Dollars & Sense

In my earlier posts I mentioned that I didn't expect to save any money by building from plans, vs. building from kits. It turns out there is a little savings. The price for two kits at the time I started this project, was $2000, add to that the cost of shipping the kits $250, and you have $2250. I live just far enough away from CLC's location that going to pick up the kits would have been possible, but wouldn't have saved much.

The materials list provided on the CLC site acted as my shopping list. Instead of buying two MAS #2 Economy Epoxy Kits, I purchased one MAS #3 Kit, and an additional gallon of resin and 1/2 gallon of slow hardener, this saved about $50. Sourcing the other materials was an enjoyable exercise. I searched the internet for suppliers and compared the costs to the CLC website, a tie or close to it automatically went to CLC, and I tried to place my orders in large enough amounts to garner free shipping.

The total "plans vs kit savings" was $559. Most of the savings came from eliminating the freight costs for shipping the kits. I saved some money on the fiberglass purchase, but I think it was because I was buying enough material for two boats,  The plywood also saved me a few dollars, but only because I had a good source for the Okoume. If I had been building a single boat the savings would probably have evaporated, and if I had to purchase a decent jigsaw to cut the parts I would probably come up higher. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't expect to save money by building from plans, I wanted to space out the costs over time. I also wanted the experience of making my own boat from a blueprint and a stack of raw material.