The radio silence on this blog recently is mainly due to a new development that has manifested itself (along with the usual work whackiness getting in the way of things). I still have yet to send off my plans to the Aluminum guys (something I hope to do this week) to get an estimate but I have a sinking feeling that it’s going to be very expensive as in well north of the $100k range. If that’s the case I’ve been recently looking into a bit more radical of an option. I’ll go into details a bit more later on but suffice to say that it’s buying a used/antique hull from Denmark and having it shipped over here. Sounds like it would be expensive but it could very well be cheaper than having a new hull built. Again I’ll post more details in a few days and possibly some photos and graphs showing cost comparison but in either case it’s very exciting.
Here is a summary of the plans essentially:
Plan A: New Aluminum Hull
- Pro: New Aluminum hull built from my plans.
- Pro: Aluminum doesn’t rust.
- Pro: The hull is basically ready to go and needs an engine etc to get it moving to a location I can complete it at (most likely Midland)
- Con: Is VERY expensive to build initially
- Con: Smaller than what I could get for less money with a used empty hull from Denmark
Plan B: Old Hull from Denmark
- Pro: The hull is very cheap and in good condition (under $30k CND)
- Pro: The hull is VERY big (nearly the same width as my plan, 10 feet longer)
- Pro: Lots of character in the hull itself (My designed one is designed a bit boring intentionally to save on money)
- Con: The hull is steel and old (114 years old in fact) so it may not be suitable for transportation
- Con: It’s in Denmark without an engine or running lights so I’d have to trust people I’ve never met to do work on it and get it to the ship on time to ship here.
- Con: In addition to the hull base cost when I have to factor in shipping costs, and repainting costs to make a comparison between the 2 plans.
- Pro: Regardless of the additional costs this plan could end up being significantly cheaper and end up with a larger space than Plan A (Significantly cheaper in the order of several 10’s of thousands of dollars).
Anyways once I find more out and price etc I’ll have a better idea of which to go with.