Building boats for profit.

Since this question comes back often on our message board, here is how a professional boat builder would work with E-Boat and the boat designer.

(E-Boat Inc. is the company that operates our all web sites, sells the supplies and distribute the stock boat plans).

As you know, our stock plans are sold to amateurs as a license to build one boat. This means that you do not own the plans. The designer holds the copyrights for that plan and through E-Boat, gives you a license to build one boat of that type. The paper plans are incidental to that license sale and you should not copy them except for working purpose.

If you plan to produce more than one boat, there are several points to consider.
In most countries, the boats you produce must fit some requirements. The requirements for professional boat building are more stringent than those for amateurs. In the US, those requirements are set by the USCG and the ABYC as rules and industry standards, in Europe, there is a CEE certification process based on ISO standards.

In the US and other parts of the world, most builders will enter the professional field by producing a few boats as amateurs, building them either on speculation or on orders and reselling them. Once the demand appears for more than a few boats a year, it makes sense to set up the operation as a real business.
We ask our builders who plan to build less than 5 boats of the same model to purchase their building licenses one boat at a time, as plans from bateau.com.
The situation is different in Europe where an amateur can not resell a boat within 5 years of the building. There, a professional must follow the ISO guidelines from the start. The standards are almost uniform but their application vary by country. In all cases, the plans must be CEE certified as well as the building.

Once a builder is ready to commit to build more than 5 boats of the same type, we can set him up as a professional builder. This has several advantages but will also require a financial commitment on his side.

The builder will deal with the designer of the boat for the license (royalties), assistance with legal requirements like (in the US) positive upright buoyancy, ABYC standards, capacity plates etc. and for the CEE, design and construction conformity.
Currently, ABYC compliance work for one design will cost around US $ 500.00 (ABYC) and around 1,000.00 € in the CEE depending on the type of boat.
The designer can also customize the design, draw tooling and propose time saving methods and materials.
This set up cost will be more than the 5 building licenses we mentioned above.

BoatBuilderCentral.com will register the builder as a professional and sell supplies in quantities at a discount price. This will require a minimum volume and minimum order size.
This means fiberglass by the roll, resin in multiple of 50 gallons and other products by the case.

BoatBuilderCentral.com is a distributor of major brands and can offer competitive quantity pricing in the US or for export.