So Salty! We considered building the FineLine in steel - and it's not out of the question at this point. The steel is actually initially faster and cheaper than a one-off cold-molded epoxy / wood glass hull - BUT the problem is once you finish the weld up, then sandblast, then hurry up and get the initial epoxy coating systems applied - your at about the same cost or more than an epoxy / wood / glass hull. There are pros and cons both ways - we've built a W/E boat before (smaller 28') and with my wife and I working together the advent of composite plastic nails helps the strip layup go much faster than the earlier methods - you just leave the nails in and keep laying on your veneer or plywood. One person mixing the next batch of epoxy, the other person getting the epoxy saturation going and air-nailing a strip on. You get a rythm going. The problem with steel is some additional inspection hurdles at the insurance company, but so far - as long as we're full spec engineered plans and stay to the exact specs of the hull layout - AND get some intermediate inspections by a surveyor to witness the construction - AND keep all the receipts and take lots of photos - there is a path to getting insurance on a custom design. You kind of have to think about insurance first on a project like this. Then start doing the cost scheduling and initial quotes.
For those of you who aren't familiar, here's the FineLine design:
This is a full displacement cruiser that has been designed for economical, long distance voyaging and for crossing oceans safely.
www.finelineboatplans.com
As of now, the FineLine 1100 is spec'd as steel hull (Phil doesn't have time right now to develop the complete W/E hull engineering specs) BUT we can take the Coastal Cruiser 40' and shrink the distance between frames slightly to get that LOA to 40' or under, OR we can take the Trawler Yacht 29' and extend it out - now we have options to build a similar hull at around 36' in different materials. We can work with Phil to make final adjustments - so that the boat still floats right side up.
The FineLine 1100 is the general size and cabin layout goal. Because of our boat transport truck situation, whatever we build or restore has to stay under 16' trailered height when her hips are in the truck cradles - and for us a single screw with a keel can be settled down pretty low on the hydraulic marine hauler. There will be other considerations like a super-easy removable roof / flybridge (to allow easier trasnport and easy engine removal) which I'll cover in another general comment.
There are actual two "Bruce Roberts" related companies selling plans. Philip Hogg and Liz Thompson run FineLine Australia, and this FineLine 1100 design is Phil's work.
The story is here:
The founding Bruce Roberts International designs and boat plans Australia
Then there is
"Bruce Roberts Boat Plans"
Pirated boat plans Bruce Roberts Internationl Yacht Designs boat building boat plans boat designs custom boat plans kits steel aluminum fiberglass and wood power boats sailboats trawlers
bruceroberts.com
(He now goes by the name Robert Goodson) is in UK ( or EU now ? he used to have a design office in US, which is now closed - his PayPal account is in Euros these days). I'm not sure of his country of residence, but we've emailed back and forth about finer design details.
Both designers have good designs, both answer emails pretty quickly and both provide not only plans but also completely spec'd certification (CE, USCG safety margins) with details about righting moments, center of gravity calcs, hydrostatics, HP vs Speed graphs and so on. Insurance surveyors want to see the boat hull design was actually engineered properly, and not some half-baked giant canoe that looked like a good idea at the time.