would like your opinion please

[david harrell]

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

[russhill]

Sponds like you've really got some good product ideas. BUT---What's your business background? What is your marketing plan, including your market research? How is your financing?

Product represents about 1/4 of the business. The other stuff is 3/4

[stupidbaker57]

I have almost finished building my second Glen L boat called the Pee Wee. It's an 8 foot runabout mostly for kids to use with an outboard motor under 10 hp. The first one was for my grandson and it cost around $250 with fiberglassing, paint and varnish.
I'm building the second one to sell in unfinshed (no paint) condition. Cost to build to that point for me is just short of $100. I will be asking $250. It takes me 40 hours or so to build.
When it sells, I'll post my results of the sale.

[david harrell]

well the bussness plan is to keep it simple simple simple. don't wan't to get to a point where i have to sell large numbers of boat's just to stay afloat [pun intended] unless demand called for it. talking with a bussness planer already. their crazy about cluttering things up. give me a good accoutent and a good legal and i'll do the rest. ran construction crews for decades. was a sub-contractor untill the industry colapst. always had more work than i could handle due to my work ethic and anal retentive quality standerds. many of my costumers said they woulden't go with anyone else. this is part of my market reserch along with being around performance all my lifeand keeping an eye on boating sales figures witch is back on the rise. marketing will be websites like this. boat showes of witch there are a ton around in the southeast. word of mouth has always worked very well for me in the past and my boats have always drawn a lot of interest wherever they go.and these will be the best looking so far by a long shot. funding is my biggest issue

[david harrell]

you just gave me a flashback to '75 when my buddy and i built a pee wee in his living room. his mom was nun to happy about that. lol if i rember right aren't those less than 8 foot. like 7'. totaly agree with the line at the end of your post

[david harrell]

come on guys. 70 plus views and only two chimed in. don't worry you won't hurt my feelings.

[Yellowjacket]

Lots of things to figure out here and lots of ways to look at it.

It sounds like you have a design in your head, but not on paper (or electrons) yet. Probably worth your time and effort to draw or CAD model what you want to build first. Then you can figure the material costs and estimate the time to build.

Your expenses are more than just time and materials. You're going to have to take this to boat shows and advertise as well as build a web presence. Then also there is going to be product liability insurance, which could easily be the killer. This is a light fast boat and if it is mishandled it's going to dump the driver in a heartbeat. That might make geting insurance a bit tougher. I'm amazed sometimes at what gets sold in terms of speed and performance in bass boats. If I was selling something like that or insuring it be terrified somebody will get killed and then sue because the boat was shown to be unstable. Racers don't hold builders responsible if a boat blows over, the public does. What ever rating you put on it in terms of motor you're going to have to defend in court.

You should be able to charge more for you boat than a glass boat popped out of a mold, but it's going to cost you more to make it due to the higher labor content.

The boat you want to do is very attractive (I'd probably buy one and think it was really neat) and I think it makes a lot of sense, but your market is somewhat limited because it's going to be a high maintenance boat. Lots of buyers want a fun boat that is zero maintenance and this probably isn't going to be that at all. I know there's a lot less maintenance than with old fashioned wood boats, but still, there's wood in there and if it doesn't stay dry it's going to be a mess. Also, the construction you are doing may not be as light as you think. The public will beat the heck out of a boat and if you don't make it strong it will just fall apart. Racers run stuff hard, but they understand the machinery and don't usually beat it up. Lake racers put more wear and tear on a boat in a weekend than a racer would in a year. Not that you can't make it work, but just say'n it's gotta be tough too...

On the plus side the total rig, in terms of mph/$ is going to be pretty good. You might have a bit more in boat cost than a similar size glass boat, but a smaller motor is going to cost a whole bunch less and, when you add in the cost of gas it looks pretty darn attractive.

So, all said, it could work, but there are a lot of things that have to be addressed, and overall it isn't going to be easy.

Where I'd start is get Jim Russels' design program and work out the design of the bottom first. After you spec the bottom you need to then make a CAD model of the boat you want to build. From the CAD model you will be able to accurately calc weights and material costs and work on styling the topsides (it's gotta look sexy or it isn't going to sell either). Actually not a bad time to get started, you can build a mule this year and test it enough to get it all figured out. Then over the winter you can build a prototype and show boat and start taking orders next year.

Long post and lots of rambing thougths, but you asked for it.

[david harrell]

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

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

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.

[david harrell]

good point. i'll have to update my knowlage of the cg reg's and work them in. i'm chomping at the bit to start building but the way things are rolling it will probibly be next year bofore i get to make dust so there time to iron out details. in the meantime my garage empty if anyone has any ideas [hint hint].