will pay for lofting

[Dale R. Hamilton]

I have Ray Sargeants plans for building a mahogany sport runabout. They consist of 10 blueline drawings (rolled, not folded) drawn to a scale of two inches equal one foot or 1/6 full size. I have neither the desire, talent, or time to scale these up to full size myself, and therefor would like to commission this work to be done. Will pay cash.

I appreciate the argument that a true boatbuilder does this kind of work himself- so shoot me.

[cs]

Dale if I knew how to loft I would do it for you. In fact I would almost even teach myself how to loft and come up there and do it for you. I've got to learn how to loft to do my next project, but don't know how to yet.

Lots a luck finding someone to loft for you.

Chad

[Steve Paskey]

Shoot you, Dale? Heck no.

I haven't lofted a set of plans, but I've taken a two-day lofting class and thought it was interesting. But so what if YOU don't have the time and inclination to do it? Some boats don't require it because of their shape (skiffs, dories, etc.) Some designers do the work for you by including full size molds and stem details, etc., as part of the plans. And, as Ben Fuller's book notes re some of the plans at Mystic, in some cases the table of offsets and other measurements shown on the plans have been corrected from a full size lofting, so there's no need to redo the work.

Good luck with your boat.

[ 02-12-2003, 11:48 AM: Message edited by: Steve Paskey ]

[Dale R. Hamilton]

Ah thanks guys- but expect someone who enjoys this sort of work will pop up. I haven't even explored the profesionals yet- I'd like to keep it in the family.

[John of Phoenix]

Hi Dale. Any chance the designer would provide a set of full size mylar templates?

[Bob Cleek]

I won't shoot, but I'll still keep my powder dry. I'll give it to you straight... if you can't loft the boat, you aren't going to be able to build it, either, so you might as well have somebody build it for you, too.

The fact is that lofting is also an instructional process whereby you build the boat "on paper" (i.e. the loft floor). Lofting will allow you to develop an intimacy with all the parts you will be cutting and fitting together and will allow you to see problems before you've got the boat half built. It is also, believe it or not, FUN.

Get Alan Vaites book "Lofting" and follow his instructions. Your boat is not hard to loft. You will need to continually refer to the lofting as you make patterns and built the boat. You will go back to it a lot to get bevel angles and so on. If you have lofted it yourself, you will know these like the back of your hand. If somebody else lofts it, you won't have anything more except the plans full size and you still will have to "learn lofting" to read them. Don't be intimidated. Just get the book and "do it!" Please... trust me. Lofting is as much an essential part of building a boat as cutting wood.

[G. Schollmeier]

Dale,

Check your mail.
Do you have the offsets?
Are you only interested in the full size station lines?
This is not something I do for profit. (read: amateur) I would consider a ride in the finished boat as sufficient payment.

Gary :D

[Dale R. Hamilton]

Bob; I just knew that point of view would come up. I have built 3 racing shells, a whitehall, and a flying bridge cruiser (this last just selected as one of best new boats of the year 2002 by Maine Boats & Harbors)- all without lofting a damn thing. I can build- just can't draw.

[Ross M]

Dale:

I am very interested in lofting your boat for you.

I have been drafting since high school and have done quite a bit of lofting work for myself (runabouts, mostly - Ed Monk’s Hornet and some derivatives).

While I am not sure that on-site would be particularly practical, I am certain that we could accomplish this in either of two other ways:

A) Loft on the computer and plot full scale on Mylar;
B) Manually loft on, for example, painted door skins

Can you post any links to the boat?

Please don’t hesitate to e-mail me for a phone number…

Ross

[ 02-12-2003, 03:59 PM: Message edited by: Ross McDonough ]

[Dave Fleming]

Bob; I just knew that point of view would come up. I have built 3 racing shells, a whitehall, and a flying bridge cruiser (this last just selected as one of best new boats of the year 2002 by Maine Boats & Harbors)- all without lofting a damn thing. I can build- just can't draw. OK I'll bite how did you do the cruiser without lofting for starters?

[Dale R. Hamilton]

Full size plans Dave. Ordered the hull plans from Clark Craft, Tonawanda, NY- their Viking cruiser.
Unfolded the paper station drawings- transfered the lines to mahogany, cut out and assembled so that it matched the plan. Hardest part was transfering lines. Chose this hull because it was perfect for my purpose- departed from it for house and bridge. But still used their paper plan which I cut down, maybe stremlined a line or two.
The table of offsets supplied I never used.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid25/p7f63d7a075e909e952c7429dbeb0cb7a

[Dave Fleming]

Ah Ha, kit boat comes the dawn!

[pippo]

Lofting with a CAD program, even one of the simple, freeware ones, is not that difficult plus it is extremely accurate.
You can do that after a little training, comfortably sitting at your desk during rainy evenings, and then you can eventually have everything plot full scale if you need it.
A properly used CAD software will show you unfair curves, measure whatever you want with submillimeter accuracy, and errors can be corrected right away. Go for it.

[B.Marks]

Not sure how far Murfreesboro is from Charlottesville, VA, but would be glad to help out. Depends on my timing with my work. Contact me.
Bill

[Syd MacDonald]

Buy the Vaitses book but if you've never lofted before you'll never get started using this book. Go with Bud MacIntosh's book "How to build a Wooden Boat" to lay down the lines. Then use the Vaitses book to get your info from the lofting.