Building a boat from scratch?

What would be a few things to take into consideration? Have any of you ever done this?

id say theres lots of things to consider but first off are you planning to build out of wood or aluminum?

Start with cardstock to make scale models.

Expect to pay 200% of the price of a new hull once you make mistakes a couple times.

Expect lots of 'issues' if you don't research what you are doing before designing it.

Expect to build 3 before you are happy.

x2 ^^^^

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=331296#p331296 said:

Ranchero50 » Yesterday, 16:12[/url]"]Start with cardstock to make scale models.

Expect to pay 200% of the price of a new hull once you make mistakes a couple times.

Expect lots of 'issues' if you don't research what you are doing before designing it.

Expect to build 3 before you are happy.

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I think if you think everything out and plan very carefully( using cardstock is a must to mock things up before final assembley) you can make a hull from aluminum cheaper than you could buy one for. theres no need to reinvent the wheel, look at some boat hulls you like and take your basic measurements from them and go from there. you don't have to copy one but that will get you going in the right direction.. but like said above unless you want a couple hulls in ur garage that you don't want mock up a few before deciding on the final keeper. research the aluminum your gonna use very carefully and know what its capable of as far as tensile strength etc.... 7 P's, proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance....

Eh, experience says otherwise. Watched my dad who's pretty skilled with wood (think Norm Abram's furniture) build 2 10' dorys for the back of his 28' Chris Craft Catalina. First one he went by pictures online and use West system epoxies (he worked there at the time so got a decent discount). It wasn't stable... Second one he built from plans, it wasn't very stable either and developed rot after one winter. Third one was a used 10' aluminum flat bottom with title for $250.

Second one is some poor sod who bought Bateau plans for a 16' jon and has his 80% hull listed on craigslist for $400 and quoted the price was less that the cost of materials.

Those are wooden jobs, I don't think I'd be able to build an aluminum hull like my Seadoo build for less than the price of a new one, especially as I'll need to farm out the brake work.

So unless you have a very specific need for a hull that you can't buy commercially, then you are losing money just thinking about it. Buy a bare hull, call it an 80% boat and finish it out as you'd like.

7 P's, proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance....

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Amen to that! VERY true.

Here's a scratch built 48 I built a while back . . . only thing purchased for it was a prop.
Of course the weeds don't get whacked much anymore.