Pirate Ship computer lofted ready for build

Actually Papillon did not die, those steel Colvin pinkies are incredibly tough. She was on that beach for a few weeks, they dug her out with an excavator and drug her ashore and she's intact though a bit dirty.......

 

Wow! So that's why they build steel boats.

 

Here's a bunch of Rosborough ads from Yachting early 1970's......The most popular one was the 44-45', quite a few of those were built. I know one of the 3 masted 55's was build, called Rattlesnake I believe......As they were mostly Nova Scotia softwood many are gone now, one was wrecked up the coast here a couple of years back. There's another currently for sale in Anacortes, silly price though......The great cabin and brigantine rig provided endless hours of romantic dreams, I miss the days when real boats were available........

 

I think the negative comments in this thread about the OP were warranted. He claims it is "lofted and ready to build". I can work out of a set of rough lines. Carolina Sportfishermen for example, were usually drawn in profile with an overall length indicated and nothing more. The problem with the OP is that he tries to put details which are often wrong and incomplete. If you are going to give a detailed set of plans a la Herreshoff or Chapelle, then do it right. Otherwise, post study plans.

 

Those ads bring back memories-He used to have them (larger copies) posted all around his office walls-- I found him a great guy to talk to and feel very fortunate in having gotten to know him---

 

Would it make sense to build a small ship like this in wood these days? In the past large timbers were quite easily available as were the skills to shape and fit them on ships the infrastructure was in place to make it happen. The large packet ships of the final days of sail were all of iron construction and performed well.

These days a steel ship with some wooden superstructure would surely make more sense and almost certainly be lighter for a given strength. Having said all that the composite constructed ship shown in the Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction book is very impressive. It must surely have been significantly more expensive in labour and materials than building the equivalent ship in steel.

 

Nailed it.
Thank you.
An illiterate 18th century builder with a labor force of 6-8, pitsaw and broadaxes, would whittle a half model, say 'that's about right', show it to some others, chew tobacco and drink corn whisky, whittle a little more, and all say 'right, that's it'.
12 weeks later the vessel would hit the water, rigged.
The next friday it could be in a desperate battle with another privateer or a british raider, and could be sunk or come home with fabulous wealth.
Kind of makes you want to go to work and build privateers, er, I mean 'fishing schooners' (with multiple swivel guns for murdering those fish who resist).
The ones that actually went fishing, often had difficult times, as the many colonial descriptions in logbooks about finding a floating 'capsized and swamped vessel, no living soul aboard', and describing her paintwork and gear to try to find the owners.
Ironically, in the museum world, these are some of our only descriptions of early paint schemes.

 

Ten feet from BERTIE's berth is a 55' nice steel schooner with wood detailing and it's about 20 years old.
All the steel at the wood/steel interface is full of holes, the bottom of the steel bulwark planking is like lace and in general she needs a complete strip-off and rebuild of decks and detailing.
Steel frame with bolted-on wood plank is 'composite' build and well-proven, giving rigid frame, lighter weight, more room.
Cruising BERTIE in Mexico we came across a 57' or so LF Herreshoff ketch yacht with two completely weird characters aboard.
After the third bottle of tequila, or was it rum, I prowled the thing and checked it out pretty closely.
She had steel frames, floors, deck beams with bolted-on Honduras mahog plank and a pine deck, canvased, which had fiberglass over, a pretty good job, and nice mahog skylights, furniture throughout etc.
The boat was built in the 30's, yet was in very good nick, except the lower floors and frames where the steel was full of holes, but still strong enough to work.
The lesson was that LFH copied composite build as developed in 1860s-70s and designed pleasure vessels around the technique.
A steel boat is a steel boat, hatches, caprails, all of it, and trimming out in heavy PVC works well.
But wood holds H2O eventually and the steel dies and the wood rots.
A wood boat built stout enough, of the right materials, and properly engineered so she does not 'work' or 'rack' or otherwise move in her parts, keeps the water out and lasts a long time if you keep lots of air moving inside.
A long long time, and much longer than a steel boat, but the key is a non-destructive climate and excellent on-going maintenance.
BOADICEA, a simple fishing cutter, has been around since 1808.
That's eighteen oh eight, before the British burned the White House.
http://www.tallshipsandsmallships.com/pages/fishingboats/02_largest.htm
I still think, a wooden boat is the most cost-effective, but must be designed and built and owned and operated by people who understand what it is and how it deteriorates and how to slow that down and use the boat most effectively.
People get blinded by emotion and romance about these things.
I know I do.

 

I must have stared holes in this ad when I was a pup.
Ah, yes, the dusky maidens with huge... flowers in their hair swimming out to the romantic ship in the tropical anchorage as the moon comes up.
The guitars strum as wild pig sizzles on the bbq and a girl laughs.
At dawn, the ship sails on, always trying to catch the horizon....
He nailed the emotion and the marketing.
I wish the vessels were more durable, as the designs worked fine for what they were.
Some of this was what inspired me to do what I'm still doing, and I must thank him for it.

 

Why even build the thing out of wood? It would seem to me that it could be done much cheaper and lighter if done entirely out of glass? I would also imagine the structure would be much stiffer and easier to design out of fiberglass. Wouldn't the weight savings allow you to add more ballast and at least attempt to carry the designed sail plan? What is the design purpose of this vessel?

 

As crazy as it sounds I think there's still a market for this style. Maybe if they could be built in an area of the world where the proper wood and reasonable labour costs were in ample supply. One visualizes it a village industry. In glass they would be great say in a two part mold with planking lines and joints to give it some class. Oh to be 30yrs. younger and a good start up fund.

 

Build out of wood because of required heavy displacement that goes along with the design.
Really only option from steel frame/wood plank, wood frame and plank, is a 'glue boat', made up of laminations and epoxy.
These have been built up to 130' that I know of.
Cheapest, most efficient, and easiest one-off of traditional type is well-designed wood, sawn frame, carvel plank, spiked (or screwed if you're anal and rich).
F/G requires a mold and is not 'easier to design', since the type is already designed in wood and all details are in print since 1800, if you look, while with F/G you start from scratch with load analysis etc.

 

Yes, it does sound crazy. One customer, somewhere, wants one because he has the dusky maiden/mint julep fantasy, but there's no market except as houseboats for homeless.

 

"Houseboats for the homeless" a true definition of "liveaboards" Agree on the wood construction maybe epoxy and heavy strip plank, simpliest system to train workers.

 

That was me for 30 years.