Boat Design

New designs from our drawing board, and assorted thoughts on boat design in general.

Length matters

Submitted by Matthew on

Longer boats are faster. We tend to take that for granted, because it tends to be true. Put two boats of similar type in a race, and the longer one is almost certain to beat the shorter one to the finish line. The difference that length makes is quite remarkable, but we rarely get to look at it on its own- and that is the subject of today's post.

Starwind 860: Range and efficiency

Submitted by Matthew on

Among the key questions that must be answered in any powerboat's design phase are: How much power does it need, and how far can it go between gas docks?

The Starwind 860 trimaran that I'm currently working on started life as a series of computer simulations to answer these two questions. In today's post, I'll take you through some of these calculations and the logic that led to the final choices.

Starwind 860: Designing for mixed missions

Submitted by Matthew on

It's a rare boat indeed that is tasked with one and only one mission. The degree of flexibility that's expected, though, varies greatly from boat to boat. My requirements for my next boat fall in the "does everything reasonably well" category, which necessitates a lot of head-scratching and balancing of trade-offs during the design phase.

Does electric drive make sense in a boat?

Submitted by Matthew on

Electric cars are trendy these days. Hybrid electric systems are perhaps a little less exciting, but still get a large share of marketing attention. Boatbuilders have been getting in on the act too, but does it make sense to consider electric drive for a boat?

In today's article, I'll summarize three common powertrain architectures (battery electric, hybrid IC/electric and conventional IC engine) and outline the logic that might lead you to choose an electric drive system for your boat.

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