Panel Discussion

A panel discussion

Many, if not most, small boat designs are made with stitch and glue building in mind. For that to succeed panels must be developed. There is software to do that however some of these programs are expensive, others are complicated or will not work with certain operating systems. Hulls and Windows 10 come to mind.

However there is a way to develop panels using simple geometry. To describe this method I will recreate my Sampram dinghy design.

Here are the lines,

The first panel we'll develop is the bottom. You can find the length of the panel by measuring the curve of the bottom and the widths come from the section half breadths. So we start by drawing a baseline and then transferring the distance between section lines to the baseline. I've used my computer program but all of it can be done by hand with compasses, rulers and squares.

Repeating the operation until we have all the section distances transferred. You'll notice that not all of the circles are the same size, this is how we determine the true length of the bottom.

The half breadth measurements are taken from the sections drawing and transferred to the section distance marks on the baseline. 

Draw a vertical line through each section distance mark and where that vertical line cuts the half breadth circle is an intersection on the edge of the bottom. Join all the intersections  in a smooth curve and eliminate the circles and vertical lines and you have a half panel developed for the bottom. 

Divide the length of the baseline by ten and mark off section lines for dimensioning.

You can infer that the same can be done for the sides however it is slightly more difficult. First thing to do is to develop the bow and stern transoms and from those developed panels you can measure the true length of the side of each transom. To develop the panels draw two lines perpendicular to the transom at the gunwale and at the chine.

From the lines plan get the half breadth of the top and bottom of the transom 

and apply those lengths to the perpendiculars. 

Join the intersections, eliminate all the unnecessary lines and you have a half panel of the transom. 

 

Now we're ready to start developing the side panels! Next Time!