TCM Services

Commercial Vessel Design

Our design philosophy is founded in the understanding that the ship is just one part of a transportation, passenger carrying or educational system. The vessel's ability to function in its desired capacity depends on how well that system is understood by the designer. A successful design fulfills the owners goals for the vessel -- this is true from the smallest yacht to the largest ocean carrier. That set of goals is called its mission statement. The initial concept coupled with the mission statement are the first step in the design process. A clear understanding of the performance goals is essential in the preliminary design stages. Identifying limits early on helps define the basic parameters of the design and to put the different requirements of the mission statement in proper priority.

Our design specialty has been large sailing vessels: SSV's (sailing school ships), Subchapter-T passenger carrying vessels vessels, and sailing replicas. All of these tend to be one of a kind with extremely varied mission requirements. The design solution is complex -- particularly when working with regulatory bodies.

33 m steel passenger carrying schooner

There are many sailing vessels that admeasure less than 100 gross tons carrying passengers in the US under the "Subchapter T" regulations. Typical sailing "T" boats are: Amistad, Pride of Baltimore II, Spirit of Massachusetts and the Californian. T boats are size limited and mostly unsuited as true sailing school ships by size -- they simply don't have the room to carry many cadets on extended voyages. T boats are also limited for ocean travel by a high standard for initial stability. Initial stability is a measure of how stable the vessel is when upright, its a strong function of beam but has little to do with ultimate stability at sea. The original Pride of Baltimore and the Marques but had relatively high initial stability, but nonetheless capsized and sank, killing many crew.

Yacht Design

• Custom yachts are designed for pleasure -- the only economic principle is that pleasure should be maximized! However, coming up with a mission statement is as important to a successful yacht design as it is to commercial ship design. In commercial design if there is a tradeoff between two of the criteria on the mission statement, the deciding factor is inevitably money -- the choice that has the smallest cost makes the most money is usually chosen. Pleasure is much less easily measured than money. As with commercial vessels, there may be conflicting design criteria, but in this case it could be reconciling a desire to round Cape Horn in a solid blue water cruiser with having a large and comfortable cockpit. It's been our business to help our clients identify and reconcile potential conflicts early in the design process.

50' Canoe Stern Cutter rendered with MultiSurf

• As with our commercial passenger carrying vessels, we are known for traditional designs that recall the great yachts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. William Fife, G.L. Watson, and N.G. Herreshoff are the masters of the past who we look to for modern inspiration. These men designed sailing yachts before the era of auxiliary engines -- they had to be handy and weatherly. Unfortunately, since the 1930's the gaff rig has become rare and only seen on historic replica vessels. We believe it still has a lot to recommend it and favor it for all our larger, traditional sailing yacht designs. For custom sailing yacht less than 100' LOA we like to use wood. Ocean going yachts exist in a harsh environment -- sea water is corrosive, cold and electrically conductive. Wood is a good thermal insulator and doesn't rust. It's also comparatively inexpensive, easy to work with and builds a beautifully fair boat.

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  Other Design Services

• Preliminary and detail design
• Intact loading, damage stability and motion analysis
• Lines development and fairing
• Global and local ship structure analysis
• Stress, vibration, fatigue and fracture analysis
• Propulsion shafting alignment, stress, and vibration analysis

  

  Boat Interior in 3D AutoCAD rendered using Accurender

Maritime Preservation

• Our company was established for the restoration, preservation and construction of historic ships; that has been our principal business since the restoration of the bark Elissa. TCM continues to help preserve America's maritime past by surveying historic vessels and assisting the organizations that maintain them.

• Restoration of the 1925 Forest Service ranger boat M/V Chugach, the 1877 iron bark Elissa, and the 1893 fishing schooner Lettie G. Howard
• Historic structure reports for the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, including the Alma, the C.A. Thayer, the Eppleton Hall, the Eureka, the 1907 tugboat Hercules, and the Wapama
• Technical support for the preservation and maintenance of the fleet at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York
• Restoration of the sloop of war USS Constellation in Baltimore, MD.

Advanced Engineering Analysis:

• Ship design: from initial conceptual design to contract drawings
• Detail drafting (ACAD) including advanced solid modeling
• Marine software development
• Ship statics (Intact and damaged stability analysis)
• Ship dynamics (VPP, ship motions, maneuverability)
• Structural analysis (finite elements)
• Machine design
• Plan Review
• Contract writing and shipyard negotiation
• Project management

Emergency Response

• Salvage modeling
• Emergency response team training and drills

Damage stability model using HECSALV

• Preliminary and detail design
• Intact loading, damage stability and motion analysis
• Lines development and fairing
• Global and local ship structure analysis
• Stress, vibration, fatigue and fracture analysis
• Propulsion shafting alignment, stress, and vibration analysis

Owners Representative

• Assistance with regulatory bodies
• Plan review, contract writing and shipyard negotiation
• Hull, machinery and cargo surveys

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