Thread: Material needed for a GIS

Welcome to the forum engblom! Allow me to offer some observations on estimating materials.

Wood is very difficult to estimate. If the plan calls for two long pieces of Western Red Cedar, each measuring 19mm x 45mm x 5.5m, how do you determine what those will cost? You might approach a mill and simply ask for exactly that. That seems like it would be the most expensive way. You might find a single board 5.5m long that can yield the pieces you need if you join the lengths. But that's unlikely. It's more likely you will have to use at least two shorter planks to pull from and join together pieces that will create the 5.5m long part. Can you make two parts from that lumber? will you have to duplicate the process for the second piece? Only the wood can say for sure; none of us can determine that in advance.

In truth, you may find it to be a tough challenge to build a GIS on a very tight budget. The proper plywood is not cheap (I paid 90 USD each) and cheap plywood is not proper.

The plans contain a detailed list of materials. It would be unfair to the designer for anyone to release such details freely on the internet. I would tell how much I spent, but I'm not done spending yet! Callsign222 included his costs on his blog and spent close to 3,000 USD.

The plans are reasonably priced compared to others, especially for the amount of information you get. I think if the price of the plans is not within your budget, the GIS might not be either.

Best of luck to you!

Okay, lets rephrase the question a bit. I do not need information that would be unfair. What I want is enough information that I can do a somehow realistic calculation of the price.

For example: The amount of epoxy, paint etc should be no secret. I could probably find this amount together with any boat project in the same size. It is just easier to ask it here as this is a forum about the exactly same boat I am considering to build.

Second example: What wood is used for the mast? There are many dinghy projects on the Internet and looking what they use would give me a good clue too, but why not asking straight here as it is for sure no secret. The amount I can pretty much guess from the pictures (4 boards).

To ask the exact shape of an object, that would be to ask for secret things. Regardless of how I ask about the material, it would not give me the plans. The plans I would need to buy if I consider that I can afford the material.

The most sad thing would be if I would buy the plans to get a list of material and then find out I can not afford to finish it. That would be $100 wasted straight.

Hello Engblom,

The attached thread should give you what you are looking for:

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f169/m...de-goat-77872/

If you scroll down to the fifth post you will find the material list (in pdf format) for the GIS that was posted by MIK upon request of another builder also looking for a rough estimate on the costs.

Hope this helps. The plans are by the way fantastic and include a full on building manual. The boat sails like a dream and I wouldn't hesitate recomending it also for a first time builder (it was the first woodworking project I took on and I am quite pleased with the end result).

You should be able to substitute some timber for local (cheaper) species.

If you are looking for (an almost brand new) sail for the boat, please note this thread:

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f169/s...le-gis-137526/

Best regards,

Joost

Thank you very much! This was exactly what I needed

Here around are growing a lot of spruce and I can even cut down one in my yard and my brother is having a sawing company, so spruce I get almost for free in any dimension. Spruce is very light and i think I can substitute much of the material with spruce.

I think I can replace most of the wood with spruce, pine and birch. All of those I get very cheap and they have about the same properties and weight.

The only thing that is difficult to replace without a weight punishment is the plywood. Spruce is having about the same weight as Gaboon, but it is more soft and the most thin plywood with 5 ply is 9mm. That would mean 50% more weight for the plywood. I will have to do some calculations how much in kg it means.

A very fast (and not exact calculation): Epoxy + the rest of the wood + all other parts are probably around 18kg or more. (Already epoxy is over 10 kg). This would make the plywood part to be about 40 kg. Adding 3 mm to the thickness of the plywood would add 20 kg.

20 kg is not much if GIS can take 2 persons and supplies, but will probably still slow down the sailing a bit. The big punishment is that the skiff is more difficult to lift by two persons. The total weight would become 78 kg.

Is it worth it? That I have to consider. And I have plenty of time as I need to finish my house before I can build any GIS.

Hi engblom, I have not yet added up all the receipts for my build but I'm estimating that I have about $3000 in it. I used Joubert ply but almost all the framing and spar wood was inexpensive from the big home improvement stores (just have to sort through a lot of wood to find the nice pieces)

As to weight, keep in mind that the empty hull weight is about 60kg but by the time you add the rig and foils etc the boat becomes quite a bit heavier.

My wife and I can carry the empty hull. It's heavy for two not particularly strong people but possible. The two of us can drag it around without too much trouble. However the fully rigged boat is impossible for the two of us to carry and significantly harder to drag around on the beach. Those extra kilos really make a big differance handling the boat on the beach.

Originally Posted by SimonLew

Hi engblom, I have not yet added up all the receipts for my build but I'm estimating that I have about $3000 in it. I used Joubert ply but almost all the framing and spar wood was inexpensive from the big home improvement stores (just have to sort through a lot of wood to find the nice pieces)

As to weight, keep in mind that the empty hull weight is about 60kg but by the time you add the rig and foils etc the boat becomes quite a bit heavier.

My wife and I can carry the empty hull. It's heavy for two not particularly strong people but possible. The two of us can drag it around without too much trouble. However the fully rigged boat is impossible for the two of us to carry and significantly harder to drag around on the beach. Those extra kilos really make a big differance handling the boat on the beach.

Our hull weighs in at 64.55 kilos (142 pounds). Do what you can to save weight. My wife and I had a hard time dragging GIR back to the water last weekend.

My wife and I experimented a bit to find the best way for us to drag the Goat around. We found that the easiest way is for each of us to grab the inwale about one foot forward from the transom and pick the stern of the boat up then drag the boat backwards.

I agree with John: it will pay off to save weight. Not only will it be easier to move the boat around on land, it does have an influance on performance as well.

Best regards,

Joost