Can everybody design?

I have been thinking about this issue for some time. Why's everybody so interested in boat design? I see that many people are eager to design some boats. Well, creativity and inspiration doesn't come with education, I am aware of this but am I the only one who thinks that this is a little disrespect to naval architects or am I just too selfish? )))

 

I think I'm going to go hide in the basement until this blows over...

 

Cream and crap both float.

 

Why up so early Cthippo?

 

Just a little note;
I know that most of you guys are older than me and I opened this threat only to hear your thoughts. This is not a "I don't like this" topic )))
I have respect for all "real" designers but seeing some people, who think that they know yacht design only by learning couple of programs, make me feel upset.

 

The first boats were floating before Naval Architects.
People with intelligence make it, and the people with an education work out why it works.

 

I disagree completely with this in principle and in practical terms. The vast majority of folks are not especially creative, though some can muster a bit of inspiration, from time to time, when they need to select a new color for their next car.

The designs we all think of as timeless masterpieces, are the carefully crafted works of engineering and art they are, just because of their designer's education. The designer's wouldn't have known to taper rails toward the ends of the boat, to cheat an often unobserved optical illusion, was it not for an education in design aesthetics. I can list countless subtle details that make a grand classic, a master work of it's designer, all of which are a direct result of reading Chapelle's or Herreshoff's (insert classic master here, etc.) opinions on the specific particular.

In short, I'll leave you with part of John Hardiman's (NA, PE) signature; "the only thing a Naval Architect has to sell is his opinion" and the only way to have this is with an education. If you expect people to pay you for this opinion, you probably will need a substantial education.

Maybe there are pre-adolescent, prodigy yacht designers, born with a natural talent, but I haven't met any. Everyone I've met has had mad depth of understanding, in the history, evolution, concept, dynamics and theory of design.

Michelangelo sucked as an artist, until Domenico Ghirlandaio took him under his wing and educated him in the trade. Only then was he able to become the prodigious artist and engineer he was.

 

PAR wrote; "The designer's wouldn't have known to taper rails toward the ends of the boat, to cheat an often unobserved optical illusion, was it not for an education in design aesthetics."

Thereby hangs a tale. Duckworks ran an interesting article a few days:

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/11/columns/guest/voyagers/index.htm

The article prompts me to speculate about a bunch of blokes standing on a seashore in the dim and distant past, where they have just bound together a huge bunch of logs into a raft upon which they are about to set sail, mob handed, towards a distant smudge of land on the horizon.

Having viewed their destination they turn around to regard their vessel once more and one of them steps forward and pulls at the logs at either end to produce a more stylish upturn in the sheer. A bit of taper, a bit of je ne sais quois.The others grunted in appreciation and they all pushed their vessel into the water and set off.










Sadly, they all perished, because although they had an erstwhile designer on board, what they really needed was a naval architect to show them how to tie the proper knots.

Apologies, apologies,

P.

 

Nice try Pericles, but no offense was taken. Early mariners didn't bother all that much with aesthetics, creativity and inspiration. Surviving the trip down river, on the pile of lased together logs, was a high enough SOR goal. I suspect the survivability rate was a might bit low in the early years.

Applied engineering was the rule of the day, back then. Your riding along on your freshly assembled pile of logs and Sven stands up, removes his goat gut parka, when you notice the boat accelerate a little as it fills with wind. Naturally, you attempt to attach a peddle to this magic parka and after a few generations of tinkering, you've stumbled your way into a goat gut asymmetric spinnaker. As a result of your recent innovation you're swept out to sea, never to be seen again, so they sing songs about the evil goat gut asymmetric, that takes good men to their untimely death.

With the advent of education and empirical knowledge (someone watched you sail off to your death) things eventually get sorted out, though there is that uncharted, south Pacific atoll, that seems to secretly collect multi-hull designers as revenge for being bold.

 

PAR,

You replied whilst I was taking a Google look at Eustis, namely Ferran Park and the railway and Main Street. Do you sail on Eustis lake?

Regarding ancient history. it is said that an ancient people discovered roast pork when a farm house burned down, but it was some years later that they realised it was not always necessary to burn down their houses for supper.

P

 

Everybody can draft or sketch. Few people can design. And many Freeship (or Rhino) - generated amateur creations show that fact pretty well.

For the rest, I agree with PAR and also with Bntii's short summary:

 

This is engineered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ORjZ8Dpa7k&feature=related

P

 

Designed too. No technical need for that particular form of cockpit windshield (which is a structural weak point) or for that coloring scheme.

 

Superboat Unlimited 2 2000hp turbines, 210mph on first run
sure, go ahead and design your own boat

 

I would have thought good all round vision would be important for navigating to and from the dock. Which part of the canopy should be replaced please and with what? Look at the prices for F 15 technology.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2003/08/mil-030819-afpn02.htm

The decals on Miss Geico aren't too prominent, but the long kiss at the end of the clip? Disgraceful. Two grown chaps indulging in a bit of European football player behaviour! We British don't indulge in such lascivious exhibitionism. It can lead to all kinds of naughties.

P