nourishing obscurity

Some design principles [owes a debt to John Lovett]:

#  Balance of elements – this does not have to mean symmetry – pleasing asymmetry can be quite balanced.

#  Gradation of size and direction – gives linear perspective, interest and movement.

#  Repetition – with variation in key places.

#  Contrast – between layers, for example.

#  Harmony – from colour to shape.

#  Signature – something which identifies a particular design or style and is repeated in other designs or styles.

#  Unity – like harmony but taking all the elements as a whole and there being some form of linkage in them or repetition of the motif.

#  Direction and texture are two other elements. In boats, texture is the building material.

So Steve Jobs’ boat can be criticized for failure to vary the pattern but that is classic. It can work as long as a whole nation or city is not done out in that same manner. On the other hand, contrast between all elements is ugly.

One problem is marrying two disparate themes. For example, the best cat hull shape, satisfying the most criteria, including beauty, is close to the Wharram, which in turn is truer to the original multihulls and yet by far the best rig for short-handed cruising is a ketch/yawl. Unfortunately, the two do not necessarily go together.

Aesthetically, the better rig is exotic, e.g. lug, dhow, Hawaiian or South Pacific island. If one does choose the gaff ketch [European], then the better hull is a European, e.g. the before the war British designs [see pic at top]. The only way to marry the two elements is to play down the exotic flourishes and curves and to de-angle the sails, i.e. don’t have the gaff pointing to the heavens but lying flatter and the rig extending fore-and-aft.

This then determines the cabin shape and the window shape.

Here’s some nice design:

And here:

Lines become critical and my designs always start with the waterline, the straight gunwhale, the next line up for bow and stern flourishes and then the wheelhouse line. Angle of the foot of the sails is vital to get right in relation to that.   Flourishes are allowed where bow and stern meet gunwhale and in the rudder/skeg.   Internally, bracing can be flourished in places, as long as the same flourishes are repeated in the same sorts of places and are in keeping with the whole.

I’d prefer a classic colour to the silver.  JD would probably think lurid red but I’d prefer dark blue, maroon or BR green

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