Mark's Wooden Boat Builds

Before a man builds a house, he counts the cost…

TIME
My best guess from other people’s experience is that this is about a 1500 man-hour job.  You can see why wooden boats are so expensive – it’s as much in the labor as the materials! That’s 300 man-hours per year, 6 man-hours per week, 1 man-hour per day to get it done in 5 years (4 years 11 months ).  With some helpers along the way, that is plausible for me, but I’ll need some gentle reminders along the way to keep moving.

MONEY
The rule of thumb is $1000 per foot in material costs.  Assuming I can salvage the engine and other fittings and reclaim some of the lumber from a boat I recently salvaged, it *shouldn’t* cost that much, even with building/buying a trailer.  My guess is $15k, but up to $23k would fit within that rule-of-thumb.

Then there is the cost of a lift or storage.  The boat could be stored on the trailer in a tent beside the garage, for example, or on a slip down at the lake, or at a marina or wherever.  I don’t have any idea about these costs, but they are real.

I’ll need a new car in the next few years…would likely get a truck with towing in mind.

Insurance, winter storage, etc….

RISKS
Certainly, there is a risk that I’ll not have the time and the timeline would be hosed.   I’d compensate with frequent communication with my buddies, and maybe some big work weekends where I call several people together to work and get dozens of man-hours in at a time.

There is a risk that I’ll do something horrible and ruin the thing before it is complete.  They say, ‘if you can build fine furniture, you can build a boat like this…’  I think this risk is minimal.  I’d compensate with careful planning and non-rushed building.

There is a risk that my job will change and I’ll will have to move somewhere….the woodshop in general would be a consideration in any move.  Minimal risk.  I’ll leave that to Jesus.

There is a risk that the engine won’t work.  I could likely stay within the high end of the budget even if it doesn’t.  It could be overhauled, or a used engine purchased.  Somewhere in the 2nd year, I’d have my friend try to get it started and make a recommendation.

There is the risk that we’d become insolvent.  We’ll also leave that to Jesus.

MY FIRST STEPS
* Build a ramp into the shop (so we can get the thing out!) and clear space for a 23′ monstrosity in the shop.
* Move the in-progress sailboat to another home so it can I can continue moving forward on it between steps on the ‘big boat’
* Work on processing the mahogany from the old boat and taking careful inventory of available gear