The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction - WEST SYSTEM Epoxy

48 Getting Started
Designers’ fees are small compared to the total cost of
a boat. Doing without an experienced designer is a
gamble in which a lot of money is bet against very little.
Shop for plans with as much diligence as you would
shop for any other boatbuilding material. Designers
should be willing to offer advice. Talk with them or
write to them about the boats you are considering and
inquire about performance. Ask about the prices and
details of plans. If you plan to build with WEST SYSTEM
materials, inform your designer and make sure that the
construction details provided are applicable. If you
want a class racing boat, check to see if the class association
sells detailed plans.
You have a choice of four different kinds of drawings.
Custom plans, which run about 10% of total construction
cost, are specifically drawn for one client’s exclusive
use. Semi-custom plans are based on one of a designer’s
stock hulls, but are modified for a single client. <strong>The</strong>y sell
for about 4% of total construction cost. Stock plans cost
1 ⁄2% to 2% of total construction and have no guarantee
of exclusivity. Study plans are insufficiently detailed
for building, but do provide enough information for the
browsing shopper. Designers either lend these to potential
customers or charge a very minimal fee.
Even within these different types, plans vary greatly in
the amount of detail they provide. Some describe and
illustrate every aspect of construction, include full-scale
templates for fabricating parts, and suggest specific
woods and hardware. Others assume that you already
know a good deal about boatbuilding techniques and
offer little more than a set of hull lines and a table of
offsets. Quality and price are not necessarily determined
by the amount of detail a set of drawings contains.
Blueprint-type illustrations showing the size and position
of every component are rarely included in plans. Instead,
your designer will probably either provide you with
a set of scantlings or refer you to Lloyd’s, Nevin’s, or
Herreshoff’s scantling rules for wooden yachts. <strong>The</strong>se
prescribed dimensions are critical to the safe and efficient
operation of your boat. Your designer has determined
them by balancing specific loads against overall hull
weight, and so they are not readily interchangeable
between boats. If you have any questions about scantlings,
or if you are considering altering them in any way,
ask for professional advice.
Figure 6-2 Ollie, a 35' (10.6m) trimaran designed and built by
<strong>Gougeon</strong> <strong>Brothers</strong>, Inc.
Overbuilding is one of the most common errors in
boatbuilding. Erring on the side of safety by using
overly heavy scantlings can be quite wasteful. If you
use 11 ⁄4" (32mm) decking where 11 ⁄16" (27mm) would be
more appropriate, you will pay for more wood than you
really need and end up with a boat which is heavier
than it should be. Added load will stress the rigging of
sailboats and increase fuel consumption of powerboats.
If a hull is heavier than its designer intended, it will
ride in the water below the waterline and its performance
will suffer.
Just as different boats have different scantlings, the
different boatbuilding methods in this book may
require different scantlings systems. <strong>The</strong>re is no easy
way to directly translate, for example, the scantlings
for a laminated hull to hard chine construction. If
you are inclined to switch from the method specified
in your plans, consult your designer. While we are
always willing to offer broad technical advice, we are
unable to provide scantlings for specific applications.