Questions from the totally clueless

I fully agree with you, but one should than be man or girl enough to come forward if more information is required and requested. But to let the forum members guess what one likes to hear, is an impossible task. I have (hopefully) many people helped to get a different view, although I have not had a clue on how to build a boat, but I have learned fast, with tremendous good help and replies from the forum member. Special Porta, Daiquiri, CDK etc etc, and Tom who put my nose into the butter, forcing me to learn how to calculate crucial parameters of a boat. Yes, I have been clobbered over the head and sometimes got a red face. But at the end I am proud in what I have made over the last 4 years and without the forum members it would have been a flop. Bert

 

Bert, that is the point I am trying to make. Knowledge, like music, is not worth a damn if it is never heard.

 

Please reread my first post. I am not talking about people with legitimate questions. I am speaking of those who seem to simply repost their teachers assignment here and who then expect someone to do the work for them. These posters have zero mechanical knowledge, see the patrol boat thread for an example. This person did not know where in the build sequence the hull was constructed as opposed to engine installation? WTF!
Read the fishing trawler thread and ask yourself if there is a language issue or is there an extreme lack of subject knowledge: just look at the question posed in the initial post: " what formulae has to be used for finding main dimension of fishing trawler??". Granted these posts can be entertaining especially when they double down as did the Patrol boat poster, but in their own way they are pretty sad too. Just remember that someday these posters will graduate with a degree in a subject that they have little knowledge of and will be designing or managing projects that will put actual living people at risk.Maybe it is really more frightning than sad......?

 

I agree with your point Westfield.

In the Patrol Boat post, Waikikin jumped with both feet and pretty much nailed the specs of the patrol boat but the OP ignored him and went back to the original question.

In the Trawler thread, some notable members have started pitching in, helping the OP define "how long the string is" but the OP ignored them and shifted the question to arrangement.

Like they say, "you can lead the horse to the water but you cannot force it to drink". (Or maybe it is a donkey?)

 

Westfield, I read them again, you are probably right. But, he could just be a young man from Somalia trying to earn a living as a Pirate Captian.

And, I'm just a poor old man that wants to build a 50' Power Catamaran for under a thousand dollars so I can spend the rest of my savings hiring pretty young girls to hang around the deck while modeling the latest in swimware. You should at least feel a bit sorry for me because you know it's going to be a dificult task.

 

I can sympathize with your comment. I wish posters would not get so abused just because they are looking to build more for less than the industry is charging. On the other hand I do see value in explaining why things cost what they do and are done they way they are -just don't be nasty. There is an implied disrespect in expecting talented answers for cheap stupid designs but I just skip them altogether.

 

I wonder if an aircraft design discussion forum, has folks logging on and asking about an idea to build a 10 passenger, single wing, built from melted packaging peanuts and duct tape, with a 454 big block as power. "What size prop should I use and how long should the wings be?"

How about an elevator building discussion forum, where a new poster wants to build a "modest" 10 story elevator and drive it with a geared up isolating room fan motor. "How big of cables do I need and can I just use rope?" "Is there a cheap way to have self closing doors?"

Much like boats, aircraft and elevators place people in an "unnatural environment" (the way the law describes it), which means, if something screws up, people can die pretty easily. Simply put, if your foam wings fold up at 10,000 feet, you crew is going to get pissed, if only for a minute or so longer. Ditto, if your elevator cable breaks while overloaded on the 9th floor, though the screams will only last a few seconds, assuming 32' per second, before the sudden stop.

"I just want to build a boat." One of the latest posts here, is a guy that wants to build a "modest pontoon boat" (his words). Yeah, plastic pontoons, with a two story house on it, 60' long. What could be so hard about this and hell, what's the worst that could happen, right?

Maybe a more conservative post would be a 18' run about with twin 250 Black Maxes on it's butt, with the intention going as fast as practical. What's the worst that could happen?

We read about, (some of us investigate) situations where the worst has happened and unfortunately, all too often each year. So, an experienced based cynical attitude, to what seems to us as an absurd request, though might be meant innocuously, can lead to curt replies to these questions, but maybe we just read about another overloaded ferry that's drowned a few dozen, or some July 4th watchers capsizing a flybridge equipped cruiser, drowning a few kids has tainted us this week.

When you place people in unnatural environments, where any chance of leaving them with a 5 mile swim back to shore is possible, a level of expertise should be exercised, which should be for obvious reasons. You exspect this from aircraft and elevators, even taking it for granted, so maybe for boats too?

 

The issue here is this forum is called 'boat design', which you might think means it is a place to discuss designing a boat. But it is not. It isn't about building boats, or sailing them, or racing them, or fishing from them, or cruising in them. It is actually a forum for boat designers to sell their designs. This confuses people and annoys the designers, because they expect people are here looking for a design to buy.

What are other forums for DIY people to design and build boats?

 

Thank You so much for that message and <removed jab directed towards other member> I'm gone

 

It does say the boat design and boat building site right at the top of the page

 

The definition of DIY is "do it 'yourself'". I respect a DIY person who wants to figure out something for himself. I don't respect a DIY person who wants to cover his ears to any other way to get from A to B. Or to the complications of the task. You can't blame professionals for offering prudent services. The DIY person can always say thanks, but no thanks, I want to learn this myself.

 

I don't mind ignorance in a poster, but what bothers me is laziness. I expect some effort on the questioner's part before they ask for help. When someone asks questions about a subject where basic and available research has not been attempted, that tells me that they simply want someone else to do their work for them. You ask for help on those subjects that you cannot figure out yourself. But when the question shows that you have not attempted to educate yourself, have no grasp of the obvious basics of the subject, there is little motivation to help such a person.

 

That's the same thing that I see happen often here Wayne, folks looking for a free ride, rather then preforming even the most rudimentary research, even if it's just a Google search.

The comments about NA's and/or designers, just looking to peddle their wares is simply unsubstantiated and shows an obvious amount of ignorance, possibly plain old arrogance about the professionals that do contribute here. There's literally 10's of thousands of posts by professionals and novices alike, that do nothing more than help solve the issues posted, by the curious. Reading around these posts and focusing on the more obscure or borderline ridiculous requests, is simply ignorance of what really happens here.

 

Thanks Frank now I have that song stuck in my head and I agree most of what has been said here.... I did a moderately successful small boat from what I learned here a few years back, but you have to ask the right questions and do your own leg work. There are plenty of people here who are more than willing to help and recommend reading material and such....just don't expect them to give you all the answers. That being said at least on the fore-mentioned trawler thread they just seem to be "fishing" and I don't think that the language barrier is their main issue but that's just my opinion....

 

And where did you get this impression?