building in sections

[jan engberg]

I am interested in building a 35 - 40ft sailboat: light, narrow beam, fin keel, very little accomodation,lots of sail area and fast. The boat would be used in somewhat protected waters but it should also have the capacity to endure severe conditions. Construction should be some wood-epoxy technique. The problem is that my workshop is only 30 by 20ft. So, is it possible to build such a boat in sections? Let´s say a 7ft bow section, a 20ft mid section (with all accomodation) and an 8ft aft section? Anyone heard of such a project?

[NormMessinger]

Nah, ya gotta go outdoors under a temperary shelter.

--Norm

[John Bell]

Teh only boat I know of that's being built in sections is a 50' Bolger designed 'Wyoming' power sharpie, currently under construction in Colorado. The builder has a small shop, so he's putting the boat together 15-18' at a time, planning to join the sections at the very end of the process. I personally have my doubts that he's going to wind up with a fair hull at the joins, but there probably won't be any structural penalty for building this way. I doubt you could do this for many designs however. 'Wyoming' is a flat-bottomed square section hull of a very simple plywood construction. While it is possible to build a round bottomed hull in peices and join it all up later, witness the Stars and Stripes America's Cup boat they are gluing a new bow on, it is a tricky business.

To see the Wyo going together piece-wise, go to http://www.dreamwater.net/cosailor.

[On Vacation]

Many large vessels have had sections added in the middle and on the ends. Structual concerns create added need to reinforce the joints causing some weight issues also. Depending on what you are going to do with this boat, it is not out of the question. If you have an open ended garage, then build you a temporary cover extending out in the dirveway. Many boats being built from plans at home are built with butt blocks. Round hull designs are more dificult to do this type of construction.

Look into building just the hull. Then upon joining it , install the bulkheads after the fact doubling up at the seams. Scarf the plywood at the ends and protect them with a backing block till time comes to join the sections. By the way, do you have some plan, when it comes time to join the boat together, of a work area?

Then look at this in the short term.

[ 11-01-2002, 08:21 AM: Message edited by: Oyster ]

[rkrough]

yet another option would be a folding schooner (http://www.instantboats.com/fschooner.htm)

http://www.instantboats.com/images/fschoonerph300.jpg

http://www.instantboats.com/images/fschoonerph2300.jpg

[Garrett Lowell]

Jan,

Perhaps you should contact Phil Bolger and see what he has up his sleeve. He has designed several of these types of sectional boats, one a schooner that can be floated together and construction finished at or on the water (Boats with an Open Mind was the name of the book the design was featured in, I believe). He has not only designed the boxes, but some beautiful round bottomed boats, as well.

[Bruce Hooke]

I doubt that your going to find a pre-existing design that you could do this with, without a fair amount of modification by a yacht designer, but it sounds like just the sort of thing that Bolger would find interesting (or, if he thinks it's a bad idea he will tell you why, in which case you should certainly listen... :D ). If Bolger has a design that is about what you are looking for in terms of the finished boat then it might be possible for him to just re-work things as necessary to allow it to be built in sections.

I do agree that getting a fair hull would be a bit of a challenge but I think there are ways around this. One approach might involve a building frame that starts in two parts (bow and stern) each of which is fair, and then once the bow and stern are done the building frame gets joined at the center and the fairness in the midsection gets fine-tuned.

That said, if you have the room and if the neigbhors will allow it, I think there is a lot to be said for building a temporary shelter outside and saving the garage area for making parts. On a 40' boat there are a lot of fairly large parts that could best be built off the boat and then installed, but this will be hard to do if most of the garage is filled up with the hull and your tools...

[Wilson Fitt]

I know someone who built a very fine boat about 40' long in three sections for exactly the same reason. It's multi chine plywood and I think that he did all of the bulkhead, frame, stringer, deck frame and interior furniture assembly upside down, moving each section outdoors as it was completed. Then he assembled the sections and put the outer skin on near the end of the construction cycle.

He's a naval architect and accustomed to the latest CAD/CAM cutting techniques for plating and assembling steel hulls in sections. He worked in fractions of a millimeter, compared to the (sometimes large) fractions of an inch that I used in building a traditional carvel hull.

I can put you in touch with him if you contact me off line.

[Wiley Baggins]

Jan,

Your description clearly is not a multihull, but you might get the performance and accomodations you want, and be able to build in smaller units.

Another thing to research (multihull or monohull) is the "constant camber" building technique. I do not have any real familiarity with the technique, but I believe that hull panels are fabricated and then assembled.

Good luck!

[N. Scheuer]

How 'bout going Bolger's Folding schooner and his subsequent three-piece cruising sailboat (don't knoe the design name) one better with a double-ended Sharpie Schooner wherein the masts could be relocated so as to convert into separate His and Her planning racing sloops after they get to a suitable anchorage for the evening?

Or one Sloop (half) could be taken out solo on weekends when the other partner has something else scheduled.

As the owner of a Shearwater yawl designed by Bolger, I can attest that his ideas generally work well, and sure make for interesting conversation with other sailors.

Moby Nick

[Scott Rosen]

Building a boat is so much work and sweat and takes huge amounts of time. It would be a real shame if the primary reason you chose a particular design was because it could fit in your workshop.

Building a design you love will help you keep the motivation going. I'd pick the design on factors other than space and then build a temporary shelter if necessary.

[JimConlin]

Is a multuhull the answer?
My shop is 33' long, but only 8' wide in the middle. My current project is a 28' ( by 22') trimaran, Dick Newicks's 'Spark'. It'll be an assemblage of skinny parts, three hulls and two cross-beams, the widest being the Vaka , at 5'4". If building in strip composite, joining sections at the last moment isn't unthinkable.

[Tomcat]

Have a look at harryproa.com. Ugly perhaps, until you figure out how it all works together. Main hull (long hull) is assembled from 4 pieces. Being a multi it is also made out of seperate elements, beams hulls, and aerorig.