Learning About Building A Ship part one

Learning about building a ship.

So now that I have figured that the potential is there to make some money, hopefully a bunch, I then set out to learn how to build something that looks like a ship.

My first thoughts are to do it as cheaply as possible. This is normal I believe for most people. The typical- I do not have a lot of money here so let’s see what I can get for less than $100,000- or what ever budget you (or me) may set.

Internet searching shows that nobody makes mock pirate ships that look remotely real, or usable by a good number of people. Playground buildings from pressure treated lumber are to be found, but they look box like, are too small for my use, and are just not right for me.

How about a used boat? I see that Wooden Boat Builder magazine carries “for sale” as well as “free boats” ads. The free boats look like deals. Just haul them away and use them. Well most are to be found along the great oceans surrounding the USA. That means a trip way out to California, New York or Florida. I should get a real trailer that will haul what ever it is that is free and then something to pull the trailer. Then again I have never pulled a boat or trailer before- and the boats I want need to be large, like over 60 feet. Now the boats that are free tend to need work and maybe they might not hold up on the ride home even. Well to shorten it up a bit I figured that the boat modifications, hauling, safety, and all of that would make “free” not such a good idea.

After reading up on boat building, small wooden boat stuff as well as the big reconstruction projects like Mayflower II and other replica ships, it seems that ship building methods applied somewhat to my project but not entirely. Cutting a free wooden ship into a usable structure would more than likely wreck the internal forces, the integral structure that keeps the boat together, and make for one flimsy wreck of wood. There seemed to be a tension between planking, ribs and beams that worked to hold the entire ship together.

I then began to think about how to build a ship that looks like a ship but is not a ship. That means a structure. I would take my lunch hours and nights at home and draw out rectangles and squares that represented the frame work, like in a building, and then began to lay over top of that the curved lines of the hull planking.

I had no computer program to do this for me; even if one existed I would not have bought it as at that time I was a paper and pencil guy. Even if I had one I would have had to learn a program that might have been beyond my skills with the computer. Frustration makes for poor brainstorming.

Weeks and months of drawing out ideas slowly saw me to coming up with a size and look I wanted. Working with paper and pencils got me to work through the thoughts and get some concrete sort of ideas down in visual form.

Thanks for reading!