Re: Psub Design Steps

[protek@shreve.net]

Doug,
    I think I would be better off if I moved more in a direction of "over
engineered" myself.  Sometimes my approaches are maybe a bit too organic in
nature.  I think it would be great to be able to design everything prior to
construction.  But, like I mentioned earlier, my problem has always been
finding the components to pre-designed specs.
    There was a fellow that used to design and construct racing planes back
in the 1930's and 1940's in Patterson, Louisiana.  I can not remember his
name now for some reason.  But, he used such an organic approach that he
did not even have drawings.  He laid every bit of his tubing out on the
hangar floor on chalk marks and started welding it.  He built aircraft way
beyond the time.  There was a story that I once heard that a general in the
Army Air Corp came to him and initiated a fighter plane design to be
constructed for testing.  He gave him a free hand in building the plane as
a replacement for the P-40.  After several months the plane was nearing
completion when the general visited and wanted to see the drawings.  There
were no drawings at all!  It was all in his head.  The project was
cancelled and we will never know if it would have helped out in WWII.
    This is an extreme, to find a person that can produce a final product
in this manner.  However, for most people, myself included, a mix between
this approach and the "over-pre-engineered" style is optimum.

Gary Boucher




At 12:05 AM 9/1/99 EDT, you wrote:
>Shipmates,
>
>I want to thank you for the feedback I have received, both personal and 
>public, on my posting.  I want emphasize that this was not intended to be 
>"the way" to design a Psub.  I hope, in time, to lay out at least a half a 
>dozen ways to design a boat, so that a designer  can "mix and match" the 
>approaches as he or she sees fit.
>
>The approach I laid out was the "over-engineered" approach, which I believe 
>has merit.  For myself, when I designed the "Undaunted", I used the "Sears 
>and Roebuck" method.  I went into the Sears in Orlando, FL, in 1973, and
used 
>what they had in stock.  My "small vents" were simply the smallest valves 
>they had in stock, and my "large vents" were simply the largest they had in 
>stock.   My ballast pumps where simply the largest they had, and my motors 
>were simply their largest trolling motors in stock.  My boat was 4 feet at 
>the conning tower and 16 feet long because marine plywood came in 8 by 4
foot 
>sheets, and I wanted to minimize the number I needed.  It was all 
>reverse-engineered.
>
>I am also considering the "benchmark approach".  Here you look at as many 
>existing designs as possible, and mix and match from them.  Another approach 
>could be the "component approach".  Here you plot out all of the component 
>parts you want, and then build a hull to go around them.  So please do not 
>get wrapped around the axle on my first rough draft of one of 5-6 design 
>approaches.  I am still in the "brain storming" stage of all of this.
>
>Again, thanks for your input,
>
>Doug
>
>