Designing your own boat, A fool for a client?

I don´t say it is senseless to reduce height, but we are talking about a ocean cruiser here!
Canal cruises are possible without screwing the open water capabilities. It is just not every river and not every canal one can explore. And that is not necessary anyway, when ocean passages are the main requirement.

For a river cruiser, like you, that is a completely different animal. For you, it might be even important to visit Le Canal du Midi.

 

Boat design

The customer is the most important part of a custom boat project. He will have plenty of think to say, without the burden of spending his time in front of a screen. As Designers, we are becoming more and more slaves of Bill Gates, basically glorified secretaries. So owners, enjoy your projects while you can.
Talking about it, here is a well advanced project about a Canal boat. Came to a brutal end when the owner got into a car accident.

 

I think we lost the SOR a bit out of sight meanwhile.
I understand that "Eurocanal" likes to discuss canal cruisers exclusively, but WE don´t.

The OP clearly stated a ocean capable boat with some river cruising in mind, not vice versa.

Regards
Richard

 

OP actually said:

I am interested in coastal and off-shore boats, but there's not much point in giving an opinion on something I know little about, especially when there are many more knowledgeable members posting here. So I'll stick to trying to provide useful input concerning the inland waterway aspects of the design, and won't tell you that a fin stabilizer is better than a paravane, or whatever.

 

It looks to me like Don Juan needed to give Picaro more time to clear the lock. Some of those skippers are used to having a center line!

 

Quoting seems to be a art in itself...................

That did sound different for me.

Anyway, the oviparouswoolmilkpig is not possible, so one has to throw one or the other requirement overboard.
Due to the desired LOA that would inevitably mean giving up the plan to navigate ALL European inland waterways, or giving up to cross oceans.

 

This is another area where there are significant differences between Dashew's 83 and 64 and my PL's.......The Dashew boats are designed solely to make long ocean passages....No thought is given to canal cruising at all, and not much (seemingly) to coastal cruising either. The reality (IMO) is that there are very few people serious about long offshore passages in powerboats....how many Norhavn's have actually crossed the Pacific on their own bottoms? I'll bet less than 10% of production.

Most folks are interested in coastal cruising where they visit interesting new places every few days, and friends can come and go for short hops. Yes, they want the ocean range so they can jump from NY to the Caribbean offshore if they need to, or go across the north Atlantic without concern for fuel supply. But building short, fat, high-sided pigs that can only travel at 5-6 knots is, from a naval architectural point of view, wildly inefficient......

At any rate here's another view of the 74'

 

Seems the first straw fire turned to warm ashes....?

 

Overlooking the design process when searching for your perfect boat would be foolish. You will walk into the Naval Architects office, or purchase plans without any information on what you are trying to achieve. Fool hardy at best to ignore all the information available on boat design that is available by Design Professionals. I speak from an Engineers point of view (EIT not PE), so am able to muddle through a lot of the technical information myself, which does help. If you have no technical background, you should read as much about boat design, and learn as much about boat design as possible BEFORE you make your final purchase (or) build your first boat! As an engineer, I have spent a whole year studying boat design, and still KNOW I have a long way to go. I have built one boat, and it sits right on the waterline where it's supposed to. It also performs extraordinary! Personally, I don't think I could have purchased such a boat. I know every detail that went into the design of the boat. That is one reason it rows like a champ. I compare rowing my boat to walking - nearly effortless. Don't say you can't do it, because YOU CAN! There are also online courses you can take which would also be a very good idea if you are new to the process. You will find these courses on this website. I am planning on taking one of the course programs myself because I am serious about this business. Trust someone else to design your boat without knowing exactly what you are wanting or needing and you will likely be making one big mistake.

 

There was a very good reason, why I recommended to hire a Project Manager, and not a NA first.
The former has a clear picture of the SOR, cost / time relations, quality vs. price etc. and acts on owners behalf only. The latter will most probably have personal favourites and tastes which are more often than not, a bit besides owners desires, or don´t correspond with yards experience.
The often argued "additional expense" for a PM is turned almost always into a lower price and much less hassle in the end.

After fourty years in my core business, as a developer / project manager of mainly Holiday Resorts, I yet have to meet one Architect capable of seeing the entire picture! Though I employed / engaged some of the very best.
Of course this is a bit different in boatbuilding, but there are many similarities.

The finest yachts afloat have been "built" by project managers, not yards, and not NA`s!
Klaus Kusch was the best of them.

Regards
Richard

 

I could say the same about some project managers I've had to deal with......

I would disagree.....The finest yachts afloat have been built by teams of people, not one guy......Prima Donna's are everywhere in the yacht construction business...and employing a bunch of them leads to endless infighting and lots of wasted effort (and wasted owner's money). I have worked with some very good project managers, Jens Cornelsen comes to mind, and a larger group of poor managers....some criminal in my opinion.

Most important is everyone respecting the contribution that each makes, by their care and patience with each small part of something bigger than them alone.

 

I had exactly this in mind. Quite many (far too many) designers are a shitbag of self celebrating whores, Prima Donnas. When there is no competent project manager to kick their asses twice a day, they waste the owners (and too often the yards) money as if it were nothing.

It is always one guy, and one only, who brings and holds a team together when the result is outstanding.
There is no teamwork in this business! Too different are the tasks, too much colliding the interests of the different trades.
As you perfectly know, if the vessel gets complex, it is nothing but compromises. That hurts one ore the other trade.
A good project manager, worth his salt, can bring the job to a perfect end, forming a joint venture between the people involved, but a team they are not. They still fight for the own colours mainly.

You know Jens from your time with Tripp? He did some nice projects, no doubt, Saudade I remember. Klaus was more in my league, Megayachts. (motor of course)
But both are perfect examples to show what I mean. Nobody outside our business has ever heard of them, but all know the "Prima Donnas" which would not be as successful as they are, without these professionals in the background!

Regards
Richard

 

I am also from the construction industry - building projects in the 10 to 35 million dollar range. I am a senior engineering cost estimator for buildings, not boats. In estimating boat cost, I find little difference except for man-hours. As stated, a large project is not accomplished by one "discipline", but by several in order to run smoothly. The Project Manager heads up the job, but he has many team members working with him to ensure the job is completed on time, and within budget including the owner, architect, tradesman, cost estimators (who also work closely with the project manager, owner, and architect), and the office staff. This teamwork approach is used on even the smallest of projects, and is a proven method for getting every job done right.

 

Richard,

I know we're thinking the same on this......the project manager is just that....he's not the designer or the engineer or the electrician......too few are willing to listen to reality from a "simple" tradesman, or wise enough to know when reality is being spoken.

Not Tripp, 14 years with Bruce King Yacht Design. We did Hetairos (A&R build 1993) and Cecilie Marie (now Maria Cattiva) (Huisman Build 2002) with Jens. I think the only thing we did with Kusch was a 40' custom Hinckley tender for Tatoosh.

Bob Riemens is another project manager I liked working with (Scheherazade Hodgdon 2004).

 

Agreed!

And sorry, I have forgotten you were with King.
So you did at least the tender with Klaus, he did the entire craft. And many others, like Leander, Senses etc.

Regards
Richard