Yacht design and construction

Australia
October 13, 2006 12:13am CST
I have prepared (manually) the above design, to be foam core built by myself, to be light displacement, trailerable and suitable for mostly single handed inshore and estuary cruising by myself. I have called it an ‘Old man’s weekender’ (I am elderly but fit and active and with a lifetime of experience of ships, sailing, designing and boatbuilding) Before commencing building I wish to check the design using appropriate software but am not familiar with such software or experienced in this process. Brief specs of the design as follows: LOA 6.1m, LWL 5.8m, Beam 2.5m, Draft, keel down 1.3m/up 0.26m, Ballast 250kg lead bulb, Water ballast 75kg with exchange/dump pipe across S/D cockpit sole and accessible to helmsman, Working sail area a modest 15m2 with roller furling/self tacking jib. Mast height 7.5 m to allow passage under Swan River bridges at Fremantle without need to lower. Provision for small outboard either in cockpit well or at transom on bracket to fold back inboard. Solar panel on gantry over transom. All gear as far as practicable to be worked from aft, including keel lift and anchor. Accommodation to be minimal but reasonably comfortable for short cruises, i.e. 2 berth (optional third (quarter) berth, good sitting headroom, simple galley, ice box, porta potty. I am exploring practicability and benefit of building in halves, (hull, deck and cabin top complete) on female forms (cut from standard size MDF sheets) and battens, to be erected upright, this giving easy standing access for laying up and possibly capable of being stable enough also to be turned through 90 degrees if necessary during the process. Main inboard fitting out to be done each half after layup to avoid excessive climbing in and out of hull. Any advice would be much appreciated. Eric
1 response
• India
13 Oct 06
You had designed well