This is my response to a recent email inquiry as to why don’t I design boats in the 30′ - 38′ range.

The difference between a 34′ cat and a 40′ cat at sea is considerable. The 40′ boat is faster and more sea-kindly. The proviso is that the only thing that alters is the length, everything else remains unaltered. This means the rig is the same, the engine/s remain the same, the accommodation and displacement remain the same.

The increase in build cost and build time is negligible. The only ongoing cost increase are marina fees. If you look at the specifications ie. volume, accommodation, rig size, engines etc of my 44′ cat, you will see it is comparable to everyone else’s 36′ boat and it costs about the same to build.

I am starting a 39′ cat for an experienced couple who have a 40′ marina berth. This boat has about the volume, accommodation rig etc of a 32′ cat.

I don’t suggest my boats are cheaper to build, ‘I know they are’. I have had owner builders of mine go and work on other designers’ boats and every one of them have come back to me and said they wouldn’t build anyone else’s design simply because of the extra time involved in doing just basic stuff.

My boats tend to be cheaper because we simply ‘build’ less boat, eg. we have no floors in the hulls (you walk on the heavily reinforced and flat keel panel) - that saves about $1000 in materials and days and days in labour. We don’t build nose cones/stems off the boat then retro fit them to the boat, again hundreds of dollars and days in labour. I don’t see the sense in router-cut furniture packages that costs thousands and you wind up with thousands of dollars of materials in offcuts/wastage. There enough offcuts from the shell kit to do the fit-out from. There are just too many ways we save time and money to explain here.

With new 39C I have also made provision in the overall displacement for the use of some plywood in the fit-out and structure if the budget is very keen.

Regarding demountable boats: The trouble with demountable boats is precisely that, they’re demountable. If you have $50 to $100 k tied up in boat then the only way to justify it it is to use it. Spending hours assembling then disassembling a 30′ sailing cat 4/5 times a year is very hard work and there isn’t actually many people who would do it on a regular basis. Most Seawind 24’s, G.B.E.’S, International 23’s are rarely demounted. Having assembled Seawind 24 and a 32′ sailing cat of my own I know how much heavy work is involved. For smaller boats I think the trailerable tri is probably the way to go.

Hope this helps.
Regards
Bob