Hi all

With the blessing of our “forum master” I would like to propose a new and hopefully interesting focus for the many and varied talents in this community (yes, this means you!).
It occurs to me that at one stage or another we have seen posts from designers, architects (naval and otherwise), mechanics, sailors, racers, boat builders, luxury yacht, talented students, materials experts, general enthusiasts, DIY’ers and yacht engineers to name but a few. Since we have all this talent in one place why not lets put it to some use and …design a boat?

This is an idea of how it could work (until it gets changed based on results and experience!) All decisions, starting with the absolute basics (what type of boat!), could be made with a thread/poll that will run for a week or so (maybe varied depending on the importance of the decision and/or volume of input, season etc)

As an example –
"If the members of this forum were to collectively design a boat should it be :

sail/racing,
sail/cruising
sail/commercial
power/racing
power/cruising
power/commercial

and why...

then we go down to the next level based on the results, also the next level could contain a poll of any questions raised in the responses. Also a general question can be floated and later a poll taken on the most popular suggestion. Someone (the poor FM no doubt) will keep track of where we have got to and what is going on..

Guidelines
I would suggest we make decisions roughly in the following order:
Basic type and Application for example :- a sailboat for racing
More details : e.g. round the world or round the cans?, single handed or crewed? (we could even invent our own race…)
Then once we have the application nailed down we can go on with:
Specification
How many hulls
How big (why, what regulatory body/class rules if any)
Displacement
What rig
What keel
What hull shape (and all the design numbers)
What material
… and so on
Radical suggestions are of course welcome!

As we get further along decisions that do not rely on each other can be run simultaneously (e.g. what hull coating depends on the build material but what nav system does not – but it might depend on the length and certainly on the application ..)

Everyone can (and should!) post polls, suggestions and votes – but please don’t jump the gun with specifics(e.g. what type of prop.) before the application (will she have an engine and if so how many?) poll has closed, otherwise it will all get very confusing! At the same time you don't forget to put a closing date on your poll.

Who knows, when we have decided the colour of the last bolt in the wishbone-gaff, schooner rigged, long keeled, 100ft trimaran for a two handed race to Antarctica… maybe some of the designers could draw it!

I have taken the liberty of posting the first set of choices – please vote, lobby and discuss under the poll thread. Responses, questions and ideas for running this monster here: ---

Cheers

Paul

Forgot to mention that the first poll is set to run for a week!

An excellent idea!

I will be very interested to see what other people think, and how many people will get involved with this.

Again, this is a great idea and I appreciate you proposing this and getting it started.

An interesting idea, though in general I think design by committee produces generic plane vanilla boats. I did put in a vote for a cruising sailboat design. This is one of the more dynamic areas of yacht design at the moment. The integration of tradition and performance is a intriguing mix. But maybe we should just accept Polarity's racing yacht suggestion as he thought the whole thing up. This will certainly generate some interesting discussion if nothing else.

I recall several magazines have tried this in the past. One was Cruising World, conducting a poll for the ideal blue water cruiser. Hundreds, (probably thousands) replied to the poll, but the editors had to throw out a big chunk of conflicting results so that Ted Brewer could actually draw a final boat. Passagemaker magazine also tried it, polling to produce the ideal trawler yacht. Again some of the results were nonsense. Like the majority preferred a 40'ish full displacement hull that cruised at 10-12 knots, and preferred a low profile boat with raised wheel house and flying bridge, etc. At least Passagemaker did not try to draw such a vessel.

This project could avoid these pitfalls only by, as you suggest, making each design decision in light of those that have gone before. But I would suggest it must involve some foresight by all who contribute.

All the best, Tad.

Actually I just picked racing sailboat as an example - I have spent several years engineering on Super/Megayachts - mostly power...

I agree about the cruising sailboats - cruisers are realising the benefits of boat speed - but not at the expense of comfort or safety.

What I hope will prove very interesting is that as 8knots said :
-----------------
Unfortunatly I would not be able to participate or contribute much on a sailboat....
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That we will be given a challenge to think outside of our existing area of expertise, with no owner or budget (unless that becomes one of the design criteria!) to worry about. Also it's not an anonymous vote - we all have the opportunity to push it our own way - and so need to back up choices and suggestions with reasons... (anyway I'm sure 8knots would help out really!)

Most of all, as Tad said, the idea is to generate some interesting discussion!

Cheers

Paul

- What a great response!

Just thought I would bring this thread back up to keep us on track and make it more visible for the newcomers - we want your input too!
The results so far show a leaning towards a power cruiser... however all those rag n stick people may be rallying for a last minute push...

The next poll will look at the application .. of whatever the result is of the first one.

Cheers

Paul

PS just a reminder - they have not taxed the wind... Yet.

ya gotta change the name of the heading from BD-1 to something else...James Bede (BD-1) is a sometimes airplane designer promoter artist...........with a somewhat tarnished reputation....


Otherwise.....a nice cruising boat would be nice...sail.....or even a modern rendition of a late 20's early 30's coastal cruiser for retirement types using minimal power and outfitted with economical systems.....

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Chuck

This is my first post on a forum, Hope I don't step on to many toes. Project BD-1, What about designing or inventing the "Perfect Boat" using the latest and greatest marine technology.

For years I've been watching "Beyond 2000" type TV shows, I've seen all sorts of new marine technology but the products don't seem to reach the market place. Paradigms and poor Marketing I suspect.

BD-1 characteristics "maybe", must be Wake-reducing "not over 8 inches" at all speeds, Quiet, Safe in all sea conditions, Fast, and Economical to operate and own.

1st up - welcome BTVM.
The thread you've chosen to post in is the first in a long line that has become the "Option One" design project. This particular thread was started way back in March 2002 - so things have moved on a fair bit since then....
Having said all that - I suspect that the design at this point would mee all of your criteria take a look at the O-1 so far thread http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/sho...=&threadid=697 and that should give you some idead of where we're at. Feel free to make any suggestions, criticisms etc etc...
The most recent post is the 'final blueprints' thread
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/sho...=&threadid=697

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Will
Imaginocean Yacht Design