WB class project

[scepticus]

I just spent 3 weeks at WBS and, as last year, I had a blast.

In our 2 week building class "Building the Core Sound Sailing Skiff" we had a top notch class of 8 students all with real woodworking skills and some knowlege of boats. Our instructor, Walt Ansel of Mystic Seaport was fantastic.

In 2 weeks, the 9 of us turned a pile of lumber into a boat sufficiently finished to launch.

Pictures can be found at
( http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289457923 )
Core Sound Skiff (http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289457923)

The boat is a bit over 18 feet in length and about 5 feet across the beam. A work boat with a very flat bottom and very shallow draft (CB up probably about 2-3") The design is from the outer banks of NC and apparently hasn't been built in about 100 years. The plans were obtained from the maritime museum in Beaufort, NC.

This class got me to wondering... Our crew of reasonably skilled workers put in around 800 man hours of labor to produce this boat. Everyone was impressed with the quality of workmanship and materials. It got a coat of bottom paint, primer above the water line and still needed some finish work inside. The plan was for an oiled (not varnished) finish. How much would such a boat cost if one were to try to buy it?

[Garrett Lowell]

Great looking boat, and great job! I have no idea on the cost, though.

[Chadd Hamilton]

Good for you. That looks like a very nice time up there in the shop.

[Bob Cleek]

There's probably a reason why the boat hasn't been built in the last hundred years. LOL You do the math. What's a decent woodbutcher's time worth? Let's say you're building her on a production basis, even, and not in a school environment. Let's say skilled labor can build it in 500 hours. You have to pay the boatbuilders maybe $25 an hour (if you are a cheapskate) and another $25 an hour for benefits, taxes and worker's comp insurance, and then you have at least that much again in overhead for the shop and tools, plus the costs of materials, advertising, marketing and profit, which runs another 25%. Figure the "cost of production" might run you $100 an hour. That makes her a $50,000 boat. Not many would pay that for an 18 footer, would they? I'd figure the boat you describe, fully found, would be hard to sell new for more than six or eight grand.

[Don Olney]

Nice looking boat. What are "Typar" sails? I hope they're not a trend.

[scepticus]

Bob: Your estimates are a bit bigger than mine were but that's the sort of stuff that really got me thinking. This wasn't a particularly difficult boat to build, but it did seem really costly in man-hours. Makes me wonder how anybody can make and sell traditional (or anything close) wooden boats at a profit.

Don: Typar is a variant of Tyvek. That house wrap stuff. It was what we could manage in an afternoon. One of the students used to work for a sailmaker and he said "get me some tyvek and carpet tape and I'll make us some sails." We sent a guy out for the stuff and that's what he came back with. We considered a blue poly tarp but the folks at WB begged us to find something else. :)

[Venchka]

When I was shopping around for a builder, I got two kinds of estimates. Low hours and high hourly rates. Realistic hours and realistic hourly rates. The range varied quite a bit. Interestingly enough, the highest estimate had the fewest hours and the highest hourly rate. And then there are change orders during construction which add to the price of the boat.

Here is a picture of my boat after 450-500 hours. Not shown is the time for lofting, spars, oars, centerboard, molds, patterns, etc. and my phone calls bothering the builder which are included in the hours spent to that date. This is also about the time we went past the original estimate of 500 hours.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid71/p0cc03c3d2177cb1df6f2d1931f96449a/fb984f9e.jpg

[Concordia..41]

I saw you guys out on the "test sail" and took some pictures of the boat when it was sitting on the ramp. :D

Didn't want to pull on the sail so the picture's not the best, but the duct tape work reinforcing the grommet on {was it) the clew was cool. I got kindof a picture of it folded up under the boom :D

I told Dave not to get any ideas. He's not allowed duct tape (except for the roll he doesn't know I know he has hid under the truck seat). We decided your boat should be nominated for "Best Use of Materials at Hand."

Cheers!

[Steve Lansdowne]

Your question may be moot. The amount one would have to charge to build the boat might well be so high that nobody would pay that for such a boat. Thus, what one would have to charge would keep the boat from being built. Luckily there are folks who enjoy this as a hobby and can keep tradition alive.