Recommend Books to Get Started

I've been a lurker on here for quite a while, but posting for the first time. I want to start learning boat design and I am looking for advice on where to get started. I am an electrical engineer and have a very solid base in mathematics, physics, and basic design process, but have never done anything in marine engineering. I am looking to teach myself, as I don't have time or location for school, so I figure that starting point is to find some highly recommended books. I searched the threads, and while I found quite a few that discussed good books, they all seemed to be directed at a more practical side, whereas I was looking for more mathematically based, scientific level. I want to get down deep into some of the engineering and really understand what is going on before I actually attempt much design. I was hoping to find a very solid fluid dynamics book, and then a couple all around naval architecture/marine engineering books, sticking to general concepts rather then specific types of boats. If there are other areas of study that are helpful, I would be interested in that as well.

As for what I hope to design eventually, I figure to start off with simple like a kayak, and move progressively more complicated, the ultimate dream being designing a large sailing catamaran, maybe about 15m or so. I figure to work mostly with composite while building, if that makes a difference. I have no illusions that this is a way to save money or pop boats out quiclkly, but I enjoy the design process and have always liked boats. I have no intentions at this point in doing it professionally, and understand that before I start building anything that I should consult with a professional naval architect. Thanks in advance for any advice and pointers.

 

I have Larsson and Eliasson, Principles of Yacht Design (it's in the book store here), and recomend it as being easy to apply given that you have maths and engineering background. Even though it seems to focus on keel boat design, my interest lies in centreboard yachts and have found that many if not most of their workings can be scaled back to smaller boats with some thought. I imagine this would also apply to your plans to some extent.

I have not read many of the other texts listed here, and and suspect there are books directly for cat design, but for my part this one is very good. Most of the books on yacht design that I have read previously are good for basic concpets but stop short of any solid engineering or mathmatical analysis. (Or occasionally launch off into advanced calculus with no explanation of where the raw data comes from)

What I like about this book is that they have completed worked examples for many key calculations. This assists greatly, whilst the formulae and explanations are good, the worked examples make it clearer in which context the raw data is derived and used.
I have a mechanical engineering background, and found that the way they introduced the concepts made immediate sense for me.


Good luck & happy reading

PS - It is all in metric, so would require some translation to imperial units if thats what you prefer

 

I like "Yacht Designing and Planning by Howard Irving Chapelle", for a start .
It is especially good if you intend to design small boats, and give a good historical base.

F

 

Check the SNAME (Society of Naval Architects & Marine Engineers) website and bookstore. Some excellent books that you may be interested in.

 

Skene's Elements of Yacht Design edited by Francis Kinney when he was with Sparkman & Stevens is also a classic, lots of formulas, lots of wood construction rules. All the really good basic books seem to be old and/or out of print. I have read only excerpts from Dave Gerr's books. Maybe I am also outdated.

 

I read the -36 rev'd edition so what I'm then?

 

Practical Ship Hydrodynamics, Volker Bertram
Hydrodynamics of High-Speed Marine Vehicles, Faltinsen
Sailing Yacht Design-Theory, Claughton, Wellicome, Shenoi
Sailing Yacht Design-Practice, Claughton, Wellicome, Shenoi
The Symmetry of Sailing, Garrett
The Science of Yachts Wind & Water, Kay
Technical Yacht Design, Hammitt
Sailing Theory and Practice, Marchaj
Aero-Hydrodynamics of Sailing, Marchaj
High Performance Sailing, Bethwaite
http://www.shipstructure.org/pdf/403.pdf

 

New book:
Fossati F. Aero-Hydrodynamics and Performance of Sailing Yachts - the best systematization I have seen so far, calculus based.

 

Thanks all for the suggestions and advice, I have some good leads to follow now. One thing I am wondering about: I have no background in fluids, so I was thinking about finding a good fluid dynamics book for background and such. Is it worth it to get the background, or are naval architecture specific books going to have all the background I need? I do want to try to get a full understanding of what is going on, but don't want to waste money on a book if it doesn't really apply or isn't useful. Thanks again for the help.

 

Aero-Hydrodynamics of Sailing, Marchaj , is one of the best subject specific texts .

 

Most engineering fluid dynamics books relate to flow in pipes, channels and commercial processing, then also dive off into thermodynamics. The fluid dynamic on boats tends to mix in with the hydrostatics and also takes into account the effects of waves and also that a boat is only partly submerged. Any engineering based boat design text will concentrate on the science of these as they are fundamental.

 

It is hard to find a book that blends the bits you need to know about fluids, with hydrodynamics, in naval architecture.

One that does a half decent job is

"Practical Ship Hydrodynamics" - Volker Bertram, ISBN 0 7506 4851 1, publish in 2000 by Butterworth Heinemann.

 

Well, this book is good but in my opinion biased to numerical methods. Another one of this sort is new Larsson, Raven 'Ship Resistance and Flow'.

For starter, some older books would be better - with systematic series, etc. Not sure what is available in English.