Help?

Hi there, thanks for the membership to this site. I live in NZ and have a business in the construction industry with staff etc and have had this for about 20 years. As a side line i also employ 2 boat builders and we have built about 8 boats out of Aluminum so far ranging from 4.4 meters to 8.5 meters. I have paid a designer to design them for us (for good money in my opinion). The second one we built was a bit of a disaster design wise. it was 8.5 meters long with 2 X 200hp outboards on it. It was to narrow in the stern and we never picked up on this. We had to add Sponsons/pontoons to the side of it to give it more beam to get it handling better and be actually usable. it is still somewhat poor handling in a quarter on following sea. It tends to get caught and rolls over a bit and gets stuck there until we slow down off the plane. Its pretty Scary. We also have trim tabs on it but they are not enough to right it once it heels over. It is very very tender as well underway and i am all ways using the trim tabs, especially if someone moves around or the sea changes direction. This has brought me to another position in life! After 20 years + In the construction industry i am extremely stale with it! I am 50 years of age, have had boats in our family since i was born, My dad had a 14 meter charter boat, My grandad was a commercial fisherman for a fairly big part of his life. Salt is in the veins so to speak. I have been looking at the Westlawn Boat design course, Boats and design really gets me excited, espeacily also employing boat builders it "may" be handy to say the least! To learn to design and build Aluminum boats would this be a good course to do? or could anyone recommend any others to do? I all ready have Rhino 3d on my computer but need to learn to use that properly. Thanks in advance.

 

Over the long haul, boat building has not been the best place to invest your money or your facilities.
That you want to learn more about design features is good. Westlawn does not make you a certified Naval architect but it does give you a lot of information and ability to assess design features. (I was a Westlawn graduate many many moons ago.)

Tell us more about the failed 8.5 meter boat. It sounds like a good project to discuss..... or argue about.

 

Hi Messabout, thanks for the reply, i guess really with building a few boats now ive got a little bit of an idea on the markets for boats etc. I guess financially ive had a fairly good run with the construction business but my hearts not in it. I guess also i dont want to have imposter sydrome either, like starting a boat building bussiness properly with marketing etc and 2 good aluminum/ boat manufacturers and not really having something behind me to say i know what im talking about. Was hoping to be something more than just the financer to the bussiness. It really really lights my fire as well with enormous passion! Like say after doing the westlawn course would i be able to compently design trailer boats with rhino 3d or other software? I dont want to design ships. Its really just for boats il own and potentially sell ourselves. Anyway the 8.5 metre boat! Where do i start? I know i put about 200,000 NZD into it to have my wife tell me shes NEVER going in it again!!! That was before the pontoons were put on! I could email anyone the plans to have a look at it! Id actually be more than happy to pay someone for a resolution to its issues! Its got so many goodys in it, like 3kw transducer and sounder, auto pilot, fridge, diesel cooker/heater, have had it up to 42 knots when first trailed it on a lake. I would say its a bit bow and top heavy, it has a big high bow on it but is only 2 metres wide at the stern/waterline. It weighs about 3.6 tonnes dry, has 600 litre petrol capacity, 150 water hold, toilet etc. Thanks for your reply

 

I understand your passion, being somewhat similarly infected. I can't speak to the westland course bt the main thing to do is spend the untold hours studying existing designs and absorbing information from available literature and books. The software is just a tool albeit a powerful and useful one, it'll never design a good boat. I suspect larger pontoon/sponsons would help your current craft but it's not an area where I have any expertise.
Hopefully other more knowledgeable members will chime in, best of luck.

 

I suppose the old joke is appropriate here: "How do you make a small fortune in boatbuilding? Start with a large one."

I started with a little money, so wound up destitute. Now I build houses. That has worked out better. Sorry for your troubles. That is a damn shame. That being said, my interest has never gone away. I designed and built Serenity over the last 5 years. To be designing and building. Getting the boat at the end is a bonus. It isn't a business you have much chance of prospering in: there are too many fellows like us - you and I, and many of the other folks on here willing to do it at a loss. Because it is, as you say, in our blood.

These days I build houses in challenging locations, generally water access, and occasionally design and build something boat adjacent, and that is close enough.

DC

 

I think that you could recover some of your money from suing the Naval Architect. As far as taking courses on design, it depends on what the goal is. Buying the rights to manufacture two or three proven designs will be faster, cheaper and reliable. You can use a design with proven performance, keep the bottom and modify the top sides to make it different.