Form and Function

[Wansworth]

I have to admit to a liking for all things nautical,shackles,cleats,blocks……boating paraphernalia is by design fit for its job and in their form artistic.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I have to admit to a liking for all things nautical,shackles,cleats,blocks……boating paraphernalia is by design fit for its job and in their form artistic.

Like aeroplanes, if it looks right, it will almost certainly work right. Whether it’s a whole boat, or a clever little widget.

 

[Binnacle]

I defy you to approve of Starck's yacht A. To avoid doubt, wikipedia even has to write "starboard" under a pic of the, yes, right hand side of the vessel.

 

[Wansworth]

I defy you to approve of Starck's yacht A. To avoid doubt, wikipedia even has to write "starboard" under a pic of the, yes, right hand side of the vessel.

I was going to add that modern streamlining had done for a lot of what I meant…..

 

[LittleSister]

I was going to add that modern streamlining had done for a lot of what I meant…..

With Yacht A and a few others, that ain't streamlining, it's the designer and/or owner try to do something radically different to everyone else - i.e. deliberately avoiding the 'fit for purpose'ness that you find attractive.

 

[johnalison]

A late friend of ours got into Etaps, having in turn a 23, 28 and 34. The trouble was that Etap, being a design company and not a traditional boat builder, decided to redesign everything, from interior fitting such as catches to cleats, with the result that nothing was really ideal for the job.

 

[LittleSister]

A late friend of ours got into Etaps, having in turn a 23, 28 and 34. The trouble was that Etap, being a design company and not a traditional boat builder, decided to redesign everything, from interior fitting such as catches to cleats, with the result that nothing was really ideal for the job.

I have a soft spot for Etaps, largely because I appreciate care and flair in design, though have never owned one.

I am not sure Etap can really be dismissed as a boatbuilder, as you seem to imply. Producing 26 different boats over a period of around 35 years is more of a track record than some of our more mainstream brands.

You say that nothing they produced was ideal for the job, but your friend presumably thought differently as after owning one s/he went on to buy another two boats of the same marque.

 

[johnalison]

I have a soft spot for Etaps, largely because I appreciate care and flair in design, though have never owned one.

I am not sure Etap can really be dismissed as a boatbuilder, as you seem to imply. Producing 26 different boats over a period of around 35 years is more of a track record than some of our more mainstream brands.

You say that nothing they produced was ideal for the job, but your friend presumably thought differently as after owning one s/he went on to buy another two boats of the same marque.

I think the Etap 30 was the best example of its type, and the 23 looked neat enough. The 28i was trying to be sporty but was less comfortable and slower than my then Sadler 29. The 34 was the one that seemed over-designed, with odd cleats and fittings. My friend was stuck with the whipstaff steering that was just weird. It wasn’t a bad boat and went well enough, but it had a tall rig (that developed an S-bend and needed extra stays) and wouldn’t have suited me.

 

[LittleSister]

I imagine there are number of boatbuilders who started out doing something else.

One example that springs to mind is LM, who started out as wooden furniture manufacturers in 1940 ('LM' comes from their original name Lunderskov Møbelfabrik = Lunderskov (their original location) Furniture Factory). They soon started experimenting with using GRP in furniture, and by the early 1950s had branched out into paddling pools, fishboxes, trailers, caravans, and a range of small motor boats, then gradually bigger boats including sailing boats. They produced a very wide range of boats over the years, only a few of them known in the UK. The mighty LM27 (itself a development of their earlier LM23) was the world's most successful motor-sailer ever, in terms of numbers produced - over 1,500 IIRC, but they also produced out-and-out sailing boats up to about 34ft.

Having developed a reputation for high-quality GRP work, they meanwhile developed another sideline in wind-turbine blades in the 70s, this eventually eclipsed and replaced boat-building in the 1980s, and after a series of buyouts and takeovers they are now (or were until recently) the biggest wind-turbine blade manufacturer in the world, with manufacturing facilities in China and several other places across the globe. Because of the continuing increase in the size of wind-turbines, the factory in Denmark where the boats had been built no longer manufactures them, but had become a research and development base. Last I'd heard that facility was under threat of relocation as it was too small and difficult of access for even occasionally bringing today's giant blades to and fro.

We are LM Wind Power - the leading rotor blade supplier to the wind industry | LM Wind Power

From LM to LM Wind Power | LM Wind Power

 

[GHA]

function definitely the bit that matters on a boat imho but there is something very satisfying about some dyneema, a soft shackle or 2 some low friction rings sitting nicely under a lot of load compared to some pulleys & rope & tracks

 

[Chiara’s slave]

function definitely the bit that matters on a boat imho but there is something very satisfying about some dyneema, a soft shackle or 2 some low friction rings sitting nicely under a lot of load compared to some pulleys & rope & tracks

Personally, I love a cascade of Harken or Ronstan soft attach blocks, all put together with nice splices. Though I also have a number of low friction rings where the angle of turn isn’t too mch.

 

[LittleSister]

Of course boats and boats things typically look lovely, and much of that derives from their forms following their function.

On the other hand, 'form follows function' was a core principle of the Modernism movement in architecture, and implied rejection of ornament and traditional aesthetics in buildings. Unlike boats, Modernist architecture is generally not well liked today.

I wonder to what extent we reject the Modernist aesthetic in part because we are uncomfortable with the underlying function - housing for worker drones, office blocks for faceless corporations?

 

[Sybarite]

I have a soft spot for Etaps, largely because I appreciate care and flair in design, though have never owned one.

I am not sure Etap can really be dismissed as a boatbuilder, as you seem to imply. Producing 26 different boats over a period of around 35 years is more of a track record than some of our more mainstream brands.

You say that nothing they produced was ideal for the job, but your friend presumably thought differently as after owning one s/he went on to buy another two boats of the same marque.

The problem with taps was the double moulding for the buoancy. If ever there were a fissure, the boat could become water-logged.

 

[Sybarite]

I like Béyoncé.
Whatever floats your boat.
No. That's buoyancy.

 

[Neeves]

Of course boats and boats things typically look lovely, and much of that derives from their forms following their function.

Most sailing kit has all the corners and rugosities designed out so nothing catches, except for bow shackles in bow rollers.

Simply proving you cannot get away from anchors and anchoring

Jonathan

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Of course boats and boats things typically look lovely, and much of that derives from their forms following their function.

On the other hand, 'form follows function' was a core principle of the Modernism movement in architecture, and implied rejection of ornament and traditional aesthetics in buildings. Unlike boats, Modernist architecture is generally not well liked today.

I wonder to what extent we reject the Modernist aesthetic in part because we are uncomfortable with the underlying function - housing for worker drones, office blocks for faceless corporations?

Theres a certain reflection of the modernist principle in cruising cats, I feel. You can’t call them pretty, they are in fact brutally ugly, usually. But they're also brutally effective at providing luxury on water accommodation, totally unlike the dank, noisome hole that say, a 1950s wooden yacht would call ‘the cabin’. The varnished wood is very handsome when freshly done, but in truth, they were wet and horribly uncomfortable.

 

[Wansworth]

I like Béyoncé.
Whatever floats your boat.
No. That's buoancy.

She has quite a lot of buoyancy

 

[doug748]

A late friend of ours got into Etaps, having in turn a 23, 28 and 34. The trouble was that Etap, being a design company and not a traditional boat builder, decided to redesign everything, from interior fitting such as catches to cleats, with the result that nothing was really ideal for the job.

I love the idea of Etaps but looking at them in detail they always seemed disappointing.

Yacht A is more of a modernist statement than an actual boat, a bit like ole Starck's lemon squeeze.
You always have to consider what the function really is ; it explains a lot of avant- guarde visual malformity.

.

 

[rogerthebodger]

Form as in the eye of the beholder but function id the eye of the designer and in the unsinkability of the design of the watertight bulkheads of the Titanic

 

[Stemar]

You always have to consider what the function really is ; it explains a lot of avant- guarde visual malformity.

ISTM that in most superyachts, the function is to say scream, I've got more money than you