The price of steel plate varies from supplier to supplier, so shop around. Generally speaking, the more you buy, the lower the price, by weight. We recommend that you order all the plate, stringer materials, other flat bar, and angle at one time. Many designers supply a material list with the plans and it’s wise to compare this list with the drawings, so you’ll have a better understanding of the construction procedures. Use your material list to obtain quotes from as many suppliers as possible. In most cases, 20 percent should be allowed for wastage.

   Stock sizes of sheet are 8 by 4 feet (2.50 by 1.25 m) and 6 by 3 feet (2 by 1 m) but some stockists can supply sheets 10 or 12 feet (3 or 3.50 m) long. (Note that the metric sizes here are rounded out to the most likely available sizes.) Another consideration is that the steel supplier may make additional charges for larger or unusual sizes of plate, and the delivery costs may also be higher. The size of your boat and the steel-handling equipment you have available may decide the sheet sizes for your project. We cut our kits from 20-foot (6 m) sheets or longer, depending on the size of the vessel and the type of shipping used to transport the kit. Some kits are transported in 40-foot (12 m) containers so even longer sheets can be used. The big advantage of this is that it eliminates welded seams in areas such as the side of the hull. You can easily arrange a gantry arrangement to handle these longer plates so keep this in mind when ordering your kit or basic plate material.

   It’s better to tack-weld your plates into as long a length as practical before installing them on the hull—you’ll achieve a much fairer hull by following this practice. The same advice applies to stringers and other longitudinal framing