Stoned Pirates first hull

[stonedpirate]

When I did my welding course, the instructor said he hated teaching sculptors how to weld. They were having so much fun joining shapes together, they didnt want to bother with learning how to do quality welding.

Seems to apply to hull design. People get such a buzz out of drawing shapes in computers, they cant be bothered actually producing designs that work as boats.

This stuff may "look nice" - but you've got a lot of learning to do to make a hull that will actually be a boat, not a decoration.

i agree

early days yet

but the rate i'm learning with these tests and forums i'll get there

[rwatson]

Originally Posted by stonedpirate

i agree, early days yet
, but the rate i'm learning with these tests and forums i'll get there

Well said.

With an attitude like that, you will certainly get there. Keep at it, and you can't fail.

Everyone has to make the discoveries themselves, and its always an exciting journey. All the best with your journey.

[ancient kayaker]

Computer design tools are as much of a help to the beginner as they are to the expert boat designer. It is very reassuring to get accurate displacement, drag and stability data, as well as plank developments. These things can be time consuming to calculate by hand even for an expert, let alone a tyro.

Carene is a very easy application to learn, but a bit limited in what it can give you unless you buy the pro version. Free!Ship is more powerful and flexible, but can be frustrating at first until you develop a feel for it. If you get hold of a copy, let us know what your problems are and we'll try to guide you through it. There's several good tutorials around, and a search of this forum will turn up some good info. Try Google's site search tool, works better than the search engine that comes with the forum.

The time and effort required for hand calculations has, IMHO been largely responsible for the slow pace of development and the preference for traditional design for much of the history of boat building. Now it is possible to think outside the box and proceed in leaps and bounds rather than baby steps.

That said, not every boat that can be built can be sailed, and you will still need to be able to interpret what these numbers are. Eric Sponberg gave a great tutorial in the thread below and summarized it all in several pdf files that are linked in post #264:

center of flotation calculation and implications?

Don't worry if you can't understand it all. I can't either. But some of it will stick, and the easier stuff is the more important I found. You are at the beginning of a great adventure: good luck.

[stonedpirate]

Thanks a lot Terry.

I'll give it a read