...and now for something completely different...

WOW...some totally wild looking boats!!! But will they sacrifice interior space for far out designs?

The Gizmag looking boat looks a little more "normal"...

Cheers,

I kind of wonder what you'll see under water with the reflection from the window above.

So these are some beautiful boats but...

Where did all his space go? These are huge boats, but really tiny on the inside. They are long and plenty beamy but he just wastes space inside. The salon on the Oculus is something that I don't think you could get away with on land, four chairs in the middle of a big room? And how about the main deck on that sport fish? A pathway around the entire perimeter is nice for handling lines, if it's not boxed in completely but here it is, so you give up many square feet of deck space (800?) to a space that can't be used for storage, can't be used for loitering space during a party, can't be used for line handling, and isn't really a comfortable space to just sit and watch the world go by either.

Most naval architecture is about taking small spaces and making them seem big, Schopfer seems to be all about taking big spaces and making them seems small.

Timing

Agree with the comment" from the keyboards of Babes" however ....(you knew there was a "however, but etc!)
We still do not know for certain if the design does not have a practical motivation that the qualified audience do not recognis, being as they are "old school!' and may not know that certain of the design criteria being protected by "design copyright" actually exist for a practical function.

Come On...

...this is beginning to sound like an old-fogies pub outing.

New designers have to break the mould someway, and they can't come out of the womb with fifty years experience of seafaring, thats something that we oldies should be helping with.

But kindly!!

Can't possibly agree about 3D, either. Its the only way to design a 3D object, and having seen the mistakes people make with 2D sketches that don't work in reality, I'd not give up on 3D for anyone.

I've used 3D since the 1970s and done some pretty massive buildings, about $5 billions worth. And they all worked straight from the computer, unlike a lot of 2D technical drawing output that has come and gone over the years.

Try asking Boeing or AirBus to design their next plane on a 2D system and you'll hear them laughing from ten miles away.

Even if you can build them, how is someone going to wash them much less keep the windows clean? Here again, we have designers with no sea time.

What ever happened to K.I.S.S. you know keep it simple. These designs look awsome but not as awsome as a fully restored classic...

Window Cleaners Convention

Classic!!?!

Dangerous old tub, more like. Tarnished weakened brass; creaking, leaky pitch-pine and the unmistakable stench of diesel and vomit in the bilges.

Window cleaning!?!?

Is that what boating really means to you? Drudgery?

Would any cathedral have been built if they had stopped to think about window cleaning? Of course not. 'Sorry, we didn't build Wells Cathedral, we were too concerned about the window cleaning issues. We couldn't get the ladders. And there isn't a hose long enough. Besides, pumped water hasn't been invented yet. Besides, we don't have any experience of building cathedrals, so we won't bother.'

Quite right, many of the early ones fell down. But it didn't stop them trying. Or, as we say 'pushing the boat out'. Life is an experiment, its about the new, not the old.

I've been boating since I was six and I'm now sixty-one, and I can promise I do not spend my time varnishing old pine and polishing windows.

If thats what you enjoy, then perhaps you should keep it to yourself because its not the essence of boating for most people. Ask a thousand boating souls what they think of first when they hear the word boat, and I can guarantee you won't hear window-cleaning come top of the agenda.

I've never seen a boat in any marina that I would like to own, other than my own, naturally. One mans boat is another's weird mistake. We have more variety in this game than in most others. So there is room for dull designs, and also room for adventurous ones. There is room for archaic stuff and futuristic stuff.

Just because you have 'experience' it doesn't mean its useful knowledge or even appropriate. And experience is easy to collect, don't forget, its simply knowledge thats been acquired very very slowly.

Education is much more effective for most people, its knowledge thats acquired as quickly as they can absorb it.

Its up to those with experiences to write it down so that it can be quickly assimilated. If you don't do that you can't be surprised if the things that are important to you are not passed on and valued by others. Muttering into your beer isn't good enough. Write it down.

While knowledge is easy to acquire, imagination is impossible to get. You either have it or you don't.

So as I said, its becoming an old-fogies coach trip. Cut the new generation some slack.

Hi,

This guy needs to looks up the definition of ‘Practical’. I hate the word most times, because it limits a design, but I can’t see any of those boats getting built until there’s major modifications to all designs. Harsh, but needed to be said. Cheers

Far

It would be nice to see a picture of your one of a kind boat?

Great, and I bet that neither you nor any of those others you survey have ever run or crewed large boats before, because if you had, you would most definitely have come across the requirement by the owner, manager and charter guests to clean those windows, I guaranty it. I as captain have to figure out how to safely deploy my crew to get those windows clean when coming in port or anchor after a run where they get spray on them and to keep them clean. They get the morning dew chamoised from them daily. It is a requirement for this type of vessel. An owner/operator can do as he pleases, but boats of this type are not owner operator boats, they are professionally crewed boats so your standards aren't applicable. I can attest from long experience, the owners of these boats expect them to be clean and shining any time they are not actually at sea. I am concerned with it because that is my job to be because someone can get injured. People fall off the side of boats all the time cleaning them. I don't know anyone, myself included, who came up as a BN and stayed with boats as an avocation who has not gone off the side of a poorly designed boat. Every one of my IBNA brethren look at those renderings and the first think we think is "How in the hell am I supposed to keep those windows clean?" often with a limp because they've gone over the docked side and hit concrete instead of water. You also learn to secure your extension lead so your buffer will unplug before you hit the water with it in your hand.

Designing things that get people injured or subject them to undue risk in the performance of routine maintenance evolutions is just poor and lazy design work plain and simple. Cathedral, fine, if God wants clean windows she can clean them herself (though in the 1600s and so, losing a window washer was no big deal., Now buildings are engineered with window washing in mind, even with automated systems.) On a boat though, it's a condition of employment for the crew, and I don't like my crew getting hurt.

I agree with you on being able to construct it, I don't much see major issues with it actually. between CAM water cutters and good fairing compounds it's fairly straight forward to cut and fit the pieces then smooth it all out. But building a boat is just a fraction of it. It's a machine that sets to sea and requires continual service and maintenance to stay that way.

They're a bit ugly in my view and not very hydro-dynamically efficient or effective for the size, but that's not my criticism as it's a non safety issue as long as the stability calculations still work out.

As for cleaning, a few years ago someone figured out how to emboss glass and ceramic with nanobumps that prevent water and dirt from sticking, based on the surface of a lotus leaf. If such a technology were applied to said windows then it would be a matter of hitting them with a bit of spray from a saltwater hose to clean them off.

Hi,

Is it actually possible to treat large surface areas of glass with this technology without any degradation of the toughness of the glass?

Wat if any optical imperfections are induced when said treatment is applied?

Will the surface still be smooth enough to be wiped clean with a rubber blade?

Class don't allow any tinting of Wheelhouse windows so it is likely they would have an opinion on this type of system as well.

If it were possible/practical for yachts think how many hose hands would be walking the docks.

Michaelpowell, I would consider myself ‘new generation’, but some of these designs coming out these days are a no brainer. There either to practical, encouraging very poor design and allowing people to think that it’s fine, because let’s face it, the average punter wouldn’t know. Or there over designed leaving the boat very poor in the practical department, and also allowing people to think that it’s also fine. There needs to be a balance... Experience helps here.
I’ve been boating since I was 3 months old and have been on boats that were built in the 60’s to the present. And I can tell you that the older vessels outnumber the new one’s in most field’s (practical, design, etc.) with ease. The amount of times I’ve jumped in a new boat and thought my back is going to break, or what the hell was the designer thinking, well it’s all too often. There’s bit of a call where I come from. “You could take that boat to the reef and back”. There are not too many new boats that you could give the same compliment to these days.
The design phase needs to start at A and proceed to B – C – D and so on. These designs are trying to skip from A – F if you ask me.... The designer needs to think about the whole picture.... And his VCG.
If this designer did spend some time at sea he would change his ways.
Far

Favourite

You wouldn't like it !!!


This is my favourite design of the moment:

http://www.*********/jumpch.asp?idChannel=204&idUser=0&attivo=3-1

(Easy windows to clean too)

(Mod note; link is replaced)

Glass that doesn't spot in a salt spray environment? I'd love to get some, who do I order it from? Will it pass Lloyds strength tests? I have to build a new set of doors before October, I'd love to try the stuff.

Favourite

Plus the sublime Josephine, my favourite Parisian, to whom I lost my heart many years ago:

http://www.yacht-josephine.com/

Then you will probably like these boats as well, seen at the Düsseldorf Show:

Yes

Yes, they would have been on my look-see list. Very interesting.

I was trying out your 2D approach yesterday with one of the painting programmes that somebody here suggested. I was hoping to have your advice, if I can load it correctly.

Here goes.....