Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

I recently saw a nice little dory built per another designers plan. The final loa was around “14’8. Has anyone scaled down an ob16? Would there be any potential issues or red flags with this?

Which are you referring to the OD16 or the OB15. The OD16 is 16'6" long, the OB15 is 15' 2" long not far off your 14.9" specs. Downsizing a boat is more difficult than upsizing one, so look at the FS14 which would put it right in your size range. Good luck on whatever you decide to do.

Tom

Sorry, I got a little dyslexic there. I meant the od 16. Scaled down 10% puts it at roughly 14-10. I would think it’s a little wider, stable, robust than the others. A “bigger small boat”, if you will

Downsizing a boat is more difficult than upsizing one

??

Why is that, Tom?

For some reason, I thought it was the other way around

Downsizing means reducing all of the measurements by .9 which is a strange number to reduce things by. You have to reduce the length and the width and all the other measurements by .9. !.1 I can handle easily but .9 not so much. I would use the Metric plans and a metric tape to cut out the panels for a .9 reduced boat.

Tom

Same same to me!

Buy the metric plans, a metric ruler and tape measure.
Upsize 10% = multiply all the measurements by 1.1 and write the new measurement on the plan.
Downsize 10% = multiply all the measurements by 0.9 and write the new measurement on the plan.
Easy peasy!

As long as there aren’t any other issues the math doesn’t bother me. I suppose the simple thing would be to build a standard plan. But where’s the fun in that?