Quote:
Originally Posted by HUMBER P4VWL
You're right. If I had 100k the options are a house or flash cruiser in the med as if you have that money for private luxuries, you'd fly to warmer climes.
I don't understand, an open rib costs say 30-40k new for a v nice 6-7m. Why can't someone design one with a small cabin that isn't butt ugly for 5k more?
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I think there are a number of reasons, but simple accounting gives you part of the answer:
Lets say to design and build a production mould tool for a 6m hull costs £50k (I've no idea if that is a sensible number, but if you include the true costs of labour then I'd think its got to be in the very rough ball park). Now if you want to make your money back on the tooling in three years, and expect to build 25 boats (one every six weeks) in this time then you add 2k to the cost of building each hull to recover the cost. Its easier to recover the cost if one mould can make maybe 3 different sizes of hull. Now, for a cabin you might be looking at a similar cost to design and make the tool, (it probably needs two tools so you get nice finish on both inside and out, has to interface with the windows etc). But how many cabins will you sell? Maybe only 5-10 in the same period, so to recover your investment in tooling you'll need to add £5-10k per cabin to the cost, plus the costs of making the cabin itself. Producing one cabin that fits your whole range (without looking but ugly, or screwing up the balance) is tricky - so you might need multiple cabins to cover the same range of hulls.
Now this also assumes that everyone looking for a cabin wants the same thing. E.g. a wheelhouse? somewhere to sleep? etc And of course everyone has a different view of what is but ugly.
Now add in the fact that many people looking for a cabin are also looking for a diesel (for range, fuel availability, lower running costs) - that pushes up the price even for equivalent HP.
A cabin takes up free space on board, driving you towards a bigger boat. A diesel takes up free space driving you towards a bigger boat.
A cabin adds weight to the boat and potentially aerodynamic resistance? driving you towards a bigger engine, a diesel is heavier driving you towards a bigger engine, a bigger boat drives you towards a bigger engine.
Bigger boat + engine obviously = higher cost.
If you look at a e.g. a redbay price list, the incremental cost of the cabins versus the identical boat without the cabin and its not a totally ridiculous step.
If you are saying you have 45k to spend on a cabin rib - then I think you could potentially get one... the problem is you probably have 25k to spend and the scope has been creeping to end up at 40 k before the cabin.
nice retort! actually made me smile at my desk.
Purely for Illustrative Purposes, no doubt! I tell mrs willk the same bollix.
