Best Florida region for long-term boatbuilding workforce?

[Jeandupont]

Hi all,
We’re planning to start a new boat brand and are choosing between Pinellas County (Tampa/St. Pete) or South Florida (Miami–West Palm).
For the long term, which area do you think is better in terms of skilled labor availability (plug builders, plug finishers, laminators, finishers, carpenters etc..) and supporting both production boats and higher-finish builds?
Any advice from those with local experience would be greatly appreciated.

*The project are a 28 cat with twin 300hp outboards max, not a fishing style boat, it's more like a family cruiser dual console with cabin. (Deck and hull infused)

Thanks!
Jean

 

[kapnD]

Perhaps local Chambers of Commerce would have some input?

 

[philSweet]

I'd be looking a bit further North - Stewart or Port Richey. As far as the plugs go, I don't think anyone has done them in house for 20 years. You just send a cad file to a specialist and machines do it all. The trick to boat building is to not use any skilled labor. Design that out. No welding, no fitting of plumbing or electrical, it all just comes out of a box and drops in place. Use a robot for the gelcoat, and laminators are about $10 day in many places. Use precut prepreg kits. You can pack the hulls in containers from the Dom Rep and fit out in Florida. The motors need to be fitted by the motor MFG's rep. So you should be looking to crank out motor-ready hulls for under 3 grand in labor. No grinding, no surfacing, no painting, no caulking windows, no bedding hardware - get rid of all those steps.

I had a retired friend who was building 4 small boats a day in his garage. He drove his car out the garage, built two boats, then went and volunteered at an animal rescue for 6 hours. Then he came home and built two more boats and cooked dinner. After dinner, he took the boats out to the rack system and parked his car. He had it down to under an hour per boat. You need to be counting your labor in minutes, not hours.

 

[Will Gilmore]

I'm not at all familiar with the Miami area, but Sarasota County has a number of production boat manufacturers. I would expect to find experienced labor in that area.

-Will

 

[jehardiman]

I'd be looking a bit further North - Stewart or Port Richey. As far as the plugs go, I don't think anyone has done them in house for 20 years. You just send a cad file to a specialist and machines do it all. The trick to boat building is to not use any skilled labor. Design that out. No welding, no fitting of plumbing or electrical, it all just comes out of a box and drops in place. Use a robot for the gelcoat, and laminators are about $10 day in many places. Use precut prepreg kits. You can pack the hulls in containers from the Dom Rep and fit out in Florida. The motors need to be fitted by the motor MFG's rep. So you should be looking to crank out motor-ready hulls for under 3 grand in labor. No grinding, no surfacing, no painting, no caulking windows, no bedding hardware - get rid of all those steps.

Phil has it right, it's the labor that is going to be your big cost, that and generally higher labor and real estate costs in Florida. FWIW, this is why most boatbuilders still in Florida are well north of Miami or on the gulf coast...lower costs of doing business. Also, this is why a lot of the semi-custom builders (and even Boeing) moved to Harker's Island/Costal Carolinas, available lower cost labor and land.

 

[Jeandupont]

Hello everyone, thanks for the information so far. From what I've researched:
- Costs on the east coast of South Florida are higher for leasing warehouse +25%.
- Labor retention on the east coast seems to be more difficult due to the greater volume of work in boat factories and repair services in marinas. With the booming market, this tends to be more pronounced, requiring an increase in the hourly rate to try to retain employees.
- Regarding the manufacturing of plugs and molds, I can do it internally with machinery and a CNC router that I could later use to produce the production parts, since the idea is to produce more than one boat in a row.
- The cost of living is also lower on the west coast (Tampa Bay area).
- I've manufactured boats ranging from 35 to 42 feet, from sport cruisers to flybridge boats, so I have an idea of the manufacturing time for plugs/molds and the production itself. However, I did this in another country, in this case, Brazil, where labor and warehousing are much less expensive and have less impact on the total budget of the operation than here in the US.
I'll be visiting the IBEX trade show next week. I think it's a great opportunity to talk to local companies and suppliers, as well as the Tampa Bay EDC.