would like your opinion please
for a long time now i have wanted to start an '' official'' boat building bussiness insted of just building for myself and friends which i have done since the early '70s. i want to build from the best marine woods covered with exotic vaneeres [you would be amazed at the variaty of graining and colors] and top grade hardware. they would be sealed in and out with deep penatrating epoxy and clear fiberglass and varnish on the outside. they would be hi-performance vee bottems something like the old hydrostream vectors. they would be light weight [i think i can build a 16' at around 300lbs] and yet built tough using hydroplane style framing. the concept is this. build fast lightweight boats that get great performance from smaller outboards [gas prices and all] with massive wow factor aperance for the commen market. my question is this. do you think the performance boating comunity would support such a bussiness and would concider purchesing such a boat or would my time be better spent relearning to spell.
thanks for your opinion
david harrell
yellowlacket= thanks very much
thanks for your input. great stuff and i agree with all of it. have made a first serious drawing [old school style] to scale but will be making a larger one for accuracy before putting to wood. would like to try cad. thanks for the recomend. have done a material takeoff that i think is pretty close. i'll admit the weight is a guess based on other hulls iv'e built and some guesstamating on the extra stuff. i've crunched the numbers and unless i screwed up it looks like i should be able to offer them with trailer and a cover for around $1000 per foot give or take depending on size. i hope to offer a 14', 16', and 18' i've given the legal and safty issues a lot of thought too. the plan is test with differant size motors to find max safe speed for the hull and dial back the hp rating a bit from there. not looking to beat the stv's and such. also plan to give explisit max speed ratings for each hull. you go past there and your on your own. point blank. on another note i also plan to have no two boats look alike. i think that would be fun.
thanks again for your input.
david harrell
One More Thing to check into..................
Coast Guard reguirements regards both the boat and you if you are not aware of it (or your LLC, and in this litigous society I would not market a boat without having one, especially a high-performance type).. Some years ago (70's) I built a few Hydro's for sale and was surprised to find out that even with that limited amount of production, I had to meet certain CG regs regards being considered a mfgr of boats. Not a lot of trouble, but worth checking into as there are probably more regs now, and if one of your customers has a problem on the water, no matter how small and Water Patrol or similar is involved, expect them at your door shortly.