Best place to build aluminum sailboat

Hi all homemade sailboat builders over there,

Several years ago I began my struggle to decide, as many, whether to buy an old ocean cruiser for a small budget or to actually design and build my own.
Unable to find a 2nd hand sailboat to match my dream boat to live in for a budget, and the ones who did - and I can't afford -, so I decided to go for my own design and construction, an aluminum 44 footer.
Now I am facing the problem of where to build her.
As for the question "what means best place?", here some criteria:

- I want to build her myself (not by a boat builder company)
- Cheap components and easy to get like marine grade aluminum, welding machine and tools, also engine, electronics, rigging ...
- I would like to have her sailing or parked for long periods in Europe, but I'm not willing to pay import VAT

Here more details to add to my puzzle:
I am Italian & Chilean citizen, resident and living in Norway for 10 years. Thus, I can easily settle in Norway, EU or South America.

Building the sailboat in Norway I face this pros:
- Everything is easy to get and excellent quality / delivery, both parts and technical services
- Sailboat would be registered in Norway, no import VAT to be paid (as I understand)
and cons:
- Cold winters
- Very expensive, cost of living, raw materials and place for construction
- Lots of regulations
- Norway is not EU country, meaning moving to Europe will require import taxes, 20+% VAT

Building the sailboat in the EU, pros are:
- No import VAT
- Easy to get materials and components
- Warmer winters
cons:
- Somehow expensive, although cheaper than Norway, both cost of living, raw materials and renting a place like a garage
- As a resident of Norway, I wont be able to sail her, not even temporarily in Norway. I could keep my sailboat en Europe and residence in Norway though. Ohterwise, changing my residence to EU means losing benefits in Norway.

Building the sailboat in Chile, pros:
- I have a free place to build
- Somehow cheap raw materials and cost of living
- Reduced offer for electronics, engines, rigging
- Changing residence to Chile, the sailboat could have temporary entries for Norway and EU (and rest of the world)

I wonder about building the hull and basics to sail her to a different place like the EU, then pay import VAT for a very low valued boat, then finish there adding what's left. I understand VAT must be paid for repairs and add-ins which increase the value of the boat.

If not yet clear, I am planning to live in my sailboat, to sail the world a few years, staying long periods in Europe, maybe indefinitely. But politicians have made it a pain for poor salty nomads.
Personally I find absurd having to pay VAT over and over again in every place you want to stay longer than a few months. Even to pay VAT again for staying outside 3+ years?? Insanely abusive.

I welcome any idea and candidate places.

EDIT:
The design of my 44 footer is almost finished, it's time to plan the construction (to begin sometime next year), and not to discuss if it's a good idea or not, or whether it would be wiser to buy a 2nd-hand one.
Because there's a lot of technical info about hull design and such, but I found very little about real experiences and hiccups of homemade attempts, and what happened after, when dealing with customs and regulations, for instance.

 

Is saving money the goal and why you want design and build yourself?

 

1. Frequently traveling to the boat building site in a faraway place quickly eats any savings. If your job can't accommodate long periods of physical absence the only choice is Norway.
2. As a resident of Norway your boat is entitled to enter the EU under the temporary relief scheme, meaning 18 months and the clock restarts every time you leave the EU customs area. For this you must have positive proof of your foreign residence when the customs agent visits, so get registered with the italian embassy in Norway, always have your norwegian residence card with you and use the optional customs written declaration when the boat enters the EU from a non EU port. Keep all evidence for visiting non-EU countries on the boat.
3. If you ever decide to take up residence in the EU you are eligible for VAT exemption on your entire household, this includes vehicles like your boat. When you do this you also change flag to a EU country. Some jurisdictions will require a CE conformity declaration for this, some don't (it's complicated), but you need it for legal reasons if you ever want sell the boat. It's still cheaper then VAT tough.
It is possible Chile also has this VAT and import tax exemption since its common around the world, check if you ever want to move there.
4. EU VAT paid status is lost if the boat is outside the EU customs territory for more then 3 years. The clock restarts every time you leave the EU customs territory, and fortunately there is no need for visiting mainland Europe in order to maintain this status, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, French Guyana and Mayotte are also in.

Without more details it's impossible to say what is better. Your life details determine what you can do to lower building costs. For example someone who can work remotely has completely different possibilities than someone who doesn't.

 

Hi Flotation,

I am not a millionaire, hence I cannot buy a new sailboat nor order her construction.
I have a limited budget. Thus, my options are:
- to buy an old sailboat with half the budget I got, sailing the world with the other half, spending in repairs and maintenance. This boat would likely be fiberglass with fixed keel.
- to build my own, which will likely cost about the same, will take a long time, but will be of solid aluminum with lifting keel, among many other special features. To buy one of this kind would cost me twice my budget, giving me a huge debt, nothing left to live of, nor for maintenance.
So yes, a cheap construction place will spare budget to live of afterwards. I'm thinking of sailing a couple of years, then taking a break somewhere in Europe to work and save for the next sailing season.
Building the sailboat myself, additionally, will be even more rewarding. Even if she doesn't look perfect at the beginning. Once sailing, I will have plenty of time to make her up.

 

It is virtually impossible to design and build your own yacht and do so for a price lower or the same as that of a second hand one in reasonable shape. Especially if you are not an experienced yacht designer and builder.

 

Hi Rumars,

Thanks for your great answer.
Some clarifications:
1. I am planning to stay in the building site, since I will be the builder. Sometime between 1 or 2 years to make her sailing capable. So, a low cost of living and raw materials are important.
2. Definitely a plus of building her in Norway. Unfortunately, everything here is too expensive, specially the cost of living can't be savings-punitive without a job.
3. This is very interesting. I will find out the requirements for VAT exception for household, I guess some years since registering the sailboat before moving in to the EU.
4. This I already knew, I was just adding up to my complain to redundant & expensive regulations. Good to know that just stepping in and out will reset the clock in either case.

I wonder which more details are needed. As for my standard of living, a live a cheap life. Nothing of expensive brands or bottles, that's how I managed to save a budget for this project over the years, and it's how I plan to keep living when sailing.

 

I have zero advice on where to build. However, I would recommend you consider paying for the hull to be built and shipped and just do the fitout. It will probably save you about a year on the build to find a competant hull builder.

Then if you plan to sail in Europe and are facing vat, the only vat is on the hulls, unless I misunderstand.

 

Thanks Fallguy,
As I said, I want to build her myself. The option building the hull in a cheap place and ship it to EU/Norway is a possibility though (yet cheap?). Although the question remain: where to build it?

 

I disagree, yet you are not answering the question, which is not about the choice design/build vs buy-old-boat. I'm over that phase way years ago.
The design is almost finished, I was asking about the best place for the construction, given the described scenario and variables.

 

Since this is all about saving money the circumstances of your life are important because the solutions have to be tailored for you. I'll give you some general examples.

Building part time while employed vs. full time on savings. First it's a question of priorities, how important is the 1-2 years timeline, and what means "sailable" to you. Let's say you have 100 000€ and you move to a cheap EU country where the total monthly cost is 1000€ and you live from savings. That means the building budget is only 76 000€. If you stay employed in Norway and are able to cover monthly costs from your monthly earnings, the building budget just gained 24 000€. So the question is are material costs 24% higher in Norway, or not, and if yes what can you do to lower them.
How you earn your money is important, can you work remotely? If yes moving part or full time to a cheaper location, is feasible. Or can you find employment in a cheaper location even if it pays less? Living in Oslo is more expensive then living in some village in a fjord where your chances of affording a building space are much higher. You could also find work in some cheap place in the EU. A lifting keel means you don't have to be on the coast itself, a canal or river is enough and your options for a cheap place to build while still beeing employed are exponentially higher. Places to look are the small towns and rural areas of France, Germany and the Netherlands. Other places are technically cheaper but your chances of finding work are less.
If you actually want to do it full time from savings I recommend a place where you have minimal language problems. Cheapest places for romance language speakers are Romania and Portugal. If you can do slavic languages, Bulgaria is probably the cheapest place in the whole EU.

If you stay in Norway, how much more expensive are the building materials and what can you do about it? The question is simple, when is it cheaper to import material from the EU, vs. buying local? Example: something (doesn't matter what) is 10 000€ in Germany. To this you add 25% norwegian VAT and transport costs. If the local product is 24% more expensive it becomes much clearer, because now the difference is 3000€ and for that money the only question is if you have it delivered or go pick it up yourself with a van and/or trailer.
This equation also applies if you build in a cheap place in the EU, just whitout customs. It's often cheaper to buy from the bigger market, since in a smaller market there are fewer distributors and consequently less pressure on the price. Transport is not terribly expensive inside the EU, it's just a matter of organization.

Lastly I urge you to consider buying plans from a good designer. Fr. Lucas for example has a few Al centerboarders in your lenght range. It's much simpler to add some custom feature you like to such a design then making a good boat from scratch.

 

Thank you again Rumars for your very deep analysis, the very same that I have been diving into all this time when I decided to post the question.
About buying boat plans: long time out of the table for me, I made my own design over the years with very special features, which now I want to implement, it's the interesting part of my project.
Also there was upon a time when I thought to order the construction, I visited shipyards in Poland (Gdansk) and Ukraine (Mykholaiv and Kherson), but somehow I was discouraged by different reasons. I decided to build it myself.
Now, to add information related to your wonderings, I can do remote work. But my plan is to go full-time building 1-2 years, to avoid being trapped a decade working part-time. That would leave Norway as a weaker option because it's too expensive to live on savings, and too cold in winter to enjoy the journey.
Wherever I choose to build her, it could always happen that I run out of money, I guess that would mean to take a break of the construction, take a gig, or back to Norway for a few months to grow some savings, and back to the workshop.
What means "sailable" to me ... just enough to bring her to a different country, even in tough conditions, making many stops, in order to reduce the cost of shipping all the parts far away (like Chile, or Indonesia, ..) and reducing the cost of tax imports in the EU.
If you bought your boat plans, and have the 100 000 €, where would you build her, given the scenario?

 

The design makes or breaks the project. You truly can't afford to not have the plans reviewed by a professional.

I've been there, throwing good money and time after a bad design.

 

Thanks for your advice, I'm sorry you wasted money in a bad design.
Again the question was about where to build a sailboat, given the conditions.
It would be interesting to hear your story though.

 

Sorry I don't have any good advice on where you will have the best luck with your build.

My project with cheap, poorly done plans was just a dinghy so no great harm was done. It did, however, make me sensitive to projects gone bad because the builder was trying to save money on plans. I see it too often.
I harp on this subject but if it saves one person from grief so be it.

 

I can only adventure to say that saving money on plans was not the problem but to think that they can just build a boat without a proper research. A big deal of investment in time and patience, with all the resources that internet and books provide nowadays, you just can't fail.
I encourage you to try again with your dinghy. Don't copy someone else's design, make your own. Add unique features. Perhaps you won't win any regatta, but the time will come when someone asks:
- Where did you get this dinghy? I've never seen anything like it.
- I made it.

I've seen lots of homemade boats, all sort of hull shapes, all kinds of rigging, all types of materials and hey ... they all float and sail.
Now I'm thinking to just stop over one of these guys to ask where did they build their boats.