Dreams made solid

“…all she can see
Are the dreams all made solid
Are the dreams all made real

All of the buildings, all of those cars
Were once just a dream
In somebody's head”

Mercy Street - Peter Gabriel

Every creation begins in the imagination. These pages present a view into the processes of making some of those imaginings real.

We will be looking at what is involved in bringing the idea of a design to fruition - the nuts-and-bolts of the process of designing and building boats.

Why? Demystifying the process helps everyone.

Design is inevitably layers of complexity and compromise, and every person in the process has the ability (the obligation?) to see the problem from different points of view. Humility and curiosity are essential.

Understanding the issues and challenges faced by everyone in the design/build process, demystifying some of the discipline and language (FEA, CFD, NURBS, COLREGS, scantlings, GZ curves, fairing, Gantt, Froude vs Reynolds, Young’s modulus, Jupyter etc etc) ultimately helps teams work together better to solve complex problems. (We’ll be looking at each of these and more in the course if these posts!)

And when teams work well, boat building is easier, more cost-effective and more fun.

The more we can understand about the process, the better we can understand one another’s perspectives and the more we can smooth the waters of making dreams solid.

Photo credit: n.stark