Re: Reply to Laz & You To

Posted by Laszlo on Jan 28, 2005

Mark,

You're absolutely right that plastic can form shapes that plywood cannot, but then that shape has to be extractable from the mold. If it's too complicated it must be made in multiple pieces and assembled. Too much of that and the boat is no longer cost-effective for the manufacturers.

Also, since the plastic is not as stiff as the plywood, certain shapes require much more extra material.

As a final issue, there's also tooling costs. A mold that has simple curves is cheaper than a mold with compound curves.

So if you add in labor, material and capital overhead costs and the absolute need to make a profit (they're not charities, after all), the plastic boat designers end up with less design freedom than the guys designing boats for the nuts who don't care about labor and profit (and who can sometimes be convinced to relax a little about material costs because they'll have the slickest boat in the world).

Have fun,

Laszlo

In Response to: Re: Reply to Laz & You To by Mark Camp on Jan 27, 2005

Replies:

• Re: Reply to Laz & You To by Mark Camp on Jan 28, 2005
  • Re: Reply to Laz & You To by Laszlo on Jan 30, 2005
    • Re: Reply to Laz & You To by Mark Camp on Jan 30, 2005