Where to start?

[Diego San]

Hello everyone, I am from Colombia and this is my first thread on the forum.

I'm a Mechanical Engineer, I have been working on topics completely different than boat design, but unexpectedly a boat manufacturer company in my country has offered me a position as Project Engineer and off course they are going to train me as a new engineer.

I do not want to say I'm new to boat designing an manufacturing, but I have to be honest an my major do not have a large education on those specific topics. I am familiar with fluid dynamics, general design, materials science, and so on, but the thing is I want to get into much more specific and complex concepts about boat designing.

To the point: Could you please give me a little help on where to start? some references or authors could work for me.

Regards

 

[Manie B]

Good luck with the new career

Principles of Yacht Design
by Larsson and Eliasson

a must have in your library

 

[Petros]

what kind of boats do they build, pleasure yachts are very different than commercial fishing boats for example.

Go to a competitors manufacturing facility and see if you can get a tour, posing as a potential customer. You just wanted to see how well built their boats are (and they will share with you the way they make their products the best one available). Or go read up on other, similar type boat manufacturer's websites to get a better feel for the industry. You will sound more knowledgeable when you talk to your new employer just by doing these simple things. If they use fiberglass, than you should learn about that process, if they use welded aluminum, than learn something about that process, and so fourth.

As a project engineer (though this title can have different meanings), you would normally be part of a team, supervising those that actually do the design work. So people skills are more important than specific knowledge, your education should be good enough for you to pick up the specific knowledge or information you will need as you go.

And do not be too intimidated by it all, if you have a good education in engineering, everything you learned will be useful, but in this case it will be applied to designing and building boats. They must be confident you can do the job, and learn what you need to know on the job, or they would not have offered you this job.

Good luck.

 

[Diego San]

Thank you for your replies which are very useful.

I am exciting with my new career. I look forward to share some of my new work within the forum.

 

[CDBarry]

Go to IBEX this fall in Tampa and subscribe to Professional Boat Builder, www.proboat.com, today.

Think about joining SNAME or RINA.

Get the upcoming Vol. 2 collection of small craft papers from SNAME when it is available, and get the current volume now.

What kind of boats?

 

[TANSL]

I believe my experience and our common language would be of great help. For any questions, use my e.mail if you consider it appropriate.

 

[Diego San]

thank you both!! I will go through the links you posted here.

TANSL, muchas gracias!!