Welcome to our online yacht design office!

This is a unique project: together we will design a new boat.
From the concept stage to the final production drawings, it will all (or almost) happen online with your input. With us, you will travel the design spiral and see a boat take shape with pictures, calculations and ideas exchanges.

This will not become the famous camel designed by a committee who wanted to design a horse. You are welcome onboard of this project but the designer will act as the captain and keep it on course. The design crew on e-boat.net's side is made of Jacques Mertens and Ryan Schulz. Jacques is the designer. He will draw the lines, do all the engineering calculations and make decisions about specifications, features and building methods. Ryan does the 3D modeling, drafting, BOM and weight input for further calculations. She is also in charge of renderings and web pages creation.

On the web side, we count on our users to get involved with questions and comments.
Input from experienced boaters is appreciated but we ask them not to intimidate beginners: allow them to ask candid questions. To the beginners, we will ask to do their home work. We will make references to books about boating and design when necessary: please read them and progress with us.

In this first project, we may not cover every aspect of the design process but since we plan to repeat this experience a few times with different boats, all subjects will thoroughly be covered after a while.
Let's start with some basic assumptions: you understand the terminology and have at least a basic comprehension of what makes a boat float and move.
If not, start with the excellent book by Ted Brewer: "Understanding Boat Design".

This book is sold at the best online boating bookstore. While we are on the subject of books, here are some more recommendations:
"Designing Power and Sail"
by Arthur Edmunds is our preferred introduction to the technical aspects of yacht design. Almost all the formulas are in there.
Two books by Dave Gerr are also useful. We will refer to them and other books as we progress.

About the web pages:

• There will be a web page like this one for each step of the design.
• A list of all published web pages can be seen in the article index.
• Pages are sorted by date with the most recent ones at the top. The list will show an abstract for each page. Click on "Read more..." to see the whole page with drawings and graphs.
• You can post drawings and photos related to the design topic. Send to the editor who will attach to the text concerned.
  For example, you could download (right click) one of our drawings, edit it in the program of your choice and send it to share with us. We separate the users pictures from the comments to keep the pages clear.
• At the bottom, there is a " Post Comment" button and you can read previous comments from other users.
  Please participate, share your ideas.