Making a change!

Hello all,


Full transparency here. To make a long story very much shorter, I would like recommendations to an eduction! Im 32, never married, no children, and work as an electrician/programmer for a local textile manufacturer. I’ve had quite a few life changes here in the past few years. Some of them good, some not so good that have gotten me where I am. I’ve always wanted to learn about big water craft. From fishing boats to offshore race boats to cruise ships to the life boats on those cruise ships. What all goes into making them handle possibly the roughest conditions on earth? Does anyone have any recommendations on books? Online courses? Possibly courses at a college? I have an industrial mechatronics degree and a few pre engineering courses from years back. I never thought I would have this opportunity, but here we are. I hope to order a set of cape lookout 28 plans by b and b yacht designs at the end of the week to see what all goes into that. Thank you all in advance!


Trey

 

Read all you can from public library and see if the topic floats your boat.

 

Welcome to the Forum Trey.

Further to @fallguy excellent suggestion re the resources of your local library, try also doing some searching on Youtube - you can find pretty much anything and everything on there now.

Re design, have you come across the Westlawn online course? They seem to have a good reputation.
Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology https://westlawn.edu/

Re the Cape Lookout 28, she looks to be a well proven centre console -
Powerboats - Cape Lookout 28 - B&B Yacht Designs https://bandbyachtdesigns.com/cl28
But be aware that you can buy a second hand 28' centre console in good condition for a fraction of the cost of building one yourself, even if you consider your labour to be 'free'.

 

That is a very nice hull, but maybe an over ambitious first build. All those sexy curves require advanced building techniques and skills.
It has been suggested many times on these pages that a good start for an amateur builder is to select something small and
easy before going large.
Not to pour cold water down your back, but you need to first find out if you have the time, budget, skill and patience to pursue a large complex project, and if you have allergies to epoxy or sawdust, and how tolerant your family and neighbors are of such activities!

 

Thank you for that! I had completely forgotten that resource! I have ordered a few general books for myself and will check the local library in the following weeks!

Thank you as well! I have been searching YouTube and have found a few center console builds and updates on some larger sportfishing boats I am following.

As far as westlawn goes I will definitely check them out. I believe I looked into them a few years ago while researching and dreaming. Online courses would be perfect for me.

My reasoning for building over buying is, this is something I had planned to do with my father. Not necessarily to the size of that 28 but to build something we could cruise the local lake and still make shorter blue water trips once he retired as something we did together. Well, that was one of those things that got me here. The old man passed on 11 months after he retired, which in turn got my brother back home. He and I have since decided to continue to try to make it happen. My grandfather was big into woodworking so I have quite a bit of equipment, and a fairly large shop this can take place in. My brother and I both have woodworking experience due to this. Before anyone gets me wrong I know building cabinets and furniture is a completely different animal compared to a vessel but basic skills are there.

I am completely with you on the size of it and was wondering if it would be too much starting. What would your recommendation be length, type, material etc. for a feasible first project with bought plans for now? I asked for input from people with real world experience. If I’m trying to run before I can walk by all means reel me back in! As far as the home situation I’m blessed in the fact that I live alone on a fairly large acreage family farm with the closest neighbor around 1/4 mile away from the shop building.

Thank you all!

I truly appreciate your input!
I want to learn, and want to learn the correct way so I will start following some of these leads!

 

If your foot loose and fancy free, I'd try and get on some boats. Nothing helps you understand why boats are the way they are like being at sea on them. Can't speak to a lot of different types of boats, but have fished on a lot of different types. Getting on a good Boat teaches a little, but a miserable one teaches a LOT!

Have recently spent some time on some boats outside of my normal purview. About 4 or 5 in to it, and certain styles and types perform much better. Nothing like hitting a some waves to see what works.....

 

@comfisherman , that's great advice. I became a boatbuilder out of the army, where I served as a combat engineer. Now I build houses, because I could actually make a proper living doing it.

I designed and built my own boat with some boatbuilder experience and decades of building in general, and even so I only built my own because I couldn't buy what I wanted.

Work as crew, so you'll actually get paid. Buy used starting from that meaningful experience so you'll have a clue what you're looking at. Then build when you can't better meet your needs on the used market. If that day comes.

That's my zero cents worth.

 

Get on a boat, work, pleasure, volunteer rescue boat, whatever.
Read, look at study plans, follow marine news, it's all there for the taking.
Learn the Collision Regulations, correct radio usage, ship stability, etc., etc., etc.

 

Virginia Polytechnic has an Ocean Engineering program, also called naval architecture. They are a little over 3 hours away from Nelson, VA.

-Will

 

Hi,

Navalapp online courses might be a great fit:
https://navalapp.com/courses/

This is what you can expect:

- Instructors: Naval Architects (MSc and Ph.D.) and Aerospace Engineers with a proven industry, research, and/or university record.

- Courses: Video-based, self-paced, on-demand online courses containing videos, quizzes, and downloadable documentation.

- Classrooms: Virtual spaces to interact with the instructors and fellow students and participate in class discussions.

- Certificates: Make your knowledge count with the Course Certificates issued upon finishing the lessons, passing the quizzes, and approving the assignments.

- Campus: Do you have an unrestricted desire to learn, share your knowledge, and constructively support others in their journey? Join the online community.

- Resources: Courses, articles, calculation templates, software, books, and papers about Yacht Design, Naval Architecture, and Ocean Engineering.

- Career Development & Entrepreneurship: Introduce yourself, projects, looking for a job/internship, looking for partners/cofounders, and jobs.

Many of the courses are CPD-endorsed by the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA), and others are currently under assessment.

 

Nothing is what it seems. Only smoke and pretty screenshots are sold.

 

Hi, I'm sorry we had to discontinue your course at Navalapp. Whatever the case, I wish you well and healing and that you will be able to move on from whatever situation you might be in. Stay safe!

 

Thank you Pablo, always so polite and so kind but also always on the edge of truth in that narrow strip that separates what is from what is not.
You did not have to interrupt my course, it was I who asked that the course be closed (you did not want to do so), and who asked that my name and any reference to me disappear from the course given by Navalapp. I think you will remember perfectly that everything happened like this. You will also remember, the previous one was in a month of August, that at the end of that year you asked me to forget what had happened and to resume the course. You will remember that it was also me who declined such a kind offer.
Take care, my friend.

 

Oh, okay. I understand that's your point of view.

Let me clarify now the issue from our point of view.

After facing several problems with you and the course, we internally met and made the following decisions: you should go, and the course had to be discontinued.

The opportunity to do this appeared within two days, so we seized it: you left, and we closed the course.

And please, do not take me wrong; I am not generalizing about you, your work, or its quality. I am only saying that it didn't work for us.

And that is true; after several months, I approached you again to check your situation and find out whether something had changed or not. And it didn't. And after three years, your online behavior against us shows that it hasn't yet, which makes me think that this is something going deep on you and that you are not able to move on. That is why I wish you well and healing. I really do.

Wishing you all the best in your endeavors.

 

Pablo, what you say is similar to reality but it is not true. As I said before, you are always on the edge of what is true, but it is not, it always seems that you are selling something but in reality you are not selling what it seems, you are very clever at pretending that you are what you are not. I have had to ask you on several occasions (and all of this is recorded in this forum and on linkedin) to delete my references, not to use my images, not to use my examples in the exercises, to be able to create your own examples for your course. Will you be able to deny it?
Does that mean that I wanted to continue with you and that you had to reject me? Well, I don't think so.
Do you remember in the old western movies that a street vendor offered a hair-growing syrup that, in reality, was nothing more than alcohol dyed dark in color? People bought it and, although their hair did not grow, they were very happy.
Many members of this forum know that I sometimes try to unmask those who try to make us believe that they are what they are not, or that they can sell us what they do not have.
Although your education and good manners are admirable, none of that makes what you say true.
I'll just add that, unlike you, I don't need to twist reality, tell half-truths or falsehoods, to sell my products.
Deny all of the above if you want, but since I know that these discussions interest you because they give you publicity (I don't want to contribute to deceiving anyone), I won't answer your very polite arguments here any further.