Boat strength

[Henning 4148]

Has anyone here done one of the boat design correspondance courses? Which one? What is the experience?

I've been fiddling with a design for some time (in winters) now, the area where I am struggling is required strength / dimensioning of parts and "good practice solutions". I've got Dave Gerr "Elements of Boat Strength" and "The nature of boats" and they are helping a lot, but some questions remain open.

Or are there "standard" books used in boat design education I should read?

[paladin]

35 years ago or so... did the Westlawn thing and YDI......Westlawn was the top line course, YDI was more in lines with giving you just enough knowledge to think you know about Yacht design.......it's like anything else...they teach you the basics, you need to be heavily involved in the industry for practical experience. You may learn the basics of fiberglass construction, but getting in the middle of it gives you the practical knowledge to perhaps go out on your own....

[mmd]

My library is reasonably well stocked, but there are favourites in the stacks, such as:

(Theory)
Marchaj's "Aerohydrodynamics of Sail"
Quetelle's "The Design of Sailing Yachts"
"Skene's Elements of Yacht Design"

(Structural strength)
Fitzgerald's "Strength of Materials"
Schaum's "Strength of Materials"

(Scantlings)
Gerr's "Elements of Boat Strength"
"Skene's Elements of Yacht Design"
Det Norske Veritas "Rules for Construction & Certification of Vessels Less Than 15 Metres"

... and most importantly for the little "fiddley bits", compiled and cross-referenced information on small boats collected over the past twenty-five years of playing at this game. Your personal files are the most valuable asset that you have.

[paladin]

and as Michael says above.....collect books....even those that may seem 30 years out of date.....you can learn something from all of them....more importantly...read them all...several times...over and over...

[ssor]

People have been building boats for several thousand years, books published a hundred years ago are contemporary. The only thing that has changed are the tools of the craft.

[Boatmik]

Howdy Henning,

I had exactly the same problem a decade or more ago. I wanted to design boats, had sailed a huge amount and felt I had some idea of shape and proportion and speed making factors.

But the one area I had trouble finding info in was - how to work out the strength needed.

In the end this was resolved because I spent three years working for a company cutting up kits for boats designed by Bolger, Kirby, Derek Kelsall, Iain Oughtred, most of the Woodenboat plans and dozens of others.

So a bit of study into the way others do it is useful.

Then there are scantling rules - Herreshoff's, Nevins etc. Or the more modern ABS code.

"Skene's Elements of yacht design" has also been highly useful for both its basic methods and worked examples for working out the different parts of a boat.

But I never understood those until I actually started having to work through their designs and work out how to change things without changing the stiffness of the structure.

But you need some basic engineering to be able to work out stiffnesses of parts and sections of boats. Generally it is stiffness rather than strength required in the design of different components

Then some basic rules of how parts go together in different construction methods - and that is where the strength comes in.

But the main thing is practical. You won't understand unless you actually design or work with something in a realistic way (even if it is just sweating over a sawbench).

Or maybe build something small and simple and see how it works.

Best wishes

Michael Storer

[Lucky Luke]

"
... and most importantly for the little "fiddley bits", compiled and cross-referenced information on small boats collected over the past twenty-five years of playing at this game. Your personal files are the most valuable asset that you have.
Oh yes!
Compare, compare and compare....and interseting numbers will come out of the magic hat!