There comes a time in the lives of most offshore sailors when experience from past boats and past passages combines with a desire for a new vessel for long-distance sailing. We look around at what's on the market; we collect material from dealers and brokers and builders. We mull it all over, and some of us come to the realization that the perfect boat one that fits out needs and our budgetis as scarce in the marketplace as hens" teeth. If we"re going to get the right boat for us and the places we plan to sail, we"re going to have to start pretty much from scratch. That means a custom boat or, more likely, a semi-custom adaptation of an existing production boat.

In the following pages, we look into the world of custom and semi-custom voyaging boats and bring you examples of how three sailors arrived at solutions that suited their needs. While cost is only one part of the process of building a custom boat, it is an aspect that always stirs interest, thus we include some generalities about the investment that a custom offshore vessel requires in discussion that follows.

The Custom Option

The custom boat ( the design that synthesizes all your experience, your reading, your plans for future sailing ( is a kind of ideal in the minds of many boat owners. Whether it is a displacement motorsailer for exploring the inside passage to Alaska, or a ULDB rocket for speedy transatlantic runs, the final product will be something that reflects everything you ever learned about sailing, with many new ideas supplied by a yacht designer and builder.

Aside from you, the client, the designer and the builder are the key elements of the project. The designer is the magician who turns your sketches and specifications into the real lines and plans of the finished boat. Depending on your knowledge and experience, the designer will either be translating your existing firm ideas, or he will be offering new solutions to the more general design problems presented to him. In either case, select a yacht designer whose ideas are in sync with yours.

Designers will work on a fee basis or request a percentage of the overall project cost. Or some designers will sell you stock plans of designs that have already been completed as such. The Van de Stadt 47, which regular BWS contributor Beth Leonard is building with her partner Evans Starzinger, is a design that has been built by others and customized by each builder. Buying stock plans will obviously save some money. In general, having a new boat designed from scratch will cost 10 percent of the final launch price ( and for that you will get exactly what you want and a professional to guide you through the bidding and building process.

A yacht designer will help you select a builder, from a short list of builders he regularly uses. Normally you will get bids from several builders and select the one that can do the best job at the best price. There are a lot of variables in a custom-boat project, so it is important that the contract with the builder be as specific and as clear as possible.

The option to have only the hull and deck built and then complete the boat yourself can save money and bring such a project in line with a limited budget. Such an approach can knock as much as 30 percent off the final cost, but it will add many thousands of hours of work to your schedule.

What will a new, custom boat actually cost? Prices will vary from region to region, builder to builder, and season to season. For a fully-custom 45-footer, designed from scratch and built as a one-off, you can pay between $12,000 to $18,000 per foot. Exotic materials or extremely complex design features will drive that number skyward. If you choose a stock design and plan to finish the boat yourself from a hull and deck, you can reduce the multiple to between $8,000 and $12,000.

Building your boat yourself in your backyard is the final custom option. In our opinion, unless you are already a boat builder, the experience will inevitably be more expensive, more time-consuming and less satisfying than it might seem at the outset. And even if you do build it yourself, it will still cost over $5,000 per foot to end up with a boat with any resale value.

The Semi-custom option

The days of straight production boats in sizes over 38 feet or so are just about gone. The market has asked for semi-custom options and builders have responded. Semi-custom builders, like Hinckley, Morris Yachts, Lyman-Morse, Little Harbor, Able Marine and others have always sold boats that were significantly tailored to the buyer's wishes. But now, many straight production builders are doing so as well.

As Bentley Collins of Sabre Yachts says, "Aside from moving the bulkheads, we will do almost anything the customer is willing to pay for.

Semi-custom means significant changes to a standard boat that provide unique solutions to the particular requirements you have for your new boat. Unlike a custom boat, a semi-custom boat begins with a standard model plan. The client, then, alters that plan to suit his needs. He may choose a traditional transom or a reverse sugar-scoop transom with a swim platform. He may want a ketch rig or an all roller-furling cutter set up, a shoal keel or deep fin.

In most cases, as Bentley Collins points out, the basic structural members in the boat, the floors, main bulkheads and hatches are integral with the deck and hull tooling and cannot be moved. But heads and berths can be added or deleted. Dedicated sea berths can be added. A curved dinette can be straightened out, or a straight one curved. Larger or smaller engines can be spec"d. Tankage can be increased. Refrigeration can be added and modified to make the best use of the space available. Naturally, custom interior veneers can be used, and many builders will use lightweight cored bulkhead panels if required.

What does a semi-custom boat in the 40- to 50-foot range cost? The field of builders varies widely. For builders who are creating boats one at a time, such as Hinckley, Alden and Morris, the basic boat begins with a price tag of around $15,000 a foot or so; builders who can pass along the benefits of semi-production-line runs, such as Santa Cruz, Island Packet and Pacific Seacraft, can offer boats at suggested base prices of about $10,000 per foot. To make changes, you will begin adding up change orders, some of which a builder will have on an options list and some of which will have to be priced out on a case-by-case basis.

The Refit Option

The last approach is to begin with a used boat and have it refit and customized to your needs. The benefits of buying a used boat include lower entry price and usually an interesting gear and equipment list.

Builders such as Alden, Lyman-Morse and Little Harbor will undertake a refit for a buyer and will upgrade a boat to the highest offshore standards. Many boatyards are capable of doing serious custom work locally, and every port has its boatwrights and equipment specialists.

What will it cost to buy a used 43-footer and then significantly customize it to your specific requirements for long-haul sailing? You can buy good quality production boats Passport 42, Nordic 44, Peterson 44, Swan 431 for less than $3,500 per foot. A complete refit, including a new engine, new sails, customized interior and paint job, will cost between $1,500 to $3,500 a foot. So, taking the refit option, you can get into a semi-custom boat in the 43-foot range for under $7,000 per foot. Still not cheap, but the virtually new boat will reflect a lot of your custom requirements.

The only real catch to a plan to seriously refit and customize an older production boat is that your investment in the boat may exceed by a country mile the boat's market value. In the pages that follow, we take a look at three cases of experienced skippers having it their way with their new custom and semi-custom boats.