john_morris_uk
Well-known member
Yes, but building a modest, uncomplicated yacht is not rocket science. An understanding of basic mechanics, strength of materials, and being reasonably practical, helps.
You can certainly build something that floats. You might build something that sails. An understanding of basic mechanics and materials might build you a boat but there's no guarantee at all that it will be a good one.
Whether it's got desirable characteristics and balance on the helm that is predictable and it's reliable as it heels with trim stability that you can rely on and has a good sailing performance on all points of sail etc. is another matter.
There's rather more to good yacht design than just building something that is yacht shaped. It's all about compromise and varying one characteristic always compromises another. I'd rather have a boat that was designed by someone who had an appreciation of what compromises were being made, and who had actually done some stability calculation and knew something about ballast ratio and displacement and all the other factors.