New To Sailboat Design

Guys,
I want to begin the education process for understanding the basics of small (<16 ft) sailboat design. Can someone recommend a particular book(s) which would be appropriate? I've looked in the Boat Design Book Store but can't seem to narrow down the choices. Thanks in advance for any advice you may care to pass along.

 

"Principles of Yacht Design" (http://books.boatdesign.net/boat/books.cgi?Operation=ItemLookup&ItemId=0071487697&locale=us) contains all the info you need to know about basic sailboat design.

You can accompany it with a dedicated book about structural design, like Gerr's "Elements of Boat's Strength": http://books.boatdesign.net/boat/books.cgi?Operation=ItemLookup&ItemId=0070231591&locale=us . It is actually a kind of recipe-book which gives structural formulas without explaining why do you get numbers you get. So, while not being very educative, it is still ok for basic practical calcs, and for small boats only. Won't be ok when you start thinking about bigger boats, which will require the application of either ISO standards or Classification Societies' rules.

Cheers

 

It depends a fair bit what sort of boat you have in mind. For high performance modern racers you'd be better off with Bethwaite.

 

Design of high performance racers is perhaps a bit beyond basic sailboat design.
Besides theory, it requires sailing experience and good grasp in hull and rig tuning.

 

kstj; Do you want to learn about design or do you want a sailboat. Well maybe both.

If you want to go sailing then look around to find something that you can buy, borrow or steal. Except for the stealing part, getting a used boat is by far the most economical way to go. You can not build a decent boat for as little as the price of a used boat.

If your main aim is to learn the intricacies of boat design, then get the books referred to by Dacquiri. After you have absorbed those books then there are dozens more to study. You will need to have a fairly good grasp of intermediate math as well.

Good luck on your journey to boat enlightenment.

 

Sailboat Design

Aside from the books already mentioned is one: " Design of the Sailing Yachts" by Pierre Guttelle. It has excellent chapters on small planing hull sailboat design, rudders, daggerboards and keels. Also one of the latest editions of Skenes Elements of Yacht Design(by Francis Kinney) would help with non-metric calculations for hull design.
The pdf below-a gift to us all from Eric Sponberg-is an easy to grasp collection of the major design ratios which can be used to compare different boats:

 

Thanks!

Thanks for all of the guidance and suggestions. The type I'm interested in is day-sail or pocket. I'll check out the books and info - thanks again!

 

Kstj, the type of sailboat really doesn't matter much, once you absorb the concepts and principles, it'll fall into place. Don't be in a hurry, there's quite a bit of absorption necessary.

 

The books mentioned are indeed a good start. You may add something about practical boat making. Not all that can be designed makes sense to be built (some people here do need to learn this )
The last thing you should do is to buy a pirated rhino program with the 'marine' extension, learn to press the right buttons and believe that you are a naval architect. (Corrie did it and failed) Not all that floats is a boat; even when it looks like one.
Good luck and success with your studies

 

Who's Corrie?

 

If I tell details here, I will not live much longer.