New Member gearing up to build my first sailboat

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

At that time, I couldn't tell a ketch from a stick in the ground.

A stick is much cheaper...

[Don C L]

Be sure to get all materials, tools and space to work ready first. Then rally a couple friends to help you. Do this before you start anything. If you don't have everything ready before you start, you risk getting bogged down, and then it is easy to lose momentum. And the comment about it being twice as much time and money as you think is right. I once had a sailing club for kids and we received a donation of a Wharram cat (hulls only) and they were in good shape. I never got it close to finished because I did not have the amount of space, time and tools and materials, and help, needed to power through to the end.

[MicHughV]

Yep, anyone building a wood/fiberglass/foam boat will have to find or build a shed to build it in.
So right off the top, you will have a large expenditure before you've laid the first plank.
The weather will not be your friend either. It can get cold, wet, windy, etc, all of which adds to time delays and so on.
You may have to drive a long distance from your home to your build site.
You may have to drive a long distance to get supplies and parts.
All these things will suck on your wallet in a big way.

If you hold down a job, your work on boat time will be limited to nights and weekends.

Etc, etc, etc...

[MicHughV]

And not to mention. Building your own boat is a marriage buster. Out of the dozen or so home builders I got to know, maybe one or two marriages survived the ordeal. Not good odds.

[carlosproa]

OK so nothing wrong with building a trimaran if you keep it to that particular length should be fine.

I have built and rebuilt several boats over my life, but I am very methodical and laser focus with my time, and a very understanding wife.
Don’t let others tell you to quit your job, etc. I have always held VP positions for Latin America and USA and could have just purchased new right if the bat, but as an engineer building is in my veins.

A trimaran does not require that much space until the end.
Advice:
Your shed should be walking distance from your home, if possible your home should be used so you take advantage of weekends and nights
Don’t overestimate the effects of chemicals in your body, epoxy n and SS to be treated with respect.
Get tools to reduce your workload time. A hand router works wonders and a good orbital sander is worth it.
Be patient when laying fiberglass, any kink or ripple will set you back. Use peel ply as much as possible, it will save you lots of time in unnecessary sanding.
If you have kids, once in a while get them involved, they will slow you down a lot.
Be neat and clean after yourself, your wife will thank you and you will keep the peace. Get her involved in the live ability aspects of the boat: head, cushions, color schemes; Isa better if she imprint part of her into this project.
Develop a timeline for each section of the build. You do not have to buy everything at once, but if you can buying bulk will save you money.
Enjoy your build. I am assuming you have the skills. If you are unsure then build one of the outriggers and see how it feels. You can always quietly quit if it does not feel right and you have not invested too much into it. You can built this in your garage

[MicHughV]

I got to know two guys building tri's.
One was a Piver 36, and the other, I believe a Cross 34. Not sure if I have those numbers right, but both of them were at it for the better party of 3 years or more.
The Piver was built as a hard chine plywood boat, the Cross was strip planked.
Either way, it was a big undertaking. Both were built in homemade sheds. Both lived in a travel trailer next to the boat. Both of them were constantly covered in glue and sawdust.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by carlosproa

OK so nothing wrong with building a trimaran if you keep it to that particular length should be fine.

I have built and rebuilt several boats over my life, but I am very methodical and laser focus with my time, and a very understanding wife.
Don’t let others tell you to quit your job, etc. I have always held VP positions for Latin America and USA and could have just purchased new right if the bat, but as an engineer building is in my veins.

A trimaran does not require that much space until the end.
Advice:
Your shed should be walking distance from your home, if possible your home should be used so you take advantage of weekends and nights
Don’t overestimate the effects of chemicals in your body, epoxy n and SS to be treated with respect.
Get tools to reduce your workload time. A hand router works wonders and a good orbital sander is worth it.
Be patient when laying fiberglass, any kink or ripple will set you back. Use peel ply as much as possible, it will save you lots of time in unnecessary sanding.
If you have kids, once in a while get them involved, they will slow you down a lot.
Be neat and clean after yourself, your wife will thank you and you will keep the peace. Get her involved in the live ability aspects of the boat: head, cushions, color schemes; Isa better if she imprint part of her into this project.
Develop a timeline for each section of the build. You do not have to buy everything at once, but if you can buying bulk will save you money.
Enjoy your build. I am assuming you have the skills. If you are unsure then build one of the outriggers and see how it feels. You can always quietly quit if it does not feel right and you have not invested too much into it. You can built this in your garage

All very good advice

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

And not to mention. Building your own boat is a marriage buster. Out of the dozen or so home builders I got to know, maybe one or two marriages survived the ordeal. Not good odds.

Absolutely. The wife can rarely put such focus onto a project and see it through. They feel neglected. Like they could go to Greece or Bali or buy fancy new Mercedes cars and clothing, jewelry and whatnot with the boat project money.

That’s not gender specific either. I’d say a married gay couple of guys would probably have the same odds of the relationship failing.

Most people prefer to live and enjoy life, not to pour their money, time and attention into a project.

When the spouse signs up to be with you, they aren’t expecting the kind of life boatbuilding makes. So it often fails.

Broke up my marriage and also recent relationship.

[MicHughV]

A good friend of mine has been building a trimaran that he designed himself. He is an avowed multihuller. He has been at it for more years than I can remember. He had built a Piver tri before this. This one is around 24' in lenght and is meant to be trailerable.

I've attached some pics. Could not say, how much time and money has been sunk into this project, but it is likely considerable.

It's not in the water yet, but hopefully soon.

Trust this will whet your appetite.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

A good friend of mine has been building a trimaran that he designed himself. He is an avowed multihuller. He has been at it for more years than I can remember. He had built a Piver tri before this. This one is around 24' in lenght and is meant to be trailerable.

I've attached some pics. Could not say, how much time and money has been sunk into this project, but it is likely considerable.

It's not in the water yet, but hopefully soon.

Trust this will whet your appetite.

Is it just me or are those portholes upside-down.

[MicHughV]

I think it's you...the drain spigots are clearly seen on the bottom of the portholes..

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

A good friend of mine has been building a trimaran that he designed himself. He is an avowed multihuller. He has been at it for more years than I can remember. He had built a Piver tri before this. This one is around 24' in lenght and is meant to be trailerable.

I've attached some pics. Could not say, how much time and money has been sunk into this project, but it is likely considerable.

It's not in the water yet, but hopefully soon.

Trust this will whet your appetite.

look at that boat shed! Wow. And also he’s doing a fine job. The finish work looks great.

he didn’t have to hire people who ruined everything. I found more stuff ruined on my boat today. My helper put on some new deck paint in one corner and didn’t even mask it. Just rolled it right over the edge onto the regular top side paint. They are different colors.

Basically my boat is currently looking like a derelict.

for every item they got finished, I have items to fix. I don’t know if I got ahead. I didn’t really. I ended up in the same place. The only good thing is I got done things that I couldn’t do that were related to epoxy work. Otherwise, several steps back.

[MicHughV]

Ha, I remember him when he was building the Piver 36.

But in a homemade wood and plastic shed, and the roof leaked everywhere.
He ended up cutting the tops off 1 liter plastic coke bottles and stapling these to the underneath side of the roof at each leak location....of which there were many.....50-100... ??? I didn't count, but there were many. Water collecting in the coke bottles would usually evaporate before the next rain event. The inside of the roof looked like it had the pox.
His Piver was originally powered by a 15 hp Honda outboard inside a cockpit seat well, but it wasn't an optimum situation, and the Honda eventually got replaced with a diesel.
Isn't building your own boat so much fun.........

[Adelie]

Welcome to CF!

[valhalla360]

I've built a couple of stitch and glue dinghies and a friend built a beautiful 42ft monohull.

If you enjoy the process of building boats, go for it. It will still cost a lot of money and the boat will likely have negligible resale value but that's typical of a lot of hobbies.

If you want a boat to use and sail, buy a boat. It will likely be cheaper and you actually get out on the water.

If you are unsure, I would suggest building a 10ft dinghy first to see how you enjoy the process.

PS: Keep in mind, the cost and time to build the hull are maybe 20-25%. It's all the expensive fiddly bits where you get bogged down with time and money. I believe this is why a lot of home built boats look "homebuilt" (aka: look like junk). Eventually people who aren't in it for the build process start cutting corners to move on and it shows.