An American mechanical engineer has begun working on one unique task: using CAD software to create a 3D model of one of the sailing ships that competed in the 1928 King’s Cup transatlantic race. By creating the 3D blueprints, Christian Stark will allow government officials to test whether or not the ship’s certification for passenger transport can be approved.
The Schooner Zodiac was built for Johnson & Johnson company heirs in 1924, then was sold to the San Francisco Bar Pilots, which guide ships through troubled waters, a few years later. Eventually, the pilots stopped using the ship in 1972, and it has since been used for recreational cruises.
Stark, who was a passenger on one of those cruises, was so smitten with the Schooner Zodiac that he volunteered to be one of its crew members, according to a blog by Onshape. Once he found out that the blueprints for the famed ship had been destroyed, he began using the CAD system mobile app from Onshape to create the 3D model.
Stark surveyed the boat and created 2,500 coordinate points for every square inch of the 160-foot vessel with the help of a 3D scanning engineer who he had met. Stark then transformed the data from the comprehensive scan into a surface model which was later uploaded to the Onshape app. Stark modeled a number of the ship’s parts, including the frames, using the app.
Once the new line drawings are developed, the U.S. Coast Guard will be able to conduct the stability analysis of the ship required to determine if passenger transportation certification can be improved.
But developing the blueprints has been a difficult task for Stark, who has conducted most of the work by himself. That is why Stark is hopeful that engineering students will be willing to assist him so that the project can be expedited.
“I’d love to get a class out on the boat, take them sailing and then get them involved in further detailing the model that I have. Right now I have the frame, but as you might imagine, there are a gazillion other things we need to detail,” he told Onshape. “There’s the propulsion system, the electrical system, heating, plumbing, etc. – all of them ultimately need to find their way into this model. I can do a bunch of it, but I just can’t do it all.”
More information relating to Stark’s effort can be found on his blog.
Filed Under: Rapid prototyping
