Boat interior

I know it's probably a newbie questions but I'm just wondering how they make a boats interior. I don't mean like a small runabout, but boats with cabins etc, like a Sunseeker or Riviera or Nordhavn, boats like that.

I don't get how they get all the walls put in and all the other fibreglass pieces in.

Thank you.

 

A naval architect sketches the interior. Interior components are prefabricated off the boat, then fit in place. Very very little interior construction, craftsmanship, takes place inside the boat.

For an amateur, one off build, closely follow the designers concept.

you construct mock up interior components inside the boat from cheap lumber and door skin ply. Once you have proved the mock up concept, you carefully disassemble, remove from the boat, construct the actual component in the workshop, complete with all fittings, wiring, finish...... then disassemble and reassemble in the boat.

Interior design, form, function, ergonomics, are works for highly experienced designers...FOLLOW THE DESIGNERS PLAN...

 

Mockups are for semi and full custom builds, though not really necessary in most yards. A reasonable designer will provide scaled drawings for the accommodations to the specifications necessary to meet the SOR. With CAD precision, you can develop complete surfaces and structures inside and outside the boat, then literally walk through checking for ergonomics, equipment and systems fits, repair access, etc.

This isn't anything new, designers have done this for many decades, though computers have improved precision.

 

This is a new interior for a high-end semi-custom 40' sport fsh style motor yach. We fabricate the interior from the sole up in our shopfrom TriCell panels and the transport the part to thebuilders shop and lower it into the hull. It takes some sawing and grinding to get it to fit' When we get relly close we mark where the part touches the hull and then tape these ares off. Then we apply thickened epoxy and lower the part back down. When we pull thepart we sand off the squeeze-out and then do the veneer and paint work and install the interior. We fit the deck/houdse at the sae time in the same fashion.

 

A more important question is how/why they design them the way they do. Boat interiors are designed around the "average sailor" which means husband wife and kids doing weekend coastal sailing, stopping at marinas and going out to eat at restaurants. Also keeping in mind the "purse strings" are held by the wife so the interior is designed to please the house wife.
Every live aboard I know has had to make major modifications to make life on board possible....these are even more extensive for anyone that plans to do any extensive offshore cruising.
Most boats designed have an incredible amount of waste space, my boat was designed 7 years ago specifically for the purpose of single handing and to be "no-frills". I am subsequently totally rebuilding/redesigning my interior.

 

That is really cool, David. Great pictures.

How is the cost of TriCell? I've been looking and looking for a reasonably cheap core for non-structural stuff and came up short. Ideally, I'd like a panel made from some cheap(ish) core, pre-glassed and ready to just tape together. Anything like that out there?

 

Jordie;

Judging from your other posts It is evident you are trying to learn yacht design. Keep asking questions, it's part of the learning process, but get the books out and study basic naval architecture. It will answer a lot of questions.

Probably the most common "errors" that novice designers make when designing interiors are: forgetting that everything has thickness, the hull, bulkheads, floors etc., and not accounting for that. Neglecting the curve of the hull when designing the interior. Bulkheads have to curve with the hull, as do cabinets, berths etc. In other words, it is smaller inside than it looks from a general arrangement plan. Weight distribution: don't put all the heavy stuff like stoves and refrigerators or ice boxes, toilets, on one side unless you balance them with weight on the other side.

Considerations such as these determine what and where you put things. The other considerations are traffic flow. You don't want people tramping through someone else's stateroom to get to the head, or putting the navigation station where they can't communicate easily with whoever is at the helm. Galley positioning and layouts could be the subject of a whole book.

 

Thank you Ike,

What book on yacht design do you suggest?

I am leaning towards Principles of yacht design by Lars Larsson and Rolf Eliasson

Thanks

 

These companies

http://zepsa.com/marine/yachts/#yachts-1-2

http://www.westhoffco.com/

make modular interiors for mega yachts like a jigsaw puzzle in their shop. Its then loaded into containers for shipping to the shipyard and assembled like a jigsaw puzzle on the vessel. This is not like the modular construction in David's photo's where a completed module in dropped into the vessel.

They do this with CAD drawings and CNC machines so everything fits with a minimum of on site trimming and fitting.

Here's a pretty good story about this type construction:

http://powerandmotoryacht.com/megayachts/0504construction/

For Ships like cruise ships it is modular construction, as in complete cabins or even banks of cabins that are manufactured off site and craned into place.

Steve

 

good article but megayachtisch and thus rather square work. grand banks also has a good foto article somewhere on their interior work
you can't push a universal interior in a small to medium sized boat, so its design, form, function, ergonomics, structural etc
interior design also should have a happy relation with exterior design

some 30 or 40 years back searay came with a smart and still widely used midcabin design
forget now witch 8 meter express cruiser first angled the fwd bulkhead to acomodate bed / saloon better
apart from hunderds of interior design details i think ideas like above may also be called "interior design"

 

Principles of yacht design by Lars Larsson and Rolf Eliasson is an excellent book. Mine is all marked up and I have book marks on dozens of pages.

Dave Gerr's, book The Nature of Boats: Insights and Esoterica for the Nautically Obsessed will give you a lot of insight too.

 

Learning about ergonomics and the physical dimensions of humans is also important in regard to accommodation arrangements. There are absolute minimums for human interactiveness, such as how small a pilot berth is practical, the smallest diameter hole a man can climb through, etc.

 

I spent most of my life looking at other yacht designs, what worked and what didn't, good ideas, bad ideas as well as different applications. When I finally got my boat (considering no boat comes with the interior that is best for you unless you have it custom built) I was fortunate to have a poorly thought out design made of painted plywood cabinetry, so ripping it out didn't make me feel bad. I spent the 35 years figurine out what the perfect design would be if/when I got a boat, the first two years living on my boat figuring how I would change it. There is a point where a boat becomes a home, a boat that is to be lived in is different than a boat used occasionally. On top of that a boat to be lived on at the dock is different from a boat that is to be lived on at sea. Some boats look exquisite at the dock, but just don't work at sea, some boats are incredibly(and only) utilitarian and work well at sea. I am trying for a thing of beauty, warm and cozy while being functional at sea.

 

Some of the "old school" boat designers have wonderful things to say about ergonomics (a word that wasn't used much if at all in their time).

 

This is why you see the crazy, cut up and berth stuffed accommodations from the manufactures. These are designed to be harbor queens, with inconvenient underway use tolerated for the very low percentage of time, spent at sea. Ocean racers are a different animal, as they have to sail and the inconvenience is placed on crew comfort underway. They'll be logically laid out on deck, yet only spartan accommodation, possably only a single porta-pottie on a 50' yacht.

Ultimately, customs answer the needs of discriminating owners. These are setup to the SOR, which reflects the priorities and goals of the project and with luck, including an attentive designer, well matched to the needs of the owner.