| Can I enlarge or scale boat XYZ?
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Tuesday, 07 December 2004
Yes, you can scale by 10% maximum but it is not going to be easy.
- The first problem is the dimensions of the panels.
If you have seen our plans, you know that we show the exact size of all developed panels. When you change one dimension, most of the panels change.
You can scale the panels. If you stretch the boat 10% lengthwise, scale all lengths 10%.
If you scale the whole boat in 3 dimensions, scale all dimensions.
- The second problem is one of scantlings and hydrostatics.
If you enlarge the boat more than 10%, you must recalculate the framing and the specifications of the panels: thickness, fiberglass layers etc.
A 20% increase in length means a 73% increase in volume and around 50% in weight. Your boat may float too high or too low.
- The third problem is the most important one: plywood usage.
We work hard on optimizing the use of plywood, reducing waste and locating the splices strategically. If you increase a dimension by only one inch, a panel that was designed to fit on three sheets of plywood will suddenly not fit anymore. You will need four sheets and the splice is going to be in a weird place.
This has a chain reaction effect and we have seen cases where a small enlargement of the hull resulted in a plywood increase of 75%!
Is this particular to our plans? Are other plans not easier to scale?
Not at all. Most plans from other designers do not give you the dimensions for the developed panels and do not show the nesting on the plywood. There isn't much to change in those plans because the information is not available. If you want, you can use our plans like those less detailed ones but construction will be more difficult, just as with the other plans.
You may choose a design because it is easy to build or economical but wish that it was just a foot longer.
Add a foot and the boats is not easy and economical to build anymore.
Bottom-line, avoid scaling our plans. If the boat looks too small, choose another design. |
| Last Updated (
Tuesday, 24 July 2007 ) |
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