19 October 2021

Learning CAD for boat design


From little acorns big trees grow. As a relative newcomer to the CAD scene, I began with a particular boat in mind. An upgrade project to follow on from the wooden runabout I already made during the first pandemic lock down. The idea had already formed by December 2019 and stemmed from a couple of pencil sketches and a small solid scale model. 

Now I need to elaborate on an upgrade with cleaner lines and a more speedy little boat that may also be build in my small garage.

Sketches may be drawn to very precise scale, formed into solid components and rendered to provide a quite realistic impression.  Also useful is the facility to view in-depth from a variety of perspectives


Not difficult to find drawing programmes for the laptop,  which vary in complexity from the simplistic to the baffling and complex. At the upper end of the scale some are available to the student or sole user-hobbyist for free, and I opted for Fusion360. It has an educational version ideal for the sketching of a small boat. The program incorporates guidance for the beginner which is useful and I found Youtube videos very helpful as well -  a few by boat builders, others by professional designers

Spray rails and a 17deg deadrise enable early planing

Sophia 11 :     Note the forward canted windscreen