| How would you set about building a catamaran boat | | | | that you're happy with you can do it in the |
| hull? If you want to go down the DIY route, (that | | | | knowledge that you've evaluated all the possibilities. |
| would be my recommendation), you'll be needing | | | | This just doesn't happen when you commission |
| some pretty sophisticated catamaran hull design | | | | someone else to do it for you. You give them your |
| software. And you might think that it's only the | | | | brief and they go away and try to interpret your |
| professionals who can afford the sort of software | | | | ideas for you. That's not the way I want to do it |
| that you'd need to create the design, run all the | | | | Experience |
| necessary calculations and produce the plans. There | | | | You might be thinking, 'I've got no experience in |
| are plenty of boat design companies out there who | | | | catamaran boat design'. Well, that might be true. Nor |
| will draw up plans for a catamaran, and they will | | | | did I when I started, but you clealry have an |
| probably make a good stab at it, but you can't avoid | | | | awareness of boats and boat design. You probably |
| the fact that they are expensive. After all, you're | | | | have a lot more background knowledge and |
| going to be paying the salary of an experienced | | | | experience than you think. Your background |
| designer for several days. | | | | experience, coupled with the user-friendliness of |
| Open Source | | | | modern hull design software and its great collection |
| Well, you can forget about professional designers. | | | | of functions for hydrostatic and water resistance |
| Believe it or not, it's possible purchase sophisticated, | | | | calculations means that, as far as I'm concerned, |
| yet versatile and intuitive, software for under fifty | | | | designing your own catamaran is not only one of the |
| bucks. But, you might be asking, why would I want | | | | most satisfying things to do, it's also the most |
| to draw up my own plans? | | | | sensible. |
| Well, if you're anything like me, you will want to have | | | | For Free! |
| the final say in the design of everything you are | | | | Now, I did say Catamaran designs for free - what |
| going to construct. You will discover that using your | | | | am I talking about? Well, the fact is, that once you |
| own software to bring your own ideas into reality | | | | get a little experience in producing these catamaran |
| provides the opportunity to experiment, to make | | | | designs you can actually sell them to others. I sold a |
| comparisons between possible options and to simply | | | | dinghy design to a member of my yacht club for $30 |
| mess around with any ideas you have. And you'll | | | | and some cat hull designs to a guy in my street for |
| probably have lots! | | | | $25. This easily covered the cost of the software. |
| You Take Control | | | | OK, I know, it's a bit twisted but I'm still $5 up on |
| When you finally settle on a catamaran boat design | | | | the deal! |