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Design Articles

See also: Boatbuilding Articles

FOAM CORE MATERIALS IN THE MARINE INDUSTRY
APRIL 2002

Foam Core Materials in the Marine Industry

DIAB, Inc.
 

For over 60 years foam cores have been utilized in marine applications to lighten, stiffen, and strengthen everything form hull bottoms to fly bridges. But what exactly is foam core? What type do I use, and where can I use it? Should I use it instead of balsa or plywood? With the seemingly endless variety of foam core materials on the market today, it can be frustrating for the average boating enthusiast to find the right foam core for his/her particular application. This article will attempt to inform boat builders about the properties and correct manufacturing procedures involved in constructing foam core sandwich laminates.

Foam Core Materials in the Marine Industry 

FOAM CORE MATERIALS IN THE MARINE INDUSTRY
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

  


HISTORY OF SAILING YACHT MASTS, RIGGING, AND SAILS: 1900-PRESENT DAY
MARCH 2002

History of Sailing Yacht Masts, Rigging, and Sails

James Gilliam
 

The design, construction and materials of masts, rigging and sails have changed greatly over the course of the 20th century. From solid wooden masts built from a single tree to carbon fibre sections aerodynamically tested, super light and super strong. For sails there have been developments from natural materials such as cotton, which had a tendency to rot and stretch when wet, to new materials such as North sails 3DL sails using Vectran, carbon fibre, Kevlar and exotic films and glues.

History of Sailing Yacht Masts, Rigging, and Sails 

HISTORY OF SAILING YACHT MASTS, RIGGING, AND SAILS: 1900-PRESENT DAY
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
  


WHAT MAKES THE TUNNEL HULL WORK?
FEBRUARY 2002

What makes the Tunnel Hull Work

AeroMarine Research
 

A three-part article written by Jim Russell of AeroMarine Research which summarizes the main factors involved in tunnel boat design.  Jim has written a number of books including Secrets of Tunnel Boat Design and History of Tunnel Boat Design and has also created the Tunnel Boat Design Program software. Hopefully you will find this three-part article to be an interesting introduction to the hydrodynamic and aerodynamic forces which must be carefully considered and skillfully balanced in the design of a high performance powerboat.  For designers not already familiar with the intricacies of tunnel boat design, this article will provide a good starting point and will hopefully spark your interest.  And I believe the more advanced designers among our audience will find this series of articles to be a great preview of the Books and Software from AeroMarine Research which continue to take tunnel boat and aerodynamic design much further.

Part I provides an overview and discusses Lift.  Part II describes the Drag = Thrust relationship.  Part III looks at the necessary dynamic balance of forces.

What makes the Tunnel Hull work 

WHAT MAKES THE TUNNEL HULL WORK? PART I - LIFT AND WEIGHT
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
  

What makes the Tunnel Hull work 

WHAT MAKES THE TUNNEL HULL WORK? PART II  - DRAG AND THRUST
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
  

What makes the Tunnel Hull work 

WHAT MAKES THE TUNNEL HULL WORK? PART III - DYNAMIC FORCE BALANCES
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
  


REVISITING A MAST-AFT SAILING RIG
MARCH 2001

RunningTideYachts, Ltd.

A fascinating article from Brian Eiland detailing his development of a sailing rig which discards the "inefficient mainsail, and replaces it with two clean leading-edge headsails, acting in a parallel, harmonious fashion" with a mizzen sail creatively added and the mast stepped aft in the cockpit area and canted forward 10 degrees.

This design provides:

1.)

A cruising rig that is more aerodynamically efficient.

2.)

A rig that delivers a clean leading edge for all the sails

3.)

A rig that allows the whole sail plan to be roller-furled away or deployed.

4.)

A rig that allows the reefing of the sails without turning into the weather.

5.)

A rig that divides up the total sail area into smaller manageable sizes.

6.)

A rig that maintains its balance center (CE) with different sail combinations.

7.)

A rig that produces less overturning moments.

8.)

A rig that can be operated without leaving the cockpit.

We believe that you will find both the developmental narrative and the concept extremely interesting.

Mast-Aft Sailing Rig 

REVISITING A MAST-AFT SAILING RIG
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
  


CALL FOR ARTICLES

We would like to begin featuring design articles on a more regular basis covering a wide variety of subjects which would be of interest to professional designers, design students, and the general public as they select their next yacht or as they chose a designer and builder to realize their dream.

If you are a designer, boatbuilder, or involved in the marine industry and would like to contribute an article to be included on Boat Design Net, please contact us.

To get the process started, we have come up with a preliminary topic list, but only to provide an idea of the type of articles we are interested in featuring. The following list is just a start.  If you might be interested in contributing an article, we welcome your suggestions.

Design:
Air-entrapping hulls
Step design.
What's the next evolutionary step for the catamaran or tunnel hull forms?
Wave piercing hulls
Hydrofoils
Fast Ferries
Reduced-wake design
Surface effect vehicles (and the winged "bat boats")
New design software.

Boatbuilding:
New Composite Manufacturing Techniques
VEC molding, CAD/CAM/CNC vs. traditional boatbuilding, the advantages of traditional materials such as wood and cold molded hulls, alternate homebuilding techniques, environmental concerns, vacuum techniques, the future of composite construction.

Career Paths for a Naval Architect. A look at how a young Yacht Designers should get started, both in terms of theoretical and practical education and paths into the industry, small boatbuilders, custom one-off and limited production yacht construction.

We would like to arrange to publish articles on a wide variety of subjects, certainly not limited to the above.  In return, we will offer authors and contributors publicity (5000 page views per day), prominent links to your web site and/or contact information, and any web services which might be requested or required. We look forward to your input.

Sincerely,
BoatDesign.Net
webmaster@boatdesign.net
 

OTHER DESIGN ARTICLES

* Foam Core Materials in the Marine Industry
* Free Forming in Fiberglass
* History of Sailing Yacht Masts, Rigging and Sails 1900-Present Day
* Revisiting a Mast-Aft Sailing Rig
* What makes the tunnel hull work?
* Working With Developable Surfaces
5-Axis Milling for Plugs, Molds, and Tooling
A Design Revolution
A Performance Prediction Model for Rowing Races
Aluminum for Boats
Aluminum vs. Steel
Anchor Catenary Details
Anthony Steward - Around Alone in an Open Boat
Automatic Hull Variation and Optimization
Beam vs. Ballast for Seakeeping
Best Offshore Cruisers
Boojum's Twin Keels
Canoe Design
Choice of Construction Material
Computer Cutting For Boat Building
Computer Prototyping and Development
Controllable Pitch Propellers
Cool New Gimmicks... - A Cautionary Tale
Cruising Boats Under 100k
Design Basics
Design of Seagoing Rowing Boats
Dinghies for Self Rescue
Dynamic Stability
Engineering the Sailboat—Safety in Numbers
Essential Design Data
Estimating Boat Building Costs
Estimating Stability
Free Standing Rigs
Fuzzy Logic
Good N.E.W.S. - New Epoxy Wood System
GPS Limatations
Hydrodynamic Drag of Small Sea Kayaks
Hydrodynamic Drag of Some Small Sprint Kayaks
Hydrofoil Basics - A Brief Tutorial
Ideal Passagemaker Hull Form
Keel Fatigue Analysis
Low Drag Racing Kayaks
Low Drag Rowing Shells
Metal Boats for Blue Water
Mindset and Goal Setting for Amateur Boatbuilders
Minimum Induced Drag of Sail Rigs and Hydrofoils
NC Parts Cutting Example
New Life for Amnesia
Plywood Boat Building
Radar Arch Design
Radius Chine Plywood Construction
Radius Chine Steel Construction
Reverse Engineering 3D Computer Hull Shapes From 2D Lines and Offsets
Rigid Wing Sails
Roll Reduction Strategies
Sections for Proa Boards and Rudders
Simpson's Rules (and others)
Stock Boat Designs
Surface-Piercing Propellers
The Advantages of Twin Keels
The Basics of Bulbous Bows
The Case for Lofting
The causes of boat hull blisters
The Design Spiral for Computer-Aided Boat Design
The Dirty Little Secrets of Hull Design by Computer
The Ideal Motor Sailor
The Junk Rig
The New U.L.D.B. Sailboats
The Yacht Design Process
To Home Build or Not
Trailerable Trawlers
Transverse Stability and Longitudinal Trim Articles
U.S. Navy Ferro Cement Boat Building Manual - Volume 1
U.S. Navy Ferro Cement Boat Building Manual - Volume 2
U.S. Navy Ferro Cement Boat Building Manual - Volume 3
Vessel Specification
Water Ballast
Wetted surface area
Wetted surface area II: Cat hulls or Monos
What's the Ideal Sailing Rig?
Wingmast Aerodynamics

More Design Articles
 

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