Minimum size garage?

[Brad Lustig]

I've got plans for both the Vacationer and Weekender. What I'm planning on doing is building the Weekender now and then in several years build the Vac. I'd prefer to build the Vac now, but I believe I'm limited by my garage. The space I have will actually be fairly tight for the Weekender but I'll have to make do. One side is 20' deep, the other is 24'. The whole garage is 22' wide with a metal pole right in the middle. The doors are 8.5' wide each. I'm thinking a vac would fit, but I don't see a whole lot of extra room to work. Am I right? What is the smallest space a Vac has been built in?

By the way, I have a '48 Dodge that has to fit in one of the spaces. I'm working on straightening up my garage to get the most space I can out of it.

[Frank Hagan]

When I put the bowsprit on the Weekender, the space got really tight in my 21' deep garage. I would think that would be the limiting thing on the Vacationer as well.

By that time, the hull is finished and painted, so I just moved her outside to finish up.

[Guest]

Actual workig space for a 20 foot boat, should be a minimum of 12 wides and 26 deep, for just the boat, IMHO. Height is important, and garages in most houses limits some working conditions on the larger hull. Then if you have any free standing table saws or band saw, you will need room for those, which IMHO requires about 10 x 16, at least. I use two sets of saw horses, and this works great for my long stuff and laying out plywoods, which in some cases can be outside, weather being proper. Then I push the long stuff under the jigs, or the boat, if on a trailer for storage in the evening. I am just up the road from you experiencing simular weather conditions. Do you have any open ceiling joices, with some added height, that you can hang materials or unfinished boat hulls? This has been done by rigging pulleys for those long winter's nights of the off building times.

[Brad Lustig]

Well, by your measurements, Oyster, I'd be about 1 foot too narrow and 2 feet too short. My garage has 8' ceilings and the garage is finished. I think the Vacationer would be doable, but I do have other hobbies that I have to think about. Yes, I have a tablesaw and a planer along with all my car tools. The tablesaw and all the other tools can be moved outside fairly easily which is where I prefer to work to keep dust to a minimum on the Dodge (no dust collection). I haven't completely counted out doing the Vacationer, especially after being out on the water today and thinking about a 16' boat out in that chop...

Where are you located, Oyster?

[tdrown]

That's about the size of the garage I built my weekender in. The garage also has an I-beam going down the middle, so we can't have a standard garage door opener (the motor actually goes up and down with the door). I took up both sides of the garage throught the process. Sometimes it was a tight squeeze, but I had more than enough room most of the time

http://tyler.drown.org/115.html

the above link is mostly side-view pictures of my boat when it was mostly finished.[/url]

[Guest]

Brad, there has been a lot of boats built is worse conditions. There are some variables but the wife and neighborhood has to be 8) with your project, since most of these projects take at least a year, unless you are afforded to work on them semi full time while the wifey works or while the investment broker is very aggressive and successful with your money.

What you see is a 66 inch beam boat, 20 foot without the bowsprit and rudder on it, and a set of horses, 4 feet wide in the floor space of 16x24, without my tool addittion in the rear. You wll find that I have about 30 inches around the boat on the trailer, which the fenders are the same as the beam. I hope this give you an idea of what its require to be marginally comfortable. Its not bad, but laying off requires some area to stand back and look at your work. I do have access to swinging the two doors into themselves and the top panels open up to allow for 11 foot of access with 12 foot open ceilings. My wood storage is off to the side with its own entrance to it from the outside.

Double click on the photos for clarity. DOn't know why but it just does...

[Dave R1]

Brad, although I have a two car garage as a work shop, I found that I frequently had to push the boat to one side so I could operate the tablesaw. Then I had to push the tablesaw out of the way so I could work on the boat. Fortunately I built the boat on a dolly with casters at all four corners which made life easier. I would highly recommend that you take the time to build one before starting the boat.

My dolly consisted of 4 8foot 2x6s. Two were cut in half and screwed together to make the ends. The other two were attached to the ends with joist hangers and lag screws. I used some scraps of plywood for gussets at the corners. This stiffened the corners nicely and provided some handy little shelves periodically.

Early on I used some 2x4 scraps screwed to the ends to support the keel. After the bottom was attached, I added supports from the sides to the bottom of the boat.

When it was time to roll the boat, I made cradles to fit the dolly and support the boat just in front of the cabin and in the cockpit. I removed the boat from the dolly out in the driveway, added the supports to the dolly and strapped it onto the top of the boat. Then it was a simple matter of rolling the boat over onto its wheels.

If you do make a dolly, you can roll the boat into the driveway to work on it if need be.

BTW, you should track down my buddy Chadd. He's be interested in seeing what you're up to.

[Brad Lustig]

Yep, thanks guys. It's looking like the Weekender is going to be the boat. In several years, I'll have a boatshed that I will be able to use which will be plenty big (at my in-laws house that we'll move into when the time comes). I think the one side of my garage would be enough to fit the Vac in without the bowsprit, but there would be absolutely no room for anything else. I'd love to have a shed in the backyard but the HOA won't allow anything that big I believe. Oh well, I know the Weekender is a more than capable boat, but I'd love to have the size and ammenities of the Vac. I know with a little time and practice, I'll be able to use the Weekender like a larger boat. I've thought about the PC, but I just love the lines of the Weekender. In fact, when if and when I make the Vacationer, I'll probably modify it to look more like the weekender. Thanks again. Oh by the way, the wife is wanting to help me build. And between my neighbors and me, we sound like dueling tablesaws some days already

[Brad Lustig]

I just spent the better part of the day cleaning out and straightening up my garage to see what I had. I looked at the long side and if I were to dedicate every inch of space to nothing but the Vacationer and use the other side for everything else, it would be doable, BUT! This still has to be a functioning garage with a car in it. So, I'll be lucky to squeeze in the weekender and I'll probably be doing a good bit of the work outside with the garage being mainly storage so a dolly will be a must.

Dave, where's your friend Chadd?

[Dave R1]

Brad, my buddy Chadd now lives in Charleston but he used to live in Mount Pleasant about 2 miles away from you. He was on the east side of Rifle Range Rd.

He has built several small boats and many cradle boats among other things.

Here's a link to his website: http://hamiltonwoodworks.com/

Frank might like to look at that one.

[Brad Lustig]

What a cool idea! Kinda one of those ideas where you smack yourself in the head and say "Why didn't I think of that!?" Also looks like great work.

[kydocfrog]

As an expert in working in a drastically minimum garage space, there is another gotcha here. When I turned Charlie Girl II bottom up, I lost all those flat places in the cockpit where I was lining up tools and sandpaper and boxes of hardware and all that. Real bummer trying to figure out how to replace all that counter space... :?