Need help with boat design...

First of.. let me introduce myself...
I'm Marcos from Venezuela... I'm a 22 years old Informatics Engineer...I recently got interested in boat building but i'm still grasping the basics...

I'm in love with two boats i saw on a page.. a 21' anda 23'... I dont want to go lower nor higher than that...

I allready downloaded free!ship and i'm gonna read the tutorials that come with it tonight, since i want to build the whole boat myself... i dont really want to buy plans...

I'm guessing i should build it with plywood+epoxy but i was thinking since i'ts kinda smallish to make it in carbon fiber, making small pieces on a wooden frame and then joining them with a secondary lay-up.. but thats another story...

So on to my questions?

* Can somebody give me any tips?
* Anyone interested in mentoring me thru the basics?
* Is there a nice (free) program that would help me with the calculations?
* Is there some sort of sketch up or diagram of a boats parts in this forum to
familiarize myself with the terms?
* What are the basic guidelines for designing boats?
* What the name of the type of boat i'm interested in?

Thats all i can think of for now... well except for propulsion but i need a boat first... im still toying between an covered off-board (first boat photo) an un-covered one (seccond photo) or a jet one (jetsky type), but i guess i'll leave this for another day...

Known mesurements of boat 1 (23'):
Length : 7.0 mts
Beam: 2.4 mts
Draft: unknown
Weight Dry: 1500 kg
Fuel: 200 L

Known mesurements of boat 2 (21'):
Length : 6.25 mts
Beam: 2.3 mts
Draft: 0.9 (drive down)
Weight Dry: 800 kg
Fuel: 120 L

 

Hi Arcan,
First tip: Books. If you have a public library, try there; also try the search feature on this site for others' favourite books. You will get more from a good boatbuilding text than we can cover in these posts.
The boats you posted are both closed-bow runabouts. Plans for boats like this are plentiful and it might be worth finding study plans for a few hulls that interest you. (Study plans are quite cheap and include all the critical drawings of a hull, but without detailed dimensons and construction patterns.)
A boat of this size and type is within the ability of a dedicated first-time builder, provided you spend some time reading, learning and asking questions (and saving up money!) before you start.

 

First off thanks for the name of the boat i'm trying to build... This is going tobe a great hlp when looking on the net...

I have tried hitting libraries before... Venezuela is a developing country... mostly because of the gov...

Our libraries are mostly non-existant... Not structure wise (the buildings do exist)... most book are damaged to a beyond readable extent... and are severely out-dated...

Most book found are for highschools and such... the univiversities libraries are a bit better but book are mostly math chem and the sorts... for my thesis i went looking for aconcept i needed to include with bibliography and the best i found was a book from 1776, and in french...

So libraries are put of the question... I would buy the books online and study them but this is a monetary exchange controlled country (not to mention that minimum wage is 210 US$), so it's really hard to adquire anything online right now...

Themony is not such a big issue since both the stuff i need and labor are dirt cheap here... specially when compared to US prices.. and since i'll be doing everything by hand mylabor costs will be lower that expected.. and wheni say iwillbedoing everything byhand i mean itsince the closest CNC machine is about a hundred miles away (i'm not exagerating) but thats not an issue since its for the companies use... they dont make parts for outside the company...

The main reason i'm building it is because it's the only way i'm getting one before my 50's... Luckily i speak english and have a net conection else i'd be pretty screwed...

In a few words either i find info online or im screwed...

 

Unfortunastly the boat you desire has a very complex hull shape.
So the usual method of building a plug of wood , taking off a mold and then creating a GRP hull would be called for.

FAR too much work for a one off boat.

May I sugest a simpler hull that could be created over a simple jig that could be then be worked with Airex , (or similar) to create your boat?

A bit more sanding & fairing is required with this method , but for only a single boat its not excessive.

FAST FRED

 

The procedure Fred describes would probably be needed if you wanted a glass hull.... you could also consider a strip-planked hull over a jig of plywood frames, which can be rather tedious to build but would be suitable for the style you're looking at.

 

Library

Hi Marcos,

I have a tip for you regarding online information. Quite a few books are available online through http://print.google.com, a lot of them are for free or partially readable. It might help.

Greetings,
Arvy

 

Care to elaborate on this a bit plz?

 

Thanks a lot ...

 

Apparently you found out what i meant already, good luck

 

:'(... im lost LOL ...

im still i where i started...

i even tried looking for plans but i cant find any new runabout plans.. most are 1950s designs... andim looking for one that can hydro-plane... i looked into a SeeDoo Speedster 200 (2006)'s plans since i could close up the deck on the front part (loosing the fron 2 seats and storage space... ) and modify in terms of looks not design the back to look like a runabout...

anyone care to comment?

 

Hi Marcos,

Do you find illustrations on www.strand-craft.com ???
Thanks for your interest in copying our designs.....
Please, keep us informated about your exciting project...

 

Foam sandwich

Hello,
Building method

There is some good information on this website:-

http://www.sailingsource.com/cherub/bldfoam.htm

It may not all be correct.

Foam.

I have come across three brands of foam Airex, Kapex and Corecell.

Airex ans Kapex are made by the same company www.baltek.com.

Airex and Corecell are Lloyds approved

Kapex is not.

In my opinion Corecell is the best of these.

Kapex is the cheapest

There is some Corecell available at half price www.noahsboatbuilding.com

 

1) Yes i did find the illustrations there...

2) Im not copying the designs... i just showed yours since i found them to be the best looking... and closest to what i want to build... (if i could afford it id def buy from you guys but that would take the building and learning fun out of it...)

im not gonna build those since i wasnt talking about the looks design as much as i was talking about the hull design when i posted those...

3) to me it is exiting since i found the kind of boat i want... im not looking to build them for selling them or for selling the plans as many of the people here... im looking to make it because its the only way i could afford one...

4) even if i copied your design entirely from top to bottom it still wouldnt be the same... since im making it... that would be like saying u copied every runabout design ever made since u didnt design the first runabout...

5) next time throw a sugestion not a rock... the reason why i showed your is because its the only design that doenst have like 7 ft of wood underwater... it is my belief that your design planes... and thats one of the reasons why i choose your hull as a base for my design...

 

Sweet looking boats. If you are looking for plans for these ....good luck. Back in the day it was a secret, and nobody told. If you know bout the years it was offered then look at plans of that era and pay close attention to the bottom. From the LWL up you could make it what you want. I bet the era these were offered it had a concave bottom and that is bad.
I reallly like the outboard.