Study Plans - Schionning Designs

20NOTES FROM THEDESIGNER….The success of our designs I feel, stems fromthe practical commonsense approach of a boatbuilder, coupled with many years of live aboardexperience and 50 - 60,000 sea miles in someof the worst conditions in the world. Thisexperience makes one aware of the power ofthe sea and the need for a boat to be able tosurvive these conditions, protect her crewphysically and psychologically as well as beinga fast comfortable vehicle for all the goodtimes. I am sure you will find our designs reflectour sailing and live-aboard experience andwill give you the offshore confidence to sailsafely anywhere in the world. Multihulls are‘beautiful, safe, cruising boats’. We hope youfind them as exciting as we do.This is definitely not the case, similar boat,similar price! Your choice should therefore betowards the boat that suits you best and offersyou good backup and is a good investment. Secondly,we know a lot of people who could not affordtheir boat at the onset so don’t be discouraged.Once you start building it is surprising howyou focus your interest, spare time and moneyinto your new project. With our new ownerbuilderswe suggest they start with theCHOOSING A DESIGN...Choosing a design can be difficult so we hopethat this introduction helps clear the way a little.We’ve taken particular care with the balanceof construction methods in our designs,making them light and strong yet easy to buildin small sections, most of which are manageableby a group of friends when they needturning over and moving. The blend of stripplanking and light flat panels kept in singleplane form, makes building easy and quick andproduces a finished catamaran of classic goodlooks which will not date quickly, giving youvery good investment security.One of the first steps in changing this dreaminto reality is figuring out whether you can affordthe boat (or more likely, how much moneyyou ‘don’t’ have!). Two realities here are,firstly, two similar sized boats with similar displacement,built of similar materials will costthe same to build overall. Designers’ estimatessmaller items which can be built in the garage,carport, (lounge?) etc. These initial items use verylittle material and money but use a lot of time, soat the early stages you can get a lot done whileyou wait for your old boat or car or house etc. tosell. These items are; dagger-boards and cases,motor pod, forward beam and catwalk, cabin roof,rudders, dinghy etc. The experience and confidencegained building these bits speeds up thesecond stage of larger items and gets the wholeproject finished much sooner.WHAT MAKES A GOOD MULTIHULL?Cat design is not just a matter of two hulls floatinga cabin above the water. Only in fairly recentyears have the basic elements of design and anunderstanding of their effect on the use and performanceof the finished boat been understood.The basic principles of good design should all bepresent in the boat you’re considering building orbuying. These will blend together to produce anexcellent Multihull.