Yep I used to think that way as well. If only looking at material cost I would have ...


It looked promising for a while when I was building my own boat, then I had to fit it out: cleats, blocks, boards, stainless steel hardware etc. All small costs in themselfs but overall quite a big portion. Not to forget that you can't build yourself the required moulds (hulls and boards) in addition to the boat and stay under 10K USD. Bill is lucky that he can pay only a small portion of the mould costs as the he has access to moulds that are used buy many other builders. In addition you need vacuum pumps, tubes and disposable items like bleeding cloth etc. All adding themselfs to the cost of a single A-cat unless you already have all those items or are sharing them with other homebuilders. Either way the costs are added to the building of the boat or you are rewriting those costs to other projects.

Mast fittings ! WOW ! Either you have to make them out of stainless steel yourself (requires professional grade tooling) or you can expect to pay alot for literally a handful of parts.

I can honestly say that I could not build a fully fitted F16 (with alu components) for less then 11.500 Euro's (14000 US$). And my mast was only 880 Euro's including taxes and shipping. My beams fully fitted were about 150 Euro's, my boom and spi pole were only 74 Euro's combined. Try to get these components in carbon or better still try to make these components out of carbon yourself. Each will require their own moulds or mandrils which will cost as well. Then you'll need to teach yourself proper technique (test pieces). I've ran the numbers back then and I could not build a F16 a la A-cat (= no other sails then mainsail and carbon mast beams) for less then 11.000 Euro's. So I opted to ditch the carbon stuff for the aluminium and spend the cost savings for F16 specific parts like the spinnaker setup and jib.

In addition; the hulls of my boat were build using the deck jig of a friend so the quoted final price doesn't include the full cost of that.

Naturally you can make things in a really inexpensive way if you have all the required facilities and tooling already (due to other projects or work). Hell, I'm sure Phill Brander can build himself a Blade F16 for the smallest amount of investment (material costs) but that is because he has made all the other costs in earlier projects already.

But this is a long way from be able to say that "One can build an Blade F16 for the same minimal investment"

Now, I'm not saying that Bill DIDN'T build his for 10K or less, just that there is more to that achievement then he is giving away. He sure as hell was able to cut down on costs by sharing moulds and other stuff. It is impossible to do it without these cost savings.

Wouter