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[roddy st james]

Hi all. I hope someone can help me.

I've been building yacht, tugs, fishing boats etc for a number of years with some pretty good results. The product I end up with is what I like to call 'an artists impression' based on a set of plans.

What I am really wanting to learn is how to build a correct, true-to-scale model of a chosen boat. Now, to do this, it is my understanding that I need to know how to read all of the lines on a set of plans. Other than the basics like the water line and frame shape and placement I don't really know how to read a set of plans.

Can anyone suggest a resource (book, DVD or what ever) that could help?

[nemesis]

Hi, if you do happen to get a genuine yard drawing you wiil have so many lines you will get totally
bamboozled. I have yard drawings for Austalia Star & it took a marine architect a long time to
decipher them to make them suitable for a scale model. Nice place is Noosa, had a holiday there a
few years ago, it is also the name of an  excellent bagpipe tune called "New Year in Noosa" by the
Victoria Police Pipe Band, sorry for the digression. If you happy with what you make stay with it.
                                        Best of luck,     Nemesis

[tigertiger]

I can echo what nemesis has just said. I remember reading somewhere that some of the lines, like the diagonals, are really there for shipyards, and are of no real value to modellers.

[Greggy1964]

Hello Roddy,

Howard I Chapelle's book Yacht Designing and Planning ISBN 978-0-393-33259-9 is a good place to start.

He goes into great details on how to read ships lines as well as how to create your own line drawings.

The book also covers the short route used by designers in displacement calculations etc in an easy to understand manner.

Diagonals are use to show fairness on the surface of a hull not covered by buttock and water lines and are usually at 90 deg to each section they cut through or as near as possible.