RE: Scratch Built 1/8 Scale Azure AZ279 Build Thread
The boat that is the subject here is the Azure AZ 259. I will always call the boat by this original name, as I feel that the boat should only be measured to the molded hull, unless the extended swim platform is designed in as the only platform. On the Azures, the platforms were designed to be molded into the deck, and the extended swim platform was only an option to get a little more space. But the bean counters figured they could get more money for the boat by adding the platform as standard, and adding 2 feet into the cost. The boats were all renamed, as 2 feet larger, but they were the same boats as the year before. In the end, the consumer was not fooled, as I warned....
Moving on. The first process of building the full size boat is completing your design. Boats are either built "on the floor", or "in the box".
On the floor refers to building plugs the old way, by creating blueprints or lofting drawings. Here, craftsmen read the lofting drawings, and cut out a full size wood kit, which is built just like a wood model boat, or a wood model airplane kit.
In the Box, refers to the more modern way of buidling boats, which I will outline here. My designs have always been created "on the board", which means I draw them to scale first, before they are ever converted into 3D CAD files. Drawing them long hand on a drafting table allows me to "sketch" the feel of the boat, which allows fast lines to be created. Sketching in the computer is possible, but lines are created spline by spline, and point by point, which is very precise, but has much less feel.
Once I get a good feel, I will then engineer the boat, and make sure that the lines are not only beautiful, but that the boat is designed to be functional as well. I usually patent most of my designs, to protect innovations and details that create competetive edge. Unfortunately, I created one of the most signature features of the Azure while I was at Monterey Boats, and never patented the idea. The aft Convertible SunLounge was first featured on the Monterey 298SS, and I then redesigned it at Crownline on the 240EX Crossover Deckboat. In 2004, I further refined it on the AZURE, and after that, every manufacturer put it on their boats. There is not a boat company around today, that does not build a version of this cockpit, in the market segment.
In any case, once my designs are completely worked out on paper, I scan them into the computer, and the lines from plan and profile drawings are "connected" to create B splines. These are lines that computers understand. I will include a picture of a partially completed design in CAD showing the lines scanned from a line drawing, but this is from a current project, not the Azure.
After the CAD file is complete, it is sent "to the mill" to be cut. The CAD file that was cut for the real Azure was slightly different to the 8th scale model that I cut, because I felt the deck of the model was a little too flat. I added 2" of crown to the full size Azure deck, and also added the "pleasure bumps" (inside joke Dan) just in front of the windshield of the real boat.
The 2 pictures of the AZ 259 are the final CAD drawings that were cut for the full size boat, but other than the changes mentioned, the 8th scale deck is extremely accurate. The hull is 100% exact in every detail to the full size boat.