Glen-L.com

Ok, this may have been brought up before but.... I'm aware that when it comes to workshops, sheds and gun safes bigger is definitely better but when your dealing with what you have, what size is too small when compaired to the boat you want to build. In other words, what clearances around the build do you find necessary for a successful build. Who has built in a small area and regretted it and wished that they had either built a smaller boat or built in a larger area?

I'm in love with the Biscayne 18 which I would stretch to 19' if possible but would be building in my garage which measures 19'3" x 10' with a low say 6'6" ceiling (all my woodworking tools are next to the garage in the basement). I guess if it's better to change the size of the boat, I'd consider going to a Malahini but.... I'm a pretty big guy (6' 300+) and I'm concerned with going too small for fear that it'll look as though I've mounted an outboard on a trash can lid.

I've thought of building in the back yard either on a platform or even building an oversized shed (which I would cut down to size afterward to a more manageable size) or blowing out the back wall of the garage so as to extend it 10' into the basement but that would require getting an engineer and construction company to install a new I beam and lally column. Currently the I beam rests on the foundation wall on one side of the house and the inner corner of the garage wall on the other. The last option would have the added benefit of providing me a space to store the boat providing I could get the boat & trailer into the garage. I can't get the truck into the garage because it's too tall.

Decisions, decisions!

Rick

Hi Rick.

I built an 18' boat in a 19' garage. But mine was a two car garage, so I had more width. I also had much more height.

They key to my build was a movable building form. I put it on casters so that I could move the boat side to side and back to front.

With the movable form, you can pull the boat out of the garage for operations that require height (like dropping in the engine), or width (like springing the chines) then push it back in.

B.

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Bruce.

~~ Do what you love, and love what you do. ~~
~~ To me - only my boat is not yet perfect. Everybody else's is to be admired for I know the path they have walked (Dave Lott, 2010) ~~
Dow's Monaco Project

I'm currently building my 16' Celerity in a 20x20 garage. But half of the garage is taken up by machines/tools, so my building area is about 10x20.
I feel like I'm at the limit of boat size vs. working space. Could I physically fit a larger boat in there? Sure. But I really wouldn't want to.

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Jeff

My Celerity build.

I thought about putting the building form on casters but my main concern is the variation in the garage floor where it has been broken up and patched over the years, the transition from the garage onto the drive (read bump) and the fact that my blacktop driveway is neither flat or a consistant surface. I'd be worried about too much flexing if I were to move the form around both in the garage and out onto the driveway. I had plans on bolting the building form to the garage floor and leveling and plumbing the assembly. Once the boats framework was completed and ready for skining, I would at that time feel more comfortable moving the work around.



Do you feel you are hampered more by the width or the length?

The length. If the beam were a little wider, that size could "bleed over" into the tools area, but if it were any longer, it would be difficult to move around.

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Jeff

My Celerity build.

The beam or lack off hampers proper fairing and even working with limited help in planking and gluing, something that I have found over the course of my weakness for boats. The only thing that causes me grief when length is hampered is navigating around the ends in closed up shops in cold weather and the boat is boxed in and headed to the working portion of the shed. If you are in the paint stage and the boat is upright and the boat has any form of flare, the restricted beam makes things even worse.

I have built in a small area but have not regretted it, just make do with what you got. If I had more space I would have built a bigger boat and still of had less space

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Malahini, SEAN-NÓS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd6vkPjEy4U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uDVzcVpdhc
crackerbox build http://s753.photobucket.com/albums/xx17 ... =slideshow

i built my 17' Sea Knight in a very small, tight one stall basement garage! It was tough....but never the less..i got the boat done.

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Built the 17' Glen-L "Sea Knight"

I say build the boat you want and make do with what you have. Sure you'll cuss it a bit while building it due to space restrictions, but the build is only a matter of months or a couple of years. After that you have forever to enjoy the boat and you don't want to regret building a small boat every time you go to the lake!

A friend is building a 25ft offshore boat in his lean to on the side of his house on a carribean island and if he can do that you can build the boat you want in your garage!




You just gotta want it bad enough

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I Peter 2:17

While I agree with the "build what you want sentiment", you still have to realize your limitations.
I'd like to build a 27' Tempest, but it's just not feasible for my current situation.

The best advice I can give would be to draw a chalk line of the plan-view of the boat on your floor. Then walk around it. Try to imagine carrying clamps, power tools, hurriedly spreading epoxy before it cures. See if it will "work" for you.

You also have to consider what's important to you. For me, the build is just as important as the end result. Personally, I wouldn't want to work in a frustratingly cramped area. If you just want the boat, then you might be ok with getting by by on a less than comfortable situation.
Just depends on what you want.

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Jeff

My Celerity build.

Thanks everyone for your comments and photos, especially photos. I'ts one thing to say "I built this in that space" but when you see it you get a different feel. I thought about it long and hard last night and I think I'm going to build a shed out back even though it may make it difficult to work in the winter and leave my garage open so I can set up my jointer and planer with long infeed and outfeed tables. Plus having most of my woodworking tools relocated to my garage will keep that much more sawdust out of the family laundry.

Let me add to my previous comment that the laws of physics still apply no matter how bad you want something

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I Peter 2:17