But most of this can be done ahead of time, pre-planned and only has to be done once. This project if someone did it would have to be for a group of boats, so the tooling purchase cost could be shared. Prototype sails and tramps will always cost a little more but subsiquent products should be cheaper and quick to produce.

BCC said $2000.00 for the lot

Boyer sold the a-class moulds for about $500 from memory.

$2000 is a complete rip off.

Predictable.

you could always hang out at the local tip until they turn up.

what they and what they get will be poles apart.

Offer to buy 3 sets of masts, beams and rudder stocks off them on the condition they throw in the moulds. I bet they'd bite.

$2000 seems like a hell of a lot for something that they're probably going to have to cut up and pay to get rid of if they can't find a buyer.

When Zygal stopped building the Condor and just before it was taken up by Sharp Catamarans, I could have had the moulds and the rights for £1. That's the sort of deal that's on the table when a design reaches the end of it's life.

BCC should be open to any offers really. Try Scarecow's approach as you're going to need those items anyway, but I'd still expect a discount for buying in bulk!

Are anybody actually sniffing at a project like this, or are we all just getting carried away?


John, just noticed you now have two stealths in your signature. Building a family fleet?

Well, sort of, Rolf.
When Paul and I got to this year's GC one of the local F16s was for sale and I bought it and sailed it for the event with Paul sailing 527.

Now I've decided that 527 becomes our 'spare' F16 and will be sailed by Paul (22 yrs) or youngest son Robert (15 yrs). So far Rob has been out 3-4 times and handles it well. Last time out at our club he beat me and finished 2nd OA with me 3rd (Winner on h'cap was a Dart 15)

F16 - So good that one is not enough

Guys my guess there is probably somewhere between 75 - 100 man hours to get all the mouldings, glue everything together, put on the fittings, drill and tap the beams and bolts, lace the tramp, sort out the rope lengths, basically get to a stage of a floating hull. I reckon there is another 75 - 100 hours in sorting the boat out, fitting out trailers and boxes, building and doing final fit outs. If those hours were done by a company such as Nacra doing tasks on a repetitive basis then those times come down quickly. My guess for the average guy though on top of those hours mentioned I bet there is an equal amount of time travelling to and from the workshop, chatting and drinking beer on the exciting thought of building an out of date boat which will have cost more than a second hand true F16. Sorry just being realistic here.

150-200 hours to go from the mould to a boat on the trailer, ready to sail. That is about the same as a plywood boat. Sounds a bit high, does it not? 3.75 to 5 weeks if you work at it full time.

How many hours does it take to make the mouldings and glue the shell together with bulkheads, decks etc?

I assume those doing a production run from moulds are experienced enough to know how they want to equip and rig the boats.

Doing the actual build is only a part of the equation, its all the peripheral stuff like driving and fetching materials, getting to the workshop, redesigning a part that is not up to your standard or requirements.

The list of " other " jobs which most people forget to add into the equation because in a factory a dedicated worker would be tasked with these jobs, has to be solved by the builder. It takes a lot of time guys and for anyone planning on building a boat, you should consider before starting. Farrier openly states that buying a used boat is preferable to building as at least you get to go sailing.

Sure, I agree on that. You learn a lot from the first couple of projects But what we might agree on is that time spent is highly dependent on skills and experience?

Its also important to remember that on a multi boat project (the only reason I can see someone doing this) much of this peripheral time can be split between the boats, ie most jobs only have to be done once.

150-200 is miles over for a moulded boat.