a fair division of labor...

Mission creep, treading dangerous ground, and some worrisome future forecasting...

From a lot of emails I've received about boatbuilding, designers of sailboats, and boat plans, it's pretty obvious that a lot of folks have some serious misconceptions about the whole boat plan thang.

So, let's say you want to buy a plan from a designer of a 30-foot sailboat. What exactly do you get?

Well, in most cases you get the plan which includes all of the information you need to know to build that particular boat. Now, what that information is can vary quite a bit...

The most common sort of plans package would include the lines/offsets of the boat, rig, sail plan, accommodation, and whatever construction details are needful. Which, I should add is all you really need.

Of course, not everyone does it that way these days and a lot of designers do a lot more work for the builder with expanded panels so the builder does not have to loft the plans right on to step by step building guide so no thought or previous building experience is needed at all... The plan for the non-builder/tyro approach. Sadly this sort of blurring of the edges of what boat design is has not made for a completely happy making experience all around.

Face it, designers of boats were never really meant to teach boatbuilding, be 24/7 help lines, or even worse, explain to their clients how to actually sail and, I expect, this is why so many designers I've met tend to be rather grumpy folks.

So, if you do want to build a boat you'll be doing both yourself and the designer a huge favor if you sort out the whole how to build a boat thing on your own... You know, read a book, take a class, or even build a dinghy to sort your skill set out.

I don't know about you but in my perfect world a big part of it is a fair division of labor so designers design and builders build.

Listening to the Texas Tornados

So it goes...