Greetings to my patient readers! Since last time, I've signed up for the Westlawn Yacht Design course to learn a LOT more about boat design, CAD, drafting, etc. With this information, I should be able to do a professional job in preparing BELLE plans. I'll use my original plans as the basis for a "version 2" of BELLE with various tweaks and updates based on my experience building and sailing BELLE. I'm also sketching a 20ft sailboat, somewhat similar to BELLE, with a small cabin for overnight cruising but with a similar gaff-sloop rig.
That said, in all honesty I can't give a time schedule for all this. As I delve further into Westlawn, I should have a better idea of how long it will take to develop the BELLE plans, complete the sketches for the new 20 footer, and do all the work involved with the course. Including, by the way, learning CAD from scratch. I now have AutoCAD, Rhino, and Orca3D for boat design, CAD hull fairing, etc. BELLE was lofted and built the old-fashioned way, and, who knows, maybe the next boat I build for myself will be built the same way. But no question I need to get myself up to speed on the "new technology" for today's job market.
That said, many thanks to those of you who have made inquires about plans, it is greatly appreciated! If you like, send me an email (dangonn at yahoo dot com) to get on a mailing list for updates. Or keep tabs on this blog, I'll certainly post availability of plans here. Thanks again
--Dan
