraph pole when you shorten it. Still I woulnd place these options at the bottom of the list. The superwing masts and the custom F16 carbon masts will complete your F16 much much better. Halve of the excellent behaviour of the F16's comes from the well designed rigs.
Another question is using recycled mast extrusions for the cross beams.
When faced with such an option I would take it. We have a Homebuild Taipan F16 in NL now that sails with a mainbeam made of a broken Nacra F18 mast. This appears to be a good modification. The boat is stiffer than my Taipan F16 which uses the superwing section as the mainbeam and it is also more streamlined than a round section. The last is good when crashing through a wave. Having said this, a round section can be set into the hull and faired properly as well thus resulting in good "wave-crashing" behaviour.
As long as you are using a dolphin striker setup, these beams will be strong enough by far. Only design criterium left is the stiffness of the mainbeam setup. If you can get a Tiger mast then you will have one of the best mainbeam setups. Ohh, before I forget Vectorworks has a good mastsection for the mainbeam as well. It is more rounded, it comes of a monohull design. This extrusion is also variable in the wallthickness. It is thicker in its wall on the sides of teh section (top and bottom of the beam) and thinner everywhere else. This is exactly what you want in a beam. Thin sides and thicker top and bottom.
I know Phill has stated your off-the-shelf 6061-T6 AL tubing is most cost effective.
From a weight to stiffness it is. However its advantage over other profiles is not to large anyway. Most beams will be 3 to 4 kg per beam. Differences between different beams profiles is often only 0.5 to 1 kg = at max 1 to 2 kg overall. But making all Blades the same will enhance the attractiveness of the Blade design.
I assume you are considering the Blade design ? Correct.
I can see potential of a cleaner look with the extrusion. Is there a substantiated structural advantage?
Not really.
Wouter
