Hull Costs

Working out whether or not you’ll save on building costs
On boatbuilding sites in many parts of the world, you’ll see the hulks of unfinished concrete hulls. Many of them were abandoned after their owners finally realized the tremendous amount of work that lay ahead of them. Others were cast aside for lack of cash, when builders who hadn’t done their financial homework came to the accurate conclusion that they’d been misled about the price of a cruising yacht.The truth is that the hull, deck, and cabin of a normal monohulled yacht comprise only about one third of the total finished cost of the vessel. So, although you may save a few thousand dollars by building a cheap ferroconcrete hull yourself, the other two thirds of the boat—the engine, the masts, the rigging, the ground tackle, sails, winches, and everything else—are going to cost exactly the same as they would on any boat.After many misguided would-be adventurers had started their concrete hulls, it also became evident that there was a glut of old fiberglass hulls on the market—because fiberglass was lasting longer than anyone imagined it would. It became cheaper to buy a sound and seaworthy (but no longer fashionable) fiberglass boat than to build a boat of your own.Even if an old fiberglass hull needed attention, it was almost always cheaper—and certainly much quicker—to reinforce it or repair it than to build a boat from scratch.See also Choosing a Boat.