Lofting at The Sherbrooke Shipbuilding Shop

The Sherbrooke Shipbuilding Shop & Mould Loft

The Sherbrooke Shipbuilding Shop and Mould Loft

So you are thinking about building that boat which you have always wanted to build until it comes down to the lofting of your boat! Just how do you make sense out of those numbers called offsets?

Well you can learn this essential skill now and be shown how to loft by a working loftsman.
Lofting is the most essential skill in the boat/shipbuilding industry, while most lofting is done on a commercial scale and is now almost all Computer Aided Design, for those out with the industry who may wish to build there own boat then this skill is a must have to learn.
How to make sense of all them lines, offsets, buttocks and diagonals is a skill that we are now happy to be able to show you and you can learn the “Black Art” of Lofting in our new courses now being run at the Historical old Shipbuilding Shop at Sherbrooke Village (Itself a living Historical Village)
The Sherbrooke area was once one of the main shipbuilding centres in North America and lends itself very well to the learning of Lofting right on the banks of the St Mary’s river that was once the birth place of so many old wooden ships during the 18^th century.
Lofting (or as I like to call it as well is the Geometry of Boat/Shipbuilding) is the primary skill that you require to be able to build a quality boat of your own.

It is a skill which you can at least learn the basics and once mastered should enable you to start on any boat you may wish to have a go at building for yourself, no more having to rely on the limited amount of boring old “Kit Designed boats” all off the shelf, you will be able to browse through all the hundreds of old boat plans that are available and confidently tackle the build.
Better still there has never been a boat designed which was lofted too much and you will be able to do this along with being better able to read and understand the plans that you are looking at and will have a far better idea of the building process involved no matter how difficult or complex the shape may be.

Now don’t get me wrong Lofting can be pretty intimidating to the uninitiated and it is pretty complex and there are many different ways of going about it, that is why you should use someone who is not just well experienced in the art but with someone who has done it and worked as a Loftsman for a living, someone who can pass on the knowledge in a way which is clear and understandable and may even be fun at times.

You can read as many books on the subject as you like but you will not learn much just from reading about lofting even if you understand some of it the only way to learn about Lofting is by doing.

To be continued:-