The numbers
How long does it actually take?
Every figure on this page comes out of logs kept by people while they were doing the work, not from a designer’s estimate, and not from memory years afterwards. Where there is no number yet, the cell says n/a rather than guessing.
1,775 boats are in the catalog; 37 of them have a log on them so far. Example logs are excluded from every figure on this page; their hours are illustrative, and nobody should plan a year of weekends around invented numbers.
By kind of boat
Medians across builders. The per-foot columns are the ones that carry across to a boat nobody here has built yet; they are worked out per build and then medianed, not derived by dividing one median by another.
Where the hours go
Across every boat on the site. Hours are summed per builder first, so someone who logs a step in fourteen short entries doesn’t outweigh someone who logged it in one.
| Step | Median hours | Builders | Entries | Total hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planning & Research | 6.0 | 5 | 15 | 6 |
| Shop & Tooling | 5.0 | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| Plans & Lofting | 5.0 | 4 | 4 | 30 |
| Strongback & Molds | 22.0 | 7 | 45 | 22 |
| Hull Panels | 3.0 | 11 | 46 | 17 |
| Stitch & Assembly | 5.0 | 6 | 22 | 46 |
| Fillets & Taping | 10.8 | 5 | 9 | 48 |
| Glassing & Epoxy | 4.0 | 8 | 50 | 52 |
| Hull Exterior | 9.0 | 7 | 15 | 77 |
| Deck & Coamings | 3.5 | 5 | 96 | 7 |
| Interior & Cockpit | 20.0 | 9 | 54 | 114 |
| Fairing & Sanding | 19.5 | 5 | 31 | 39 |
| Systems | 1.5 | 3 | 55 | 2 |
| Hardware & Fit-Out | 13.5 | 4 | 43 | 27 |
| Rig & Spars | 43.3 | 2 | 7 | 87 |
| Brightwork & Varnish | n/a | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Paint & Finish | 10.0 | 5 | 49 | 10 |
| Trailer & Gear | n/a | 3 | 28 | 0 |
| Launch Day | 8.5 | 5 | 6 | 35 |
| Sea Trials & Shakedown | 18.0 | 3 | 8 | 18 |
| Maintenance & Changes | n/a | 1 | 4 | 0 |
Boats with the most to compare
The designs where more than one person has written it down, which is where the side-by-side comparison starts being worth something.
| Boat | Plans from | LOA | Logs | Median hours | Median months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northeaster Dory | Chesapeake Light Craft | 17′ 0″ (5.18 m) | 3 | 61 | 3.0 |
| Caladesi Carolina Dory | Spira International | 20′ 0″ (6.1 m) | 2 | 6 | n/a |
| Squirt | Glen-L Marine | 10′ 0″ (3.05 m) | 2 | 196 | 61.0 |
| 15' Rangeley Lake Boat | Newfound Woodworks | 15′ 0″ (4.57 m) | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| 1957 echocraft runabout | Echo-Craft | n/a | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| Cabin Skiff | Glen-L Marine | 16′ 3″ (4.95 m) | 1 | n/a | 11.0 |
| Captain | Carver | n/a | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| Cruiser | James Bosman | n/a | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| Custom Mini Sportfish | John Farlow | n/a | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| Deluxe Runabout | Chris-Craft | n/a | 0 | n/a | n/a |
| Didi 26 | Dudley Dix Yacht Design | 26′ 3″ (8 m) | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| Eland 36 | Dudley Dix Yacht Design | 36′ 5″ (11.11 m) | 1 | n/a | 5.5 |
| Fishing boat | James Bosman | n/a | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| Flying Saucer | Glen-L Marine | 12′ 3″ (3.73 m) | 1 | n/a | 0.5 |
| Garvey Skiff | Daniel Berg | n/a | 1 | n/a | 3.1 |
| Grey Seal | Iain Oughtred | 22′ 2″ (6.76 m) | 1 | n/a | 89.7 |
| Hornolo | Yannick Maignien | 18′ 1″ (5.5 m) | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| Hot Rod | Glen-L Marine | 16′ 6″ (5.03 m) | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| Idea 21 | Modern Wooden Boat | 6.3 m (20′ 8″) | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| Jersey Girl | Jim Norman | 20′ 0″ (6.1 m) | 1 | n/a | n/a |
These numbers are only as good as the logs behind them.
Every hour on this page was written down by somebody in a shop at the end of a Saturday. If you are building something, adding yours makes the next person’s estimate better than a guess.
Start a build log Where people buy