Wooden boats or steel boats which one is more economical in building?

[matt_unique]

I've used a company called Bateau (Bateau.com - boat plans on line since 1993) to build two dingies. They provide plans, BOM, and all the materials you need. They have a robust community and offer excellent support.

I don't know anything about building steel or AL boats. However, from my research of AL boats, it's not easy even for manufacturers to do perfect seam welds. Unless you are someone with specific expertise in this area I would be weary of that.

 

[DvrSkip]

Fiberglass is the way to go, unless you have some major need for wood (classic appearance), steel (ice bergs and lost container flotsam), aluminum (rocky groundings). You can hand lay fiberglass to any shape you can imagine, cut it, drill it, make a sandwich core, and it is more maintenance free than anything out there. Fiberglass sailboats from the early 60's are still circling the globe today.

There are many older fiberglass sailboat liveaboards for sale cheap, so that's also a major cost-saver, and when you redo it, if you don't like it you can sell it for at least what you put into it.

I've built two small wooden boats, helped with an aluminum 40-footer, and refit three fiberglass production boats (including recoring deck, all new through hull fittings, even creative restyling - solar water heater in deck box and fiberglass bimini), and the next boat will be a production fiberglass 32-36 footer (easy single-handed, big enough for workroom, all the ameneties, ideal for two, cheap dock fees), that I'll refit.

-skip