New build...but what is going to sell

[masalai]

I like that yarn, and is oft repeated in many different flavours... I have found there is often a local need to find "school fees", fund status feasts/celebrations, and a myriad other short term "needs", so by keeping opportunities and incentives to meet an immediate need, the scale of the operation proposed must recognise those constraints to growth / scale... As a rough guide I worked out, about 10% of the available local community, and be prepared to rotate and train the whole community as they rotate in and out of availability/interest/desire to work for wages...

There are also availability constraints, as workers must also maintain their own food gardens, and the significant social and other commitments beholden to those familiar with self-sufficiency in a 'remote' villager lifestyle...

I suppose what I was suggesting was the need to "sell a package as a solution to a need/problem"... In the 2 years I had been building, the used boat price (halving) and variety of boats (doubling) has changed significantly... and the number of "just-looking" & "tyre kickers" has replaced the shoppers and tourists with a bit of spending money...

To sell something now, I feel one must sell an answer to a need, tailored to meet that need and to sweeten the deal include a management plan, their marketing and so on, so they have in effect a turn-key operation......

[Fanie]

Specifically, they want to build steel hulls with alloy superstructure

I'm no steel boat expert - you should ask Wynand - but dissimmilar metals ? What about temperature expansion ? And Galvanic corrosion ?

[yipster]

they use slammed together non corroding intrefaces -or how are they called- isolating the parts and galvanic reaction
interesting widely used trick but limiting possibility of f.e. a spaceframe me thinks but dont know the nitty gritty of it

edit: cladding was the name: http://www.smt-holland.com/triplate.html

[JosephT]

Originally Posted by Tad

The growth and possibilities are in commercial/government vessels...of all kinds......more law enforcement and military, more fire boats (pushed by insurance industry), more efficient people movers (ferries of all kinds), more environmental cleanup and protection, more offshore energy development (wind/tidal power). One of the big areas coming is small freight handling....road transport is getting more expensive and slower with traffic congestion, many major cities are situated on the water, in Amsterdam a company is carrying small containers on hybrid electric vessels.......

I would concur with your assessment Tad. In my opinion there will always be a demand for safer ferry boats. Also, with sea piracy there is no doubt a demand for good law enforcement boats.

I work as a product development consultant for many industries, and one area that is no doubt taking off is hybrid & electric transportation systems. There is no doubt the power systems in these transport systems will be more efficient in boats, which are notorious for guzzling fuel. I would suggest collaborating with some hybrid motor fabricators and you will find a niche boat that outshines other boats in fuel economy. In my opinion, it's only a matter of time before A/C motors with onboard generators (hybrid) will be the dominant form of power for both ships and boats. Locomotives & large ships already use these systems. The time is ripe for smaller vessels to incorporate these technologies.

Another technology for consideration in your design is flexible solar panels & auxiliary lithium ion battery power. I am seeing more and more of them showing up on boats. They allow you to run additional systems without firing up the generators or main engines.

Here's a couple of concepts:

1. 80 to 100ft ferry boat: Hybrid (diesel/electric) propulsion, solar panel/battery aux power, LED lighting (low amp draw).

2. 30ft aluminum patrol boat: Same systems as above, yet scaled down of course. This boat must be fast, so aluminum or composite hull should be used. Steel is too heavy. Suggest making two cabin options:

a) law enforcement cockpit/cabin to accomodate rescue gear, radios, weapon & ammo storage.

b) civilian cockpit cabin with more comfort features

I really like this boat concept. You could scale it up/down & capture a good chunk of customers.

http://www.code-x.ch/

Good luck!

[watchkeeper]

Originally Posted by yipster

they use slammed together non corroding intrefaces -or how are they called- isolating the parts and galvanic reaction
interesting widely used trick but limiting possibility of f.e. a spaceframe me thinks but dont know the nitty gritty of it

edit: cladding was the name: http://www.smt-holland.com/triplate.html

System material is called Triclad, a surface molecular fusion sandwich of alu/steel.
We're currently building a 120ton 55m x 15m tri deck superstructure (superyacht) that will be mounted to parent steel hull using Triclad.

I used the same technology to fire weld (1100C gas forge) billets comprised of HC steel, nickel plate and 316S/S into a single multilayer almagamation that I then forged into blades or tools.