MikeJohns - no point wasting bandwidth in trying to convince people of following:
Holy books written by men a few thousand years less enlightened than we are are not absolute guides to anything
It is wasted effort.
I think its fine to point out that the 1:6 in succesful boats is cherry picking and in no way a rule. But far more important to concentrate on actual design and process errors. I don't see any need in closing the thread.
Tomas said it well - its not about ill will or pessimism or anything like. If there is a higher power it gave us brain to use and we humans have communally used brains rather well. This has resulted in a lot of accumulated knowledge and experience that helps us avoid repeating mistakes already done.
What irritates/worries me about GWTA is not so much the stubborness about faith related issues or sticking to some arbitrary number (1:6) but its the following:
1. Constantly writing things as facts when he is writing about a field he is clearly not a professional in. He makes constantly confident statements that sound like he had something to back them up but in reality they are hopes and wishes pretending to be facts. This is very dangerous as for someone else he might come of as a professional.
examples:
Still working on 50, but have other ideas in affordable/seaworthy catagory. Enjoy designing and working as a boatdesigner so you have to be able to multitask.
Thought about this idea while working on my own boat for purposes of building smaller hulls and beams which would make it more managable for a beginner eventhough overall it would be more work.
I don't have the energy to wade through the thread but GWTA will say constantly absolute statements in the fashion of : "Structure A is far superios in heavy seas. Its also much easier to maintain." When in fact he has NEVER had any experience of said subject. Forwarding text read earlier as absolute truths is questionable at best.
When asked about the experience and credentials - which seems to be very limited all we have gotten is cocky
credentials: Senior member of boatdesign.net.
Which sadly is actually accurate as his highest credit for boat design.
2. He categorically ignores feedback and criticism provided by experienced skilled people who know much better than him. I am no NA pro so I read this for fun but on early pages there were serious people providing serious comments - most have stopped following by now. GWTA labels all these as naysayers picks only irrelevant banter to respond to and justifies every bad decision with faith based jargon.
It is important to raise awareness to random observers in a case like this where a person disregards reputable (and by reputable I mean people who have designed number of boats and or been in passage making conditions) and acts as if he had authority on a subject he actually doesn't know much of.
this boat:
and this weather:
Do not mix.
You don't have to be an engineer to see that the structure of longitudinal planking with flat surfaces and tight corners is not strong. And of course will pound like crazy until you have pile of floating king sized matches.