| The purpose of this article is to give a cursory look at | | | | making is that, however the special purpose of a boat |
| boat construction, not so that you would be able to | | | | affects the design, it will still be within broad controlling |
| build one, but to show some of the reasons why | | | | factors. |
| sailboats look as they do. Although there is a huge | | | | Materials used to make hulls |
| range of designs for boats they are basically the | | | | In the same way that design can change for special |
| same whether they are a racing dinghy, a fishing | | | | purposes, so has it changed in the last few decades, |
| smack, or an ocean racer or cruiser. They are as cars | | | | especially because new materials have become |
| are -- the design changes only with the purpose of the | | | | available. In fact materials from which hulls are made |
| machine, and after that for cosmetic effect. | | | | have changed dramatically. Designers have moved |
| So boats, generally, are sharp at the end that goes | | | | from wood, fibreglass, aluminium and steel to specify |
| through the water first, they have varying degrees of | | | | foam and Kevlar sandwiches, end-grain balsa held by |
| width (beam) and they are blunt at the trailing end. | | | | thin wooden skins inside and out, carbon fibre and |
| They will have a mast, either tall or short, and they will | | | | other space-age materials. Also, instead of being |
| have sails. Because they have sails, they must have a | | | | constructed in a style which had not changed much |
| keel. If the boat is a fishing smack it will be slow, it will | | | | since Biblical times, hulls are now moulded, and are |
| have a short mast, and it will be made of enormously | | | | even baked in giant ovens to cook the exotic materials |
| strong timbers because it has to survive heavy | | | | into a lightweight shape that is lighter than alloy and |
| weather, it has to carry a heavy catch, and it has to | | | | stronger than steel. |
| have great power to drag its nets. | | | | Hull shapes |
| If the boat is a racing dinghy, it will hold two, sometimes | | | | Hull shapes have changed, too. The fat, shallow, |
| three people. It will be light enough to carry to the | | | | modern boat sails to windward far better than the |
| beach and trail home, and it will have a dish-shaped | | | | traditional styles by utilising lift from the keel. And, |
| bottom and a centreboard. This is because it usually | | | | because they are light, the modern boats run far |
| sails in sheltered waters, the weight of the crew keeps | | | | faster. The only advantage the older, heavier boat has |
| it upright, and it wants as little wetted surface as | | | | over the modern boat is that it is not thrown sideways |
| possible so that it can travel as fast as possible. An | | | | as much in big, breaking seas. |
| ocean racer won't have a doghouse (the bit of the | | | | But, however much shape and materials have altered, |
| cabin that sticks up above the deck), it will have a | | | | the skeleton of a boat is still much the same. To |
| mast that seems ridiculously light for such a powerful | | | | understand the structure of a hull is to understand the |
| vessel and it will have a wide range of sails to choose | | | | strain on it and to know when to take that strain off. It |
| from. | | | | is outside the scope of this article to discuss design in |
| The ocean cruiser will have a solid mast, often with | | | | the sense of which is the latest or which is the best. |
| steps up the side. It will have a big cockpit, and a big | | | | Every boat buyer decides that personal equation |
| doghouse. The boat will tend to have more beam than | | | | himself. We only want to understand enough about |
| the racer, although not necessarily so, and it will have | | | | boat construction to see how the design and building |
| sails that furl into the mast, or around themselves, with | | | | absorb the stresses handed out by the sea. |
| the controls running back to the cockpit. The point I am | | | | |