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Abstract/Syllabus:
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Dewart, Christopher, Kurt Hasselbalch, Nicholas Patrikalakis, Reuben Smith, and Antonio Dias, 2.993 Special Topics in Mechanical Engineering: The Art and Science of Boat Design, January IAP 2007. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), http://ocw.mit.edu (Accessed 10 Jul, 2010). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
Special Topics in Mechanical Engineering: The Art and Science of Boat Design
January (IAP) 2007

The instructors and students pose with their completed half-hull model boats. (Photograph by Kurt Hasselbalch.)
Course Highlights
This course features video lectures, as well as an image gallery. This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month.
Course Description
This class is jointly sponsored by the MIT Museum, Massachusetts Bay Maritime Artisans, the Department of Mechanical Engineering's Center for Ocean Engineering, and the Department of Architecture. The course teaches the fundamental steps in traditional boat design and demonstrates connections between craft and modern methods. Instructors provide vessel design orientation and then students carve their own shape ideas in the form of a wooden half-hull model. Experts teach the traditional skills of visualizing and carving your model in this phase of the class. After the models are completed, a practicing naval architect guides students in translating shape from models into a lines plan. The final phase of the class is a comparative analysis of the designs generated by the group.
Special Features
- Sample video lectures
- Image gallery
Technical Requirements
Special software is required to use some of the files in this course: .rm.
Syllabus
Course Description
In this workshop, participants will go through the process of carving half-models to their own design, and then work up a lines plan of their model. Through the experience of working with this older design method, participants will learn where contemporary, CAD technologies live on the evolutionary arc of boat design systems.
Course will include:
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Visits to MIT Museum Hart Nautical Collection Half-model Room, and Plans Collection
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Overview of Evolution of Boat Design Technology
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Introduction to Carving Tools and Techniques
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Introduction to Techniques for Taking Offsets from Half-models
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Introduction to Techniques for Drafting Lines Plans
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Explanation of How Builders Used Lines Plans
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Introduction to Methods of Analyzing Drawn Lines Plans
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Discussion of Strength and Weaknesses of Different Design Technologies
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Discussion of Thought Process Involved in Designing Boats-using Intuition to Consider the Hull Form in a Dynamic State
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Discussion of Iterative Process in Developing Designs-in CAD as Well as Half-model Design Methods
Prerequisites
None
Major Assignments
This class requires regular attendance and participation in shop work and discussions. Students are not expected to create a successful hull design, but are expected to explore their ideas about hull forms using this design process. Students are expected to bring their preconceptions about boat design and then consider those preconceptions critically using this particular design technology. The class is about boat design technology, rather than simply boat design.
Grade Requirement
100% Class Participation
Monday
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9:30-11:00: Morning Introduction and Shop Safety Rules
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11:00-11:30: Primer on Course
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Morning Lecture
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Brief Overview of History of Boat Design Techniques
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Give Basics on How the Form of a Half-model is Translated into Something that Can be Built From.
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Begin Process, Going Around the Room and Extemporizing, of Developing Ideas for Design. Encourage Students to Start with, then Challenge, their Own Assumptions
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1:00-1:30: Lunch-advise People to Bring Lunch
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1:30-3:30: Getting Started on Designs
Tuesday
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Morning Lecture
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Demonstrate Carving Techniques and Tools.
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Influence of Tools and Method on Form, Limitations of Ideas
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Understanding Intuitively How the Resistance of the Wood Influences Shape
Wednesday
Thursday
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Morning Lecture:
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Introduction to Lines Drawing
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Techniques, Layout, Method, etc.
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Opportunity to Re-think Design
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Afternoon:
Friday
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Finish Lines Plans
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Analyze One or Two
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Discussion on How Method Informs Idea
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Discussion of Difference to Computer Drafting
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Discussion in Model Room
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Discussion in Plans Collection
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Shop Cleanup
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Further Reading:
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Readings
Suggested Readings
Dias, Antonio. Designer and Client, Eight Boat Design Commissions, from Kayak to Cruiser. Brooklin, ME: WoodenBoat Publications, 1998. ISBN 9780937822517.
Written by one of the instructors for this class, this book discusses the relationship of designer and client in the development of design.
Herreshoff, L. Francis. Capt. Nat Herreshoff, the Wizard of Bristol. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Sheridan House, Inc, 1996. ISBN 9781574090048.
Explains the design methods developed by N. G. Herreshoff.
———. The Common Sense of Yacht Design, Vols 1 and 2. New York, NY: The Rudder Publishing Company, 1946.
Classic text on boat design.
Chapelle, Howard I. American Small Sailing Craft, Their Design, Development, and Construction. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1951 ISBN: 9780393031430.
Catalog of traditional American workboats, detailing their development and uses.
Skene, Norman L. Elements of Yacht Design. New York, NY: Kennedy Bros., Inc, 1927.
Several editions exist, as this book was constantly updated for contemporary designers.
Stephens, W. P. Traditions and Memories of American Yachting. Camden, ME: International Marine Publishing Company, 1981.
Compendium of articles by W. P. Stephens published in the 1930s and 40s, some of which detail the development of yacht design science and development from the mid to late 19th century.
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