How A Boat Is Built

Having worked in software nearly my entire life I’m used to things being built that don’t exist in the physical sense. We engineer things, and we talk about building, but mostly, we can’t touch the thing we built. After a while, physical things become magic and captivating. This is why I’m incredibly grateful that Ranger Tugs allowed us to visit the factory several times to see how our boats get built. Thank you to Statton and Andrew for giving us this opportunity. 

Fiberglass boats are built from the outside in. They start by creating several big molds and the first thing that gets laid into those molds is the clearcoat. This is the mold for the top of the R-43. 

This is the hull of the R-43. This particular boat will be red, and that color coat is the first thing being sprayed in here. You can see the through holes for the IPS Pods, and at the top you can see the cut-out for the windows in the guest cabin and the starboard dockside door. Once the color is added a large number of layers of various fiberglass matting, or shredded fiberglass, are laid or sprayed in along with resin. That’s what actually creates the hull of the boat, which is then popped out of the mold. 

Most of the parts you think about as the boat is constructed of multiple pieces. There is the hull itself that comes out of that mold. Here is ours when it was first finished

Outside

And inside. You can see some of the inside equipment already installed, like the water tank and the water heater. The engines will go on the rails between the water tank and the holes for the IPS pods. Most of those types of bulky things, like the engines in the diesel boats, fuel tanks, and so on, are installed at this stage because the entire boat is open. You can see that some of the furnishings and a reverse cycle A/C are in now too. 

On top of the hull goes a middle section that basically is the inside of the cabin. Here is our R-43. 

At this stage of the construction a lot of the interior furnishings go in. This section of the boat is actually made in several sections on the larger boats. It becomes the “toppings” of the boat sandwich, because on top of this goes the actual top of the boat:

In other words, most of the boat is basically constructed of three large pieces: the hull, the interior, and the super structure. Practically speaking, the interior on the larger boats are composed of several pieces, and there are many smaller pieces added, like the transom platforms, stairs, and so on, but for the most part, it is three somewhat boat-looking pieces. 

Those photos were taken a few weeks ago. Once they all come together, they look more like a recognizable boat. This is the Out Of Office yesterday. 

At this stage, most of the work is inside. 

The engines are now in, but there is a lot of finishing work to be done still. Much of the bright work is done though. 

Inside there is a very recognizable galley. The engines controls were installed before the sandwich was constructed, but the helm is now there.

There’s a tremendous amount of wire that goes into one of these boats. Most of these wires come as large finished bundles with multiple wires and harnesses that all get routed in the same place. Some were installed before the three major pieces came together because it is much easier to route them then. 

Many still need to be routed through various bulkheads and so on, so there are openings that will be ether closed off or finished when the wiring and plumbing is done. 

The electronics are in and you can see the bundles of wire. The thing that looks like a dream catcher is actually the NMEA 2000 bus that handles the communication between all the electronics, GPS, AIS, Radar, Autopilot, Engine Control, and so on. Virtually all boats have something similar. If you’re into cars, it’s analogous to the CANBUS in a car. 

Because it would be very difficult to get them in later, the washer and dryer are now installed, but the table and the lifted section that normally covers them is not in yet. 

At this point, the boat is a month or six weeks away from launch. It’s a fascinating process to see this come together though. If you get the opportunity to see things built, I strongly recommend you take it!