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Monday, September 11, 2017

September 10, 2017-Boat Design



wingssail photo mashup-fredrick roswold
Sailing

I embarked on my boat design project just for fun. I just wanted to see, after a long time dreaming about it, what my fantasy boat would actually look like. We have no intention of building this boat, this is just a design exercise.

In August I sat down at the computer with a new CAD program, and inspired by a boat I saw in a photo on the wall of a restaurant in Phuket,Thailand in 2009 and a lot of photos and measurements of other boats, I went about designing a 70’ performance cruising boat, one that had a certain traditional look.

That boat in the photo I saw in Phuket was Bloodhound, a William Fife II design from 1870 and the photograph was taken by Beken of Cowes in 1910, but that wasn’t the first time I’d seen the look represented by the boat in that photo. There had been others: A hulk floating in Opua Harbor in 1998 without masts or engine had that plumb bow, low transom look; a couple of Bob Perry’s boats which were on the scene in Seattle in the 1980’s, Night Runner and Eclipse, also struck a chord with me. I just liked that certain traditional look which they all shared.

Since seeing that photo in Phuket I started collecting pictures and stories about other traditional looking cruising boats. Most were big. Huge actually, boats like the 180’ Dykstra designed Kamaxitha , and the 219’ Hetarios also by Dykstra and Pugh Yacht Design, and more recently Carl Linne, Holland Jachtbouw, 106’also a Dykstra design, and Toroa , a 72’ design by Botin Partners.

Click here for photos of all these boats and more.

Bloodhound itself was replicated in the 90’s and this 98’ exact replica has been sailing in California and even, for a time, Mexico. It is beautiful. But it has a full underbody and its performance must be more like 1870 than 2017.

I wanted a 1870 look and a 2017 performance.

Here is how the project proceeded:

At the beginning I envisioned a 65’ boat with a 20’ beam. This would give me the interior volume I needed for the accommodations I had in mind. I drew the hull and rig and keel and we mocked it up on the computer. This was about a week’s worth of work, taking into account that I had to learn the software system I was using. Both Judy and I looked at the result. It was ugly. The bow was too short, the boat too wide, and it looked tubby.

I started over with a 70’ boat and an 18’ beam, narrowed the bow, and moved the mast back.

Now we had something.

The next issue was the look of the main salon. It was cramped and didn’t feel right. So we redesigned the cockpit to be farther aft, reshaped the galley, and opened up the salon. This was better. Then we decided the forward cabin was not going to work as a master stateroom. Chuck that. We moved the master to the stern, behind the aft head. Little by little the boat took shape. The fact that we could view the model in 3 dimensions, rotating it and exploring the inside, helped to see how it would look.

The process was fun. It was almost like building the boat. When I put the motor in it was a big day, just like it would be in a real build.

After the walls and cabinetry were in place we added the paint, upholstery, counter tops, and cabin sole. This brought cause for further changes. We decided dark blue leather would be better than woolen cloth, and dark mahogany and ash sole was better than oak parquet. We made those changes.

It began to look very nice.

wingssail designs-fredrick roswold
70' Cutter Design

The last change was to move the helm aft, leaving more room on deck for winches (and passengers).

So, is it done? No, the deck is not finished; there is no sailing hardware or winches and no rigging. Inside we have not added doors or wood trim (it will be primarily white walls with dark teak and mahogany trim) nor have we done the mechanical or electrical drawings. I have them all in my head but this project has taken three weeks and I need to get on with other things. Maybe I’ll come back to it sometime in the future.

Oh, we named this boat Judy D Jensen.

Click here to see the step by step process and the results.

Click here to see the other historic designs again.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, La Cruz Huanacaxtle

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