Resources - of the informational and inspirational kind...
Gradually over the course of these projects a full blown obsession was born which I mostly blame on Gavin Atkin who is creator and host of a wonderful e-group on boat design, and an amazing site about Free Boat Design on the web. Don't join the list unless you have no attachment to your spare time. He and other members of the list - like Chuck Leinweber - encouraged me to leap into the land of crazy backyard boat building. Don't miss Chuck's great site Duckworks Magazine.
Gavin introduced me to Greg Carlson's amazing boat design program called Hull. Why he offers it for free no one knows or understands. I secretly suspect he's in on this conspiracy to turn ordinary folks like myself into blithering boat nuts. If so he can feel proud of a job well done.
Herb Mcleod's One Sheet Skiff is the first boat I built. Free plans! A talented Canadian boat builder/designer. Check him out.
Gavin Atkin's Free Boat Design Resources:
It was through Gav's site I found Herb's plans, he also moderates a great amateur boat design list. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boatdesign/Dave Carnell's "$200 Sailboat" is a rework of Bolger's Featherwind. Interesting site. He's a retired chemical engineer who has good information on epoxy and wood rot. http://home.att.net/~DaveCarnell/
Jim Machilak's essays: One of the best resources for amateur designers out there.. and some nice boat plans as well. Send for his catalog!
http://homepages.apci.net/~michalak/
Or shop his designs at Duckworks: http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/store/plans/jim/michalak.htmBill Young's site - Check out his lapstrake canoe. He uses a ShopBot.
He also has run a high school boat building project for several years. It's all here.
http://www.seasidesmallcraft.com/ Check it out.Great Encouragement to boatwrights! http://www.iws.net/wier/bbfile1.html
Craig O'Donnel's Cheap Pages: bamboo, Bolger boats and much more.
http://www.friend.ly.net/user-homepages/d/dadadata/boats.htmlJohn's Nautical and Boat building page:
http://www.boat-links.com/linklists/boatlink-03.html#building
He also has the The Mother of all Maritime Links! It's searchable!Messing About In Boats - my all time favorite boating mag - twice monthly - get it http://www.mims.com/maib/
Duckworks Magazine! Chuck's put together a great index of plans and articles that can get you out of your chair and into the garage! Now he's got an amateur design contest going too!
http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/Some interesting design software:
Hull design shareware:(at the bottom of the page, let it load)
http://www.carlsondesign.com/ Very user friends, particularly with Gav's tutorial below.Gavin's Hull's tutorial: http://home.clara.net/gmatkin/hullstut.htm
I've not used these next two, but I've run into some who like them.
Carene40 and Carene50 (Hull fairing and sheet expansion programs from Robert Lainé, free evaluation copies)
Blue Peter Marine (Hullform hull design software, including public domain obsolete version)
Sail making info:
Polysail - they sell kits for making white poly tarp sails - good tutorial too! http://members.aol.com/polysail/
Craig O'Donnel's Cheap Pages: Lots of polytarp sail making inspiration.
http://www.friend.ly.net/user-homepages/d/dadadata/oddsails.htmlI met Frank on the boatdesign list. He has some great ideas about poly sails: http://www.hobby-boatbuilding-index.de/htm/sailglueing.htm
Robert Laine's amazing sail and boat design software! http://users.bart.nl/~jmlaine/sailcut/A Tyvek sail - the paper houses are wrapped in and shipping bags are made from. http://www.cyber-dyne.com/~jkohnen/Tyvek/index.html
