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SV Seeker - 74' DIY sailboat

9K views 36 replies 25 participants last post by  Omatako 
#1 ·
#4 ·
Seven years in. Folks worldwide stopping in to help. Casts and machines his own feathering props, for criminy's sake!
and ya really think he won't finish and launch?
Really?

He's an inspiration to all DIYers....of any stripe .He has perseverance, innovation, mad skilz, and an attitude that anything is possible.
Look at the average total refit here and find 3 to 5 years is minumum; so seven years part-time for a complete build, ground up, self-fabb'd???
Amazing!
I fully expect he'll get in the water by late 16 early '17, barring unfortunate circumstances..
 
#16 ·
I forget the exact details but he is close to a river. He's done his home work.

IIRC they bought the house, next to a scrap yard, for the express purpose of this project.

Did anyone see the vid of the grandkids running across the plate while he is plasma cutting?

I am shocked, and thrilled, he hasn't be put in prision due to child endangerment.
 
#17 · (Edited)
He is dedicated. I have been following for a few years now.

He and the wife parted ways and grandson can no longer visit due to safety concerns but he keeps going.

He is pouring the keels now, amazing work. Good thing he is getting help as I imagine the unseen devil is in the finish details, setting up the pilot house, owners cabin etc, a ton of work left.
 
#19 ·
Here's a similar extreme DIY'er building a huge boat only this ones in FRP...

Like Doug of SV Seeker Jamie Mantzel is not afraid to use High or low tech to get the job done, and I have no doubts they'll get their respective projects done because both are thinking beyond the current project they're into.

We could open a thread comparing and contrasting them: DIY Steel VS DIY Fiberglass, Might even rival the on going Steel VS Fiber thread.
 
#20 ·
I have watched all the vids too. A huge mountain to climb to get it in the water but I would not bet against him. I find his videos to be both inspirational and educational.
 
#22 ·
There have got to be some OTR transport drivers on here who can explain the realities of moving this 74 foot long, 16 foot wide steel (maybe 16 feet high) behemoth from Tulsa to the Gulf or the Great Lakes.
I believe it would be prohibitively expensive from what I know of OTR transport, and I'm not talking about the cost of the truck.
 
#24 ·
There have got to be some OTR transport drivers on here who can explain the realities of moving this 74 foot long, 16 foot wide steel (maybe 16 feet high) behemoth from Tulsa to the Gulf or the Great Lakes.

I believe it would be prohibitively expensive from what I know of OTR transport, and I'm not talking about the cost of the truck.
Capta, I am not an OTR driver but can attest to the fact that it isn't such a big deal. We finished the construction of Santa Cruz 70 hull #12 in Bill Lees chicken coop in Santa Cruz and I rode in the pilot car on a cross country drive to Newport RI. There are restrictions and you pay attention to height restrictions constantly but overall it was no big deal. Oversized loads are done all the time.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
#28 ·
If this guys is happy building his boat, I'm happy for him.

100-1 odds she ever splashes.

1000-1 she ever sails anywhere.

I doubt either of the above are even necessary for this guy to be happy building his boat, it's just the way projects like this typically go. I read he thinks he's two years away. It would take a full factory crew at least a year to fit out the simple shell he's accomplished so far. One guy is going to take a decade or two, especially as he's designing as he goes. How old is he?
 
#33 ·
Yea, and he is right next door to a scrap yard, so it will likely end up there, but at least it is close!. This is even worse than a BS build, because this was doomed from the start due to the size. Even if he gets it in the water, what is he going to do? It will take a crew to run.

Yes, this is all about the project of making a boat, not using a boat. Did he have his plans signed off by a navel architect? The bow is going to be rusted away by the time he gets to the stern... I agree he seems to have some real metal working skills, but making your own feathering prop? so if it does not work it is not like he can just dive and pull it off and rework it. Shame the obsession of this boat cost him his family. We all have our windmills we fight, for some they affect their lives more than others.
 
#32 ·
Why is it that one always get the feeling that people like this are in it for the build. They don't really care if they finish the thing or not.

I mean come on, he's just another nutter with an unrealisable dream. Look at his previous projects. A couple of bloody home made submarines ffs, neither of which ever dipped beneath the waves, though as a piece of sculpture the timber one is pretty neat. I think he is still trying to offload the second one.

Now, I have nothing against nutters. Salt of the the earth some of them. Nor do I have anything against people launching their improbable schemes. Good luck to them I say, long may they prosper.
 
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#36 · (Edited)
His plan is to offer the boat as a research vessel. He is offering a "spot' on the boat to anyone that helps with the build. He will finish. He's already built a crane( modified tow truck hoist), a huge windless and a towable submersible camera. I want him to succeed but find it hard to believe the multitude of systems he has engineered and built will operate as intended. Insuring the boat might be a challenge.
Sure makes entertaining viewing though.
 
#37 ·
Having spent my professional life in the transport industry, moving the boat 15 or 20 miles to the coast is a walk in the park - I have watched a 300 ton indivisible cargo being moved by road from Durban on the east coast of South Africa to the northern district of Zambia!! That's a few miles less than from Los Angeles to Chicago. If I were managing the SV Seeker project, transport would not be receiving any special attention.

Whilst I applaud this builder's talents, (I try to make a lot of stuff for my boat myself) an inescapable fact of life is that the cheapest element BY FAR when building a boat is the hull/deck/bulkheads.

Finishing a vessel of this size and at this point of build is going to cost a small fortune before it is in any condition to be sailed anywhere. And there is a limit even with the talents of the builder to what can be made in a shed in the back yard.

In one year I have spent/will spend $30K on a boat that has already done ocean passages just to get it ready for our next trip! and it is just about half the size of the SV Seeker. Plagiarized from someones else's blog: If you double the length of the boat you're likely to increase the costs by a factor of four. Good luck finishing off that boat starting from where he is now.
 
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