CD03 - Issue #74: Designer / Builder Paul Bieker--Process Control ...

map looks uneven, with really bigspikes surrounded by areas of lowerpressure. It's a statistical thing: the biggerthe panel you're looking at, the lesslikely it is that loads will exceed a largeaverage pressure. But in large monocoquestructures, local pressures can beexceedingly high. Panels support thosepressures by bending. I think basicengineering would have told you in alot of cases that you'd get core-shearproblems." Since Bieker prefers to splithis 14 hulls into small supported panels,FEA is ideally suited to helping himengineer his elegant spiderweb framingset at oblique angles to the centerline,while CAD allows him to provide accuratetemplates so that even this complexframing simply "egg crates" together.I" guess I view myself as someone whotries to apply good engineering toaccomplish things that might otherwisenot have been done," Bieker says. "I seeboats as very much related to airplanes,particularly the relationships betweendrag and weight. Not that I'm JoeUltralight, you understand. But if there'sa lot of weight without purpose, itmight as well be put in ballast orremoved for reduced displacement."Light displacement is part of Bieker'sstyle, but his engineering expertise andhands-on boatbuilding experience alsoallow him to mate the theoreticallysuperior with the pragmatically doable.Increasingly, Bieker isapplying his style, whichhas served large commercialvessels andInternational 14s equallywell, to mid-sized watercraft.Bieker's first keelboatcommission was for a55' (16.7m) skinny sloopwith a notably angularsuperstructure, a straightsheer, and a near-plumbstem with boxy probiscus.Bieker recalls, "OneSeattle yacht designertold me that 'It has anose like a dogfishshark.' Some peoplethink it's a cool-lookingboat because it's quitelow in the water andangular. I admit the styling may be overthe top. I don't try to make a boat ugly;I do try to make it purposeful withoutfeatures that lack a reason for being. Inthis case, the client wanted the biggestboat that could be driven by a sail planhe could handle with his wife and twoA computer rendering, (using Rhino software) of theRip Tide 55, a fast cruiser. Topsides, deck, superstructure,and much of the interior are built with flatcomposite panels. The mast steps on a robust podmounted atop the cabin. This boat's cost-effectiveconstruction system was documented in PBB No. 45.DECEMBER/JANUARY 2002 77