I know you think I have gotten that statement backwards. Obviously common wisdom suggests if you can’t afford a boat "off the shelf", how could you afford to have one built from scratch? Very often you can do just that.

Building multiple boats is more economical, right? The truth is most production boatyards build only a handful a year. That takes away much of the advantage of the volume production line. Large quantity purchasing power is an advantage for the production builder, but small yards get comparable discounts on much of the gear and often pass it along.

For their part small yards sell a service. They are not just assemblers. Their workforce routinely and efficiently fabricates one-off parts. As a result they are eager to customize to your exact specifications.

What small builders don’t do is also important. Being small companies they generally don’t have significant commissions, advertising, corporate mark-up, facilities costs or other large overheads to pile on top of building costs Conclusion: you can often build a custom boat for less money than you could buy a similar production one.