Designing your own boat, A fool for a client?

I dare to disagree,

one must not be able to play piano to comment on the quality of the artists efforts.
And one must not be a NA to produce a functional layout of a boat.

Be it cooking, painting or making love, art can be created by artists only, but valuated by skilled amateurs as well............

Regards
Richard

 

Why , yes of course

 

Agreed. I am not a chef but I know good food.

 

My goose knows good food and is very picky about what she will eat.

good is a personal judgement

 

I'd agree with Apex. I'd forget about the European Canals unless you have some very specific reason for cruising there (like visiting ancestral home etc). And in that case probably chartering a boat would make sense, or buying one already in Europe.

Depth is also a problem in many European canals, even more so than in the ICW.

To me the biggest stumbling block would be your self righting requirement. Very, very few powerboats are self righting and those that are have shapes like, for example, the UK's RNLI lifeboats. Check them out.

I'd forget about limiting beam and consider a power catamaran. Way more sensible than a monohull. In fact apart from extra beam no obvious drawbacks. Compared to a monohull a powercat is faster, has better fuel consumption, lower wake, is more stable, has more room on deck and below, and no rolling.

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

well,

the vessel described here is 1:1 Dashews Windhorse, down to the choosen propulsion. With a few exemptions like food storage etc.

So, we are talking 4 mio US $$$.

A capable World - Passagemaker like the North Sea Trawler shown in my Thread, could be done for some 2.500.000 $ leaving the 700.000$ to have a 15 meter coastal and canal cruiser in Europe, which could be sold after exploring the rivers and canals. On top of that, the remaining 800k would easily pay a few years of circumnavigating.

Right?

 

I like your post, very honest. I will say go for it, make your impossible design, then start the compromises. You don't like what you did? start again.
When you close to what you want, make a model, it is a good therapy and a very enjoyable moment of self satisfaction.
And if one day you realise you designed very close to what you want, ask a pro to do all the dirty work

It is complicate for everyone to design their own boat. An impossible task. To design for a customer is a breeze compared to design your own.

While I was designing for client with smooth sailing from my pen, my own boat make me sweat and redesign it countless time.

Mostly take care of the financing, just in case what you design is what you want. And I suppose one day you will built it, if not full time on try to keep around the 1000 hours work.

I hope I understood you well.

Daniel

 

This statement might be the most telling thing here. I do indeed have a fool for a client. My goal when I started studying was to gain enough knowledge to do a very good job of assisting an NA with the creation of a boat. Somewhere along the line I seem to have assumed a more ambitious bent. In the end, a good NA is worth there take.

As far as the ICC and inland endorsement in EU. That is likely a bridge I will cross. A Masters license here is not cheap either with the drug testing and all. I haven't upgraded to a masters here because there is no advantage. You don't create boats overnight so I will have some time. In the land of thousand dollar a day plus operating costs on an ocean passage, it doesn't seem like that big a deal. If that is what they want in EU, that is what they want. So be it.

 

That thought has crossed my mind as a possibility should the compromises lead to that

 

Being designed for its primary role on inland waterways, then being able to conduct a fast passage across oceans, is the killer. These requirments are not complimentary they are diametrically opposite in terms of the final solutions. Hence, they are two separate designs...

 

Well, not exactly. Windhorse is considerably lighter than what I had in mind, a foot wider and more interior accommodations. I also don't really like the looks of Windhorse.

By the way, Why does the FPB series cost in the $50 per lb range? That is racers territory. Is it the lightness?

 

Some reasoned comments and advice here. It is certainly not beyond the abilities of an intelligent, resourceful and reasonable beginner to design a successful boat. I does take hard work, considerable study and an honest appraisal of both your abilities and desires. To go after a boat similar to the one you propose is probably very unreasonable for any beginner. Most successful boat designs rests on learning from your own missteps and failures or a careful adherence to the successful work of others.

The design spiral is the way to do it but you must develop the knowledge to make proper judgments before and after each run through the spiral. Some, perhaps most of us have been though the process but, I would hazard a guess that most would not attempt what you propose alone. As has been said, there are some very apparent conflicts in the wish list. The first trip through the spiral is to eliminate some of those, which requires inevitable compromise that will be difficult but necessary.

Don't give up the ship. Oh, I think someone already said that

 

yeah I know. It's kinda how much to you want to feel shut in and shut out with the necessary compromises for and ocean crosser on the waterways or how much to you wanna get beat up at sea. :idea: Delivery captains like motion don't they? In the end, two boats might be the answer. Its kinda like the two house solution. I just don't like that much motion.

 

If only it were that simple. Cats do have some drawbacks. I don't like the looks as much as a classic monohull. Cats have way to many steps in them. I don't like the motion they create when the waves get big and I don't like the ones that I have been on for downwind work. I am a downwind kind of sailor.

I need more convincing on that one.

 

Its funny that you would pick out the few things I threw into my SOR at the last minute just from notes in other areas. I would like somewhere around 125 to 130 degrees and right itself within a couple of waves. In order to get to righting moment I have to get past your last damned sentences. I DON'T LIKE YOUR LAST DAMNED SENTENCES yet, I have come to the same conclusion. Every time I draw that boxy section in the midsection I erase part of it and go with more gradual buttock lines. Then I don't have enough room. I don't like the style restrictions either. I usually end up with a flat sheer or a raised foredeck and something not a nice as Bill Garden but better than Dashew. That is what I meant by I can't draw what I want and make it work.

Here again this should not be a requirement as I am not married to twin engines. I ended up there because of draft restrictions and it became a requirement in my mind. I will take another look.

Another one of those last minute throw ins before sending. I should have sent what I had typed and not tried to dress it up. This should not be a requirement.

I know that this is the solution Dashew came up with. He uses fresh water making to fill the ballast tanks as he goes. I am not really familiar yet with this solution and it deserves more attention.

Oh, here is that last sentence. I feel like a puppy that sht on the floor. At least I am not asking for much in the way of accommodations for the length of boat.