S/V Downeast Thunder – 3rd Time’s a Charm!

[Downeast Thunder]

Finally! With the 3rd round of concept drawings, I’m happy with the latest design concept! This time, I’ve developed a lines drawing for a 28’ LOD sailing dory. It features a 10’ beam and 4’ draft. This vessel shall be fast and easy to build, plus inexpensive (relatively speaking of course).

This latest concept of a large sailing dory was heavily influenced by the late John Gardner and the St. Pierre Dory, plus Jay Benford’s portfolio of large sailing dory designs. Annie Hall’s book “Voyaging on a Small Income” is quite convincing and influential as she describes her experience with the Jay Benford designed, 34’ sailing dory, “Badger.”

The final construction drawings will be made available at a later date.

Many thanks to all my subscribers for participating, commenting, liking, and sharing my videos. I very much appreciate your continued support of my YouTube channel. It’s a lot of fun for me, and I hope this trend continues.

Here's the Video:

[Frank S]

Paul I was wondering if there is a wild estimate of the build cost at this time which would translate to a fully rigged outfitted vessel at launch time.
I knew a guy back in the early 80's who owned a pawn shop chain, who bought a Dolphin 24 a 24 ft sloop basically for very little money as a pawn broker would do. Replaced all of the canvas rigging and stainless steel fittings After all the work or detailing polishing painting and the rest he allowed he could still turn a good profit He said yachts of that class were gong for from $500.00 to $800.00 per foot in length.
The first time he took it out of the harbor with a prospective buyer they were on their way back to the docks under full sail about half a mile out the wind went form a gentle breeze to a full forced gale catching them off guard resulting in plowing bow straight into a break water crushing the forward several feet of the boat sinking it. Instead of writing it off to insurance he and his client bought it back from the ins. then rebuilt it, only they decided to open up the beam to a full 10 feet and made the boat longer adding 2 1/2 feet to the bow and 6" to the stern making it a 27 footer. It seemed like a lot of work for nothing to me but everyone has their own way of doing things.

[Downeast Thunder]

No Frank. I have not generated a complete estimate (or any estimate) of cost. I'm a retired naval architect and marine engineer, and I used to have a wooden boat shop on Cape Cod years ago. When I moved to Downeast Maine 15 years ago, much of my leftover inventory went into storage. Much of that inventory includes a complete set of brand new tanbark sails and international orange storm sails, tons of stainless steel & silicone-bronze screws, sveral cast bronze port lights with screens in a variety of sizes, a brand new Deutz marine diesel with Hurth marine transmission, 25mm stainless prop shaft with cutlass bearing - stuffing box - and prop, all kinds of epoxy fillers, fiberglass tape and cloth, brand new compass, vhf marine radio - coax cable - and antenna, ship's bell, a collection of various blocks, jam cleats, cleats, etc., a number of anchors of different sizes, full reels of different size lines in both nylon & dacron, about 500 feet of 5/16" BBB hot dipped galvanized ACCO anchor chain, brand new custom cast (by Lunenburg Foundry in Nova Scotia) manual anchor windlass, plus a whole bunch of other miscel, laneous marine items and hardware. I also have a healthy collection of reclaimed wood and some new wood of different species and sizes.

My biggest expense will be epoxy resin which has more than tripled in price since I got out of the marine business. It will probably cost me around $1500.00 to $2000.00 for the epoxy resin and hardener to complete the boat at today's prices. I'll also have to buy some plywood, and that will also add up to a bit of coinage, and the only other out of pocket (big) expense will be having a sailmaker cut and stitch my new sails to fit the sail plan of the new boat. However, if the estimate to modify the sails get's close to $800.00 or more, I'll purchase a Sailrite heavy-duty sailmaker's sewing machine and make the modifications myself (and then I'll have a proper machine to take with me on board for long distance cruises, with the ability to make repairs and other items for the boat).

So - as you can see, I already have much of what I need, so that's why I haven't bothered to work up any estimates.

FYI- After completing the construction plans, I will make them available free via pdf download to anyone interested. It should be fairly easy to work up some cost estimates at that point.

Thanks for your interest.

[Frank S]

That is an amazing amount of stored treasures in inventory for the project. It would be well worth having the sailrite on hand regardless of what a sail maker would charge to re stitch and modify your canvas. Worth its weight in gold to have onboard even if you have to get inventive to create a place to stow it below deck. There is a lot to be said for having the ability to make lasting repairs at sea instead of merely having to do emergency patching for your sheets or that of a stranded vessel you encounter. Anyone who has been at sea and survived a freak squall knows full well the value of spares and repair equipment
Good luck on your project. I'm just a land lubber but have been out there a few times.

[Downeast Thunder]

It's certainly true, Frank. It would be well worth having the machine on board. Being retired and on limited income, I have to weigh costs closely. If sail mods are reasonable, I'd still like to have the Sailrite machine, but purchase it at a later date when I can better afford it. It's only if I have no choice but to have to come up with money for sail mods at an amount close to equal that of the Sailrite machine, it would make sense to buy the machine then. St least that's my way of thinking about it.

Don't feel bad about being a landlubber. My wife is a landlubber and will only set foot on the boat when it's tied to the dock in a protected marina. She'll enjoy sitting in the boat and enjoy a cocktail, but will leave in a heartbeat as soon as the first line is cast off. She absolutely does not like the way sailboats heel over when reaching.

[Frank S]

I do relate to the limited income thing. Just yesterday a guy that I am making some special air tanks for calls me up and asks if I am interested in a 36" by 10 ft lathe that I looked at while in Connecticut recently.
Sure I'd love to have the lathe I told him there is just 1 minor problem, which amounts to there is zero funding available just now for a purchase of that sort.
No problem he says. The large lathe the Cincinnati horizontal mill the P&H welder the 6 head drill press and the small 10" lathe plus what ever tooling and accessories I can dig up ate yours just figure out how you can get them to Texas we'll work out the details of the nickels and dimes later.
Nickels and dimes to him are the national debt to me But at least I can cover the haulage issue as long as I am given time and my bud can arrange a high enough paying load up there to defray the expense of returning with the stuff without the possibility of a paying return haul.

[Downeast Thunder]

Wow Frank! That sounds like quite a deal. I only wish I came across those now and then. At this point though, I think that once my new boat is in the water, I'll start downsizing and selling off shop equipment. There is some of it I can start selling off soon, and that will help to finance the stuff I do have to buy for building the boat. Afterwards, the stuff I sell then will help to finance my cruising budget. In the meantime, I have Calypso music playing out in the shop while I finish up a project for a local non-profit fund raiser (I have plenty of work, but it's almost always for free).