17 December 2009

Serious daydreaming: winter boat house

Finding a winter store is such a hassle and having Daisy G. in a cold barn about 12 miles from home is not ideal. I have been doodling ideas for a perfect boathouse at home. We have the land, but it is a funny shape at the end of twisty narrow lanes. I have been experimenting with a remarkable free drawing program from Google called Sketchup. I hadn't been all that impressed when I tried it some months ago, but now I am really looking into it I am very impressed. It really came into its own when I discovered that you can download endless things other people have drawn. No one has done a BayCruiser (yet), but I found a Whitehall pulling boat and a trailer. With some judicious strecthing they are now the sizes of mine. I can pull them in and out, and test whether they fit in or not. This is the result of just a few hours practice. Fuly 3D, dimensioned and the roof cut away to show the interior. Need to check the detail sizes of the real boat and then see if I can fit it in my garden.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting program but I have been unable to discover how to construct a boat hull. I suspect that it may have to be built up in slices as ypu would start to build a half model but then how do you move to the curved shape?
    Interesting point regarding the rudder. I built a Selway Fisher design dinghy some years ago and that had identical transom and the rake of the rudder followed the transom.
    Looks great boat and clearly you are pleased with the performance. I am thinking about the possibilty of changing the main and gaff sail on the Wb for a gunter sail with large roach as per Daisy Grace. It may improve windward performance.
    Roger Parish

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  2. Hi Roger
    I have no idea how to draw a boat in Sketchup. I nicked the one in my shed from an online collection of components. It doesn't look like my boat, but it is about the same size.
    I think the other Winkle Briggers will disown you if you convert to gunter!

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