Boat-building, first-timer design

Alan, you scare my customers, don't say that, the truth is never good for business
Daniel

 

This thread and request can't be for real. Do we really have people in the world that think that boat designers are in their profession and sitting around as a public service providing drawings to people wanting to build boats? Musicans deal with this every single day, getting paid for their work whether the music is good or bad or a particular type of music that tickles a consumer's fancy one day.

 

Thanks, I apreciate your support for our trade.
And yes, a lot of brain dead (in this forum and other forum) think that we are public services, but they go to court if THEY are not paid every week.
Daniel

 

Homecraftsman, if you made your living selling plans for the furniture you design, instead of building and selling the furniture itself, you might not be so relaxed about the idea of someone wanting a set for free. Similarly, many free-lance professional boat designers sell their plans for a living, rather than using them to build boats and selling the boats.

That said, there are plenty of boat plans in the public domain if you go looking for them. Most of them are older ones, obviously, but if the plans were good fifty years ago they're good today. And with a little study, many of them can be updated to use modern materials

Many designers who are also authors have published books with buildable plans in them. And Woodenboat Magazine has several books of study plans, with the full sets of plans available for very reasonable prices (that's reasonable as in "dirt cheap").

 

He already apologized.

 

Oh, I wasn't jumping on him. I was trying to give him a little perspective -- plus some suggestions on where he can find free plans, if he wants them.

Before I build my full-sized sharpie, I'll most likely go ahead and spring for an inexpensive set of plans anyway (probably through WoodenBoat or the Smithsonian Institute), even though my design is basically my own. They'll be a handy reference for construction details, scantlings, clearances, fastener sizes, etc. There's no sense in me constantly trying to reinvent the wheel all the way through the job.

In home construction, I could build myself a quite comfortable, practical and safe house with no more plans than a few freehand sketches, if building codes allowed; I have years of experience, standard dimensions and rules of thumb piled up in my head. But I don't have that backlog of knowledge with boats.

 

I rented the first boat I ever sailed. I lied and said I had years of experience sailing. I only had a grasp of the aerodynamic principles behind it all. I say build a sailing dinghy first. Feel the joy of sailing a craft you formed with your own hands, then buy a shitty fiberglass 20 footer or so an see how enjoyable that is. If you find its not fast enough get a beach cat, if you find it enjoyable but not as enjoyable as your little dinghy then you know you are a builder.
If you are a builder don't pay any attention to these trolls. Let there cold icy words roll off your back and continue on. Only *** faces take a decade to build a boat. Build it! don't make it a hobby. If you want a hobby build canoes.

 

Would you mind to share your (obviously hughe) experience in boatbuilding?

I mean instead of sharing your vocabulary:?:

 

Everyone, thank you for your support. Unfortunately, I feel terrible that I have put people in the position of defending me, and my innocent request for free plans. I think I had mentioned I was only trying to find a way to save some money up front since this was my first boat, and honestly I really just wanted to make sure this was something I wanted to do. After more research I woke up to the fact that I really needed to buy plans to do this correctly. I will be purchasing plans, I want to build vs. buy because I like, or need, to be building for the satisfaction of it. I have started a small 9' boat for my children to row on the large pond we have behind our house. I'm biulding it from scraps of various spieces wood and plan to glass it for the practice. I'm very pleased with the progress so far, and should have it sprayed and ready to float within a month. If possible, will post some pictures once it is completed. If this goes well, I may just scrap the idea of building a smaller 17', and stick with the origional plan of a larger one. This is much more fun than I thought it was going to be. Thank you again for your advice.

Tim

 

Tim,

Even if you love the process I would advise getting your feat wet with an intermediate build in the 20' range. This is a large enough build thata lot of the processes will be the same, and give you some practice before dealing with a much more expensive learning curve. Just remember boats tend to increase in cost exponentially with leingth, so having to rebuild something in a 20 footer could cost multiples less than having to do it with a 35 footer.

As for the plans thing, Don't worry about it. You just happened to jump feet first into a sore subject around here.

 

I see your point. I was planning to build something in the 22-25 foot range, and hope that is all I will need to contain the urge. The practice boat I'm building has also enlightened me to the fact that I only have so much space in my 24x32 workshop. I also need to make the furniture to sell, so that I have the resorces to actually build the boat

 

Sounds like a perfect excuse to build a bigger workshop... My girlfriend and I have a running joke that a woman's closet is always 10% smaller than the amount of cloths that need to fit inside, and that a workshop is always 10% smaller than the next project.

 

I have the chance to choose mechanical fastening and no plywood, so my work shop is real huge, and I mean HUGE. It's outside
I have free heating sometime the thermostat is off and it's very very hot, I have the right amount of humidity, same as previous problem, and I am soaked, and my air conditioning is sometime off also so my *** is froozen
But I can't complain, its free, and make me very interrested of the science of weather forecasting.
And my neighbor as so far away, they can't sue me. Any way they even don't know what it means
Daniel

 

Your shop has everything, even moose.

 

Yes you right, and I feed them. They come at night and eat, and then to thanks me, they poop in my boat yard
At maiden season, you better don't try to pick-up a tool on the ground
All sort of animal come at night to see what's going on, fortunately I escape the bird poop for the moment. Seagull are the worst, they are scavengers, and their poop goes accordingly.

Daniel