Thursday, June 11, 2009

how to design a dory

You can use cut paper to design a dory as shown in the attached photos. Of course, this is my first effort and I will get better at it, refining the shape in further iterations and learning from each one. It is cheaper and more efficient than starting out with wood. Next time I will use card stock so the material won't bend so easily. When the final shape is achieved, I will scan the bottom shape and one side, and these will be scaled to full size for making patterns for real boats.

I have this very strange idea of making tiny little dories using cheap 2 cycle weed eaters as inboard propulsion. Having made one successful wooden boat, there is a greater danger that I may be inclined to make more. Just imagine a whole fleet of children in 6 ft. dories propelled by 2 cycle weed eaters. What a race that would be! I guess you can see that being inventive and inclined to make things can present a hazard to humanity.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:41 AM

    The kids would love it! Another way of adding fun to the learning.

    As far as design, I wonder about the design (and designers) of the ships that traveled the Maritime Silk Road between China and Iraq over a thousand years ago. Their design was state of the art for the time, just right for the job they did.

    Mario

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  2. Great article this last month about the maritime silk road in National Geographic. A sunken treasure with thousands of tea bowls and gold. The ship was sewn together and shaped a bit like my first paper dory.

    The design of objects is a multi-generational and evolutionary process. My dory is dependent on two rather high-tech objects that took a million years of hands-on interaction with the environment to create. Paper and scissors. Add a rock to use as a hammer and you can build a culture.

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