Im new to the boat designing. What should i do first?

[futuredesigner]

I am really interested in learing how to design boats and then actually designing them on the computer. What should i do first to start me off on a good note to designing ships.
Best Regards,
futuredesigner

[MikeJohns]

Read a lot of books

A good start would be "How to design a boat" by John Teale.
An essential that you must read at some stage is "Seaworthiness the forgotten factor" by Marchaj

Find some good software, Possibly Rhino and the student version of maxsurf, and freeship.

You will also need to familiarise yourself with the ABS or ISO scantling rules.

Oh and finally ask lots of questions here and post your prelim designs for review.

Good luck

[futuredesigner]

Thanks for replying. I downloaded freeship but it is very hard to use since i don't know anything about designing. Where can i get rhino, i've heard a lot of people talk about it? Does it cost anything?

[skyl4rk]

My first thought was to get yourself a canoe or kayak, and go play in waves and surf. This is a little bit dangerous but thrilling, and you learn a lot about how boats act in rough water.

[futuredesigner]

Where I'm from there are no big waves. Just tens of thousands of lakes and rivers. I do have a 20 ft pontoon though on a river so i know how boats work in the water and ive been on plenty of boats in 10 ft seas in the ocean.

[Seafra]

I have freeship too, but I wonder how it compares to the big $$$ CAD studios.

[Raggi_Thor]

Start with paper and pencil for the first years :-)

[ChrisF]

Start with paper and pencil for the first years :-)

Now you're talking, Raggi! I believe every design should start with paper and pencil, no matter how many years it's been. I do use Multisurf and CAD, but only after the design is worked into shape by my hand and eye with pencil and paper. Otherwise it's too easy to let the computer design what IT wants instead of what YOU want. Too many computer-designed boats look, well, designed by a computer: blah.

[BOATMIK]

Start with paper and pencil for the first years :-)

Good point Raggi,

Keep it really simple at the start - what is someone without basic drawing skills or lofting skills going to make of RHINO as someone suggested above? I've been designing for 20 years and it is a steep learning curve.

The best suggestion I can make is to actually use paper to design some basic boats and build them out of cheap plywood - you will know more about some things after doing it a few times than many designers do now.

I spent a lot of time with pen and paper early - but then worked out that you actually have to BUILD stuff to learn.

The other way is to build someone else's design of a similar sort of boat to what you are interested in and use it a lot.

Read lots of books, time spent in boat building environments is really important - see if there is a Wooden Boat or Messabout association in your area - even if your interest is not WOODEN they are a hotbed of activity and ideas (many of them conflicting - so need to be balanced up against your knowledge from reading).

Look at doing some study in the area. By correspondence or even a general engineering course so you can start to work out how strong things have to be.

If you are young see if there are some local boatbuilders and see if you can get a job sweeping up on the weekends or when you have spare time. Get vacation work of this type if you can.

In the end you have to DO STUFF - so these are just some basic ideas.

MIK

[Raggi_Thor]

I remember an interview with Knud Reimers, I think it was in WoodenBoat. He said that his most important investments was a white shirt and a good (set of?) pen(s). He also said that the most important skill was to be able to sketch while he talked to the client.