Ergnomics in Boat Desing

[richdrummond]

Thanks for all of these posts these are proving really helpful!

My Background has been in car design and i am finding that driving a car is totally different to a boat! As the processes involved are totally different and posses a lot of interesting design challenges, which i love!

The Anthropometric data i will be using is from a program called people size. It has all the dimensions that you could possibly think of and need, it also has all of the different nationality's data. this ranges from the smallest, 2.5% Chinese/Japanese Female, to the largest 97.5% Dutch male. They may be the dimensions i will use, i know 5% to 95% is another common set of dimensions to work to.

Another question i would like to propose is what do you prefer to use when piloting a vessel, a chair, Bench or some kind of bar to lean against. Another quick thought i had was a fully adjustable chair that would move through the X,Y,and Z plains so it can be adjusted for different size users or if u prefer to lean against it for fast ingress and egress.

[Stumble]

What I am doing really determines what I would prefer to have, unfortunatly since there can only by one style on a boat at a time here are my thoughts.

A leaning post or just an open area is prefered when coming into a dock or tight anchorage since it gives the best overall view of what is going on. Plus allowes you to run and do something unimpeded in the case of emergencies.

For long runs I prefer a bench since they are normally more comfortable if you are going to be sitting there for a while. Plus it gives a nice place to put a snack or chart down on while at the wheel.

For bad weather or high speed stuff a chair since it gives the most lateral support and will help you keep in one place.


How to incorperate all of these at once I have no idea. Which is why I would pick the one I thought the boat was going to see most often based on its other design requiremets.

[FAST FRED]

There is a HUGE difference between a boat out for a nice afternoon , and a boat that gets used.

Seats of any type are usually fine for the day tripper, a big bench seat and the autopilot remote , near a place for lunch and a cool one to stay , is as good as it gets, as suggested.

But go out in the bumpy stuff , or attempt to go fast in a non flat day , and the biggest concern is G loading.

For most pleasure boat use only 2.5 to 3G need to be absorbed , a nice pilot chair will do,, with a seat belt.And STRONG mountings.

For high speed boats the STIDD seats are world class , at $6K to $8K EACH!! and up.

FF