Glen-L.com

Today is my 27th birthday and my wife and I are looking into building a boat. We have not set our minds on anything specific yet but we do like the 25 foot Coastal Cruiser motor yacht. My first question before taking on a task this big is what kind of working area would I need or want for assembly and storage of a boat. I know it would depend on the size of the boat we choose but am looking for information as far as how much front and side room is adequate for working on a project of this size. I am in the Marines and will be moving to the East Coast and hopefully into North Carolina at the end of the year. I looked at a lot of pictures of people and the construction process that I could find and could see boats being built in a two car garage all the way to a full size warehouse. Being new to this I want to make sure that I don’t sink a boat load of money into something I can’t finish because of space restrictions. Any input of descriptions of how previous builders completed their projects would be gratefully appreciated!

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R/S
Andrew Brown

Welcome to the forum Andrew, and thank you for your service.

As far as to how much space you need, other than the obvious factor of the size of the boat you choose, it really depends. Some people need more, some can squeeze by with less.
Right now I'm building a 16' Celerity in a 20x20 garage. That's pretty much the limit of what works for me. Half of it is for the boat, and the other half is for tools, machinery, and work area. It's a bit cramped at times, but it works.

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Jeff

My Celerity build.

Welcome. I have a 3-car garage that is about 20ft deep and I can't remember how wide. In the beginning, I thought I'll be able to finish this boat and keep a car in here easily. If I had been been neater, that would have been easy. But, at one point, I had stuff everywhere: wood, hardware, big 90HP ETEC motor, shop crane, saws, tables, saw horses, etc, Then I had to move the trailer in the garage, so I would not be in violation of community covenants (out went my wife's car). Then, I moved the boat from the building cradle to the trailer and that made things better. But, I would up using that building cradle to hold more crap! Oh, luckily my trailer had a swing-away tongue. That was a big deal in the end. I am keeping the boat in my garage now that it is finished until spring. Even though my garage is 20ft deep, the door barely clears the folded tongue. You can build a smaller (14ft - 16ft) outboard powered boat and have lots of interior seating space. But once you hang that engine on the back, you lose a couple of feet of construction space and even more once it's on a trailer. You can do it in a smaller space than I have. You just need to be organized and clean up on a regular basis. Last year and the year before were really, really cold, even here in GA. Weather...not just rain is another thing you have to consider.

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2011 MALAHINI - KICKED IN THE HEAD

I wake up with a 16ft woody every morning
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=534DBtp1Cnc
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/2011malahini/

Personally, if a building a boat the size of the Coastal Cruiser I would want a "minimum" of 3' clearance on all four sides and top. This means if building the 25' version about 15' x 31' x 13' tall. One of the reasons I built the True Grit rather than the Coastal Cruiser is the TG ia about a foot lower. I couldn't handle the extra height in my shop. And this is just the space for the boat itself. Still need room for the tools, work area and material storage. You can sometimes gain some space by setting the boat diagonally in the building.

Also, many homebuilt boats are built outside under temporary shelters. I had a friend in Florida built a 27' Coastal Cruiser outside. He had a small storage shed to lock his tools in at night. Otherwise it was all under temporary shelters. Here is a photo.

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So Many Rivers,
So Little Time....

Thank you all for getting back to me. You have answered my questions and provided much needed feedback. Not sure what accommodations I will have when I move but knowing that I could build it under canopies or in a garage opens up a lot of possibilities. Thought about the trailer adding to the height and all as well as the engine would affect the length. I also figured that after I got it flipped and put on a trailer I could store it easier and protect it from the weather. Thanks again.

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Andrew Brown

finding a place to build has been one of my biggest problems, at 29' and 10' at the beam and still having space for equipment height is also a problem, not only in the build but in the transport. All of my shop equipment is on casters so the can be moved around to a open space to have room to use them.

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Don't be afraid to attempt anything. You might surprise your self in the attempt.
http://www.facebook.com/Home.Made.Boat.Building
Modified Jubilee-"Wild Flower" 40' house boat
14' Mr John-Wild Flower 2
32' Supper Huck- Wild flower 3

Rod H

In the North Carolina area there is a wonderfull outlet that sells portable carports. The issue will be finding a location that allows you to set it up on most rental properties. But I use these all the time and have the 18x27 up now. They also come with enclosures for the sides.

These folks are about two to three hours away from the both of the marine bases and sells direct or will ship anything to you too. Nice folksss
http://www.kingcanopy.com/

This is a link to several styles.
http://www.kingcanopy.com/content/canopy.asp

I love this one with the full enclosure sides and ends. I do have to secure the corners because of the chance of wind and cold fronts picking it up and flipping it in certain conditions.

http://www.kingcanopy.com/images/HC1827 ... nglish.pdf

One downside to rolling it then placing it on the trailer is the gunnel height. In my opinion, with a boat this size and type, completing the hull and sitting it upright puts you about 15% done with the project. There is still a lot of work to be done and most of it will be inside or on the base hull. You are going to be making hundreds if not thousands of trips from the floor up over the hull side and then down to the deck or hull bottom. There were days I know I easily made 30 or 40 climbs up there. On the trailer your lowest access point will be over 6' off the ground with the trailer being about 2' of that. My point is the lower the boat is to the ground the easier it will be to work on. Mine was sitting about 2" off the floor but required 5 steps and still had to step over the side. The photo below will give you an idea of the height. It can certainly be done on the trailer (the one in the above photo was completed that way) but for me lower is better.

One other suggestion is when you get to this point build a good solid stairway to access the boat. Don't even think about a ladder. Disassembling the building form will supply more than enough 2x6s and carriage bolts to build it. You can see mine along side the hull. In fact, until I started to finish the hull exterior it was screwed to the boat for stability. I had several shop visitors mention the need for a handrail and for safety they might have be partly correct. But my feeling was it would very often be in the way when I handled larger pieces while getting in and out.

After completion I still use the steps. They are now in the storage shed and I use then to get into the boat. They still are situated beside the boat but now because it is on the trailer the top landing is level with the swim platform. Works out well. Oh, and yea, I did add a handrail.

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So Many Rivers,
So Little Time....

Hmm some how I missed that Photo of your build. but your steps are a good Ideal and I agree that a rail would have been a problem of material handling

_________________
Don't be afraid to attempt anything. You might surprise your self in the attempt.
http://www.facebook.com/Home.Made.Boat.Building
Modified Jubilee-"Wild Flower" 40' house boat
14' Mr John-Wild Flower 2
32' Supper Huck- Wild flower 3

Rod H