Arsenale
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2024
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
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- Location
- Philadelphia, PA
Sincere apologies for the intro of homeric length, I just wanted to give as much info as I could before asking my questions,
Hello,
I am going into my third year of graduate school pursuing a PhD in mechanical engineering, my research is in bio-inspired design for propulsion of UUVs and my work consists of hydrodynamic analysis of fin based propulsion as well as the design and construction of experimental underwater drones.
I grew up in the 1000 islands region of NY in the summers spending all my time on or around power boats, row boats, sailboats, really anything that could float. I also loved exploring the antique wooden boat museum up in Clayton. When I entered high school I lost a bet and joined my school's crew time. One of the obsessions in this sport I found joy in early on was the design of shells. One of my first days into crew I asked about hull design and a coach quickly snapped at me that hull design doesn’t matter and gave me the age old adage ‘it's about the horses not the chariot.’ I of course being 14 and chalk full of stubbornness and hubris became further determined to learn as much as I could on shell design. This intrigue later turned obsession has always lingered while being in the sport.
Meanwhile, in a short time from beginning crew, I learned to scull a single and never looked back, for the past 10 years I have been racing a single somewhat competitively at the club level (top half - almost top quarter at the Head of the Charles, nothing special but not novice). After college, I continued to train to today where I solely race head races. At this point, I find the added skill challenge of steering and longer distance more fun than straight line sprinting. However, in the past ten years I never was able to shake the questions around shell design, this was furthered fueled by learning to scull and being asked “How would you better design a single?” by the individual coaching me at the time. This question constantly pops in my head during training, how would I design a shell differently, and has done so more and more to the point where for the past 2 years I have begun being determined to build my own shell to race. Understanding this would be a several year endeavor. Part of the reason I decided to pursue my PhD was to have access to a water channel, wind tunnel, CFD software, and learn hands on skills in fluid mechanics to aid in this endeavor. Thus far I have done the following as a basis for trying to learn as much as I can:
-Used several CFD softwares in hydrodynamic analysis (Simscale, XFoil, WaterLily,jl)
- 3 years of fluid mechanics and aerodynamic background research and work both theoretical and practical
-Background reading of hull design, everything from various academic papers to books like Uffa Fox’s “A Seaman sense in Powercraft,” “Ready All Row” about George Pocock, “A History of Rowing” by Peter Mallory (not the full some odd 2000 pages but close to a half of it), “Rowable Classics” (forgot the author), and just about every blog under the sun talking about shell building.
-Watched videos of both Carl Douglas and Empacher building shells on Youtube
-Self taught basics in both woodworking, 3D printing, and composite skills (currently I do a lot of hull making with carbon fiber and Kevlar sandwich structures for UUVs, wet layup, vacuum bags, compression molds etc).
-3 years extensive experience in rapid prototyping
-years and years of CAD design work
-Reached out and spoken with Ted Van Dusen for advice
-I’ve reached out to a few old wooden shell makers online.
My biggest weakness not being brought up in my academics as a shipwright or a naval architect is not knowing what I don’t know. I understand there is much much more I assume I am lacking, in how to balance a hull, key drafting terms for understanding the lines of a hull, etc. If anyone has a general direction or more book/video/papers/person to reach out to on designing and building a rowing shell, just general advice, I would be very grateful,
Thank you!
-Arsenale
Hello,
I am going into my third year of graduate school pursuing a PhD in mechanical engineering, my research is in bio-inspired design for propulsion of UUVs and my work consists of hydrodynamic analysis of fin based propulsion as well as the design and construction of experimental underwater drones.
I grew up in the 1000 islands region of NY in the summers spending all my time on or around power boats, row boats, sailboats, really anything that could float. I also loved exploring the antique wooden boat museum up in Clayton. When I entered high school I lost a bet and joined my school's crew time. One of the obsessions in this sport I found joy in early on was the design of shells. One of my first days into crew I asked about hull design and a coach quickly snapped at me that hull design doesn’t matter and gave me the age old adage ‘it's about the horses not the chariot.’ I of course being 14 and chalk full of stubbornness and hubris became further determined to learn as much as I could on shell design. This intrigue later turned obsession has always lingered while being in the sport.
Meanwhile, in a short time from beginning crew, I learned to scull a single and never looked back, for the past 10 years I have been racing a single somewhat competitively at the club level (top half - almost top quarter at the Head of the Charles, nothing special but not novice). After college, I continued to train to today where I solely race head races. At this point, I find the added skill challenge of steering and longer distance more fun than straight line sprinting. However, in the past ten years I never was able to shake the questions around shell design, this was furthered fueled by learning to scull and being asked “How would you better design a single?” by the individual coaching me at the time. This question constantly pops in my head during training, how would I design a shell differently, and has done so more and more to the point where for the past 2 years I have begun being determined to build my own shell to race. Understanding this would be a several year endeavor. Part of the reason I decided to pursue my PhD was to have access to a water channel, wind tunnel, CFD software, and learn hands on skills in fluid mechanics to aid in this endeavor. Thus far I have done the following as a basis for trying to learn as much as I can:
-Used several CFD softwares in hydrodynamic analysis (Simscale, XFoil, WaterLily,jl)
- 3 years of fluid mechanics and aerodynamic background research and work both theoretical and practical
-Background reading of hull design, everything from various academic papers to books like Uffa Fox’s “A Seaman sense in Powercraft,” “Ready All Row” about George Pocock, “A History of Rowing” by Peter Mallory (not the full some odd 2000 pages but close to a half of it), “Rowable Classics” (forgot the author), and just about every blog under the sun talking about shell building.
-Watched videos of both Carl Douglas and Empacher building shells on Youtube
-Self taught basics in both woodworking, 3D printing, and composite skills (currently I do a lot of hull making with carbon fiber and Kevlar sandwich structures for UUVs, wet layup, vacuum bags, compression molds etc).
-3 years extensive experience in rapid prototyping
-years and years of CAD design work
-Reached out and spoken with Ted Van Dusen for advice
-I’ve reached out to a few old wooden shell makers online.
My biggest weakness not being brought up in my academics as a shipwright or a naval architect is not knowing what I don’t know. I understand there is much much more I assume I am lacking, in how to balance a hull, key drafting terms for understanding the lines of a hull, etc. If anyone has a general direction or more book/video/papers/person to reach out to on designing and building a rowing shell, just general advice, I would be very grateful,
Thank you!
-Arsenale
