What Can A Hull Design Program Do For Me?

Firstly, if you don't want to design a hull, the answer is "nothing".

So we presume you want to design a boat (.. yacht, ship?) hull. We also make the presumption that you want it to:

Performing Well And Looking Good

For these aims, it will need smooth, flowing lines. It is always difficult to generate such a shape on paper, because of the difficulty of getting the loads on any fore-and-aft member (like a hull chine) to vary smoothly along its length. If you don't do this, you will generate small "wiggles" in the hull - small, but guaranteed to be visible as soon as you put on the first coat of gloss paint.

Getting the loads to vary smoothly is called "fairing". In the old days this was done using a timber batten, laid along the floor of the boatbuilder's shop. The timber was presumed to be of uniform stiffness, so it took on a uniform trend of curvature.

But these days, it is easiest to let the computer work out the exact form of the curve. It doesn't matter what fairing rule is used (natural cubic spline, B-spline, rational cubic spline, Bezier curve) as long as it is used consistently along the length of the hull.

So the computer can generate for you a smoother, better-looking hull. It may also be able to show you in detail what the hull will look like, before the design even nears the builder's floor. This can save you a lot of time and expense.

What About The "Float" Bit?

We expect that you not only want the hull to float, but to float pretty much on the waterline you had in mind. This involves a lot of calculations, working out the displaced volume, and where the centre of this displacement lies. It can take you ages, and arithmetic errors can always occur ...

With a decent hull design program, you will be able to perform these calculations quickly and accurately. You may also find out how stable the design is, and how sensitive it will be to extra loads. The end result will be safer, maybe steadier and certainly more satisfying on the water.

OK, So Hull Design Programs Are Worth Looking At ...

You've come this far, so you must be thinking a little seriously about the issue. To take you to the next stage, why not check out a couple of options - Hullform first, of course ...

Why Hullform, rather than another hull design program?