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Old 10-09-2013, 02:29 PM   #198
Tad Roberts
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City: Flattop Islands
Vessel Name: Blackfish
Vessel Model: custom
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brian eiland View Post
Might ask where you got that figure from Tad?
30 years of designing and getting boats actually built.

Quote:
It seems to me if that's correct, and if labor cost represent approx. 50% of the cost, then most all 40 footers are going to have to sell for $500k. And the Great Harbors are selling too cheap since they weight considerable more for their length.
The Great Harbour numbers do not make sense. Both N37 models are listed at 48000 pounds, yet one clearly has far more interior and costs $100k more than the other. Those boats (N37) carry 7000 pounds of liquids, are those included in the displacement? Unless you know what the light ship weight is you cannot say what the cost per pound is.

Quote:
Found this costing discussion over on Jay Benford's site:
Custom Yachts At Stock Boat Prices? - Articles - Benford Design Group
I have great respect for Jay but this is a bit optimistic. Yes, NC cut parts can speed up a build, but that NC work takes a great deal of time (which is fine if you are doing multiples of the same boat) just like mold building. And the NC parts are only a portion of any complete boat. Actually a good builder of high-end yachts, say Lyman Morse for instance, will produce 3-3.5 pounds of complete boat per hour. Those are custom, one-off builds in composites to the highest standards. A very simple boat from an experienced builder might be at 4-4.5 pounds per hour, but this is rare. I've seen very complex projects down at 3/4 of a pound per man hour.


Quote:
At his 8 to 15 lbs per man-hr we get 2500 to 1333 man-hrs of labor for the 20,000 lb boat.

I just don't know that I trust any of these 'general cost figures'. I'll try to start rounding up some more specific figures later this year when a few more details are sorted out.
There is no way anyone can build a complete 20,000 pound boat to a reasonable standard in 1300 hours. That's just not possible. My 20' open motorsailer took 1300 man hours to build. A plywood 16' sport fishermen of my design took 1000+ man hours last year. But it was beautifully built.

If you had 20,000 pounds of steel NC cut you could tack it together and do some (not all) of the finish multipass welding in 1300 hours. But that is not even close to a completed vessel.

Reality is it will take 500 man hours to build every ton (short or metric) of finished boat. Those who ignore this concept are no longer in business. Realize that typically builders of production boats take a loss on the first 10 hulls, to build market share and momentum, after that they start to break even. This is why most of the current survivors are building 100+ of the same model, only with those high production numbers do they start to make money. And those boats are still priced at $25 USD a pound.
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