Save-A-Boat - The Forum for Plastic Classic Rebuilds!

We stopped at Tenants Harbor (ME) and rented a mooring from Lyman Morse. They have a new large building that is used to create mock ups of boats so customers can get a feel for the layout. It was impressive. The level of detail in each mockup is incredible. Using KD wood and Luan, they build nearly the entire boat from one side of the hull to the complete interior. The sailboat mockup we checked out was built so the owner can see if he can move about on deck easily enough. I climbed aboard, and indeed you could move easily on the wide decks. The rounded cockpit complete with big destroyer wheel and nice rounded lazarette. Inside the cabin, everything was there, galley, berths, head and all. All made in high detail out of luan and light framing. The cabinetry was work was better than some I've seen on some finished boats. Of course, this is all destroyed when real production begins. I can't imagine the man-hours involved in these mockups. Well worth the stop.

jeff

It's nice when money is no object! Still, the actual cost of a mockup is small compared to the overall cost of the projects at a high-end builder like LM, and smaller still compared to having the end product turn out unsatisfactory.

Mockups are a great help in all situations, as nothing brings together how a proposed structure is going to work the way a real 3D, physical representation will. Drawings and computer images can only go so far.

Biggest mockup I ever heard of is Sir Edwin Lutyens' 'Castle Drogo', he caused to be built a full sized mockup of the entry tower:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... 8QaswqnGDQ