I have been following the rather heated exchange regarding plan detail for Zee¡¯s catamaran. Like others I would like to also express my support and appreciation for Bernd and his designs. I am completely happy with my little Eco 6 catamaran. There is not really anything else available in the size range which has the features the Eco 6 has, it is a pretty amazing design really. I like bernds design approach. Each of designs are innovative, unique and there are some of his larger designs which I would love to build, but I am trying to be sensible and not begin another boat project. The cost of the plans was relatively inexpensive. Some other designers I have been interested in recently are selling their plans for twice the cost of Bernds plans, and sometimes more.? I found the plans generally easy to follow, I got the boat built and it looks like it should do! I was also pleased that when I was looking for an option to the designed daggerboards that Bernd offered the drawings for the little bilge keels at no extra charge, and what a great solution. I do not know of any other multihull designer who has come up with such an effective leeway preventer that does not even protrude beneath the hull of the boat.
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I am a reasonably experienced amateur boatbuilder so I was able to adapt or change things in the design to better suit my own needs and experience of what works, but I still kept within the spirit of the original design and obeyed the instruction to ¡®Keep it light¡¯. Someone has mentioned that there is no detail about where to put batteries and water tanks and the like. I don¡¯t think that matters because people will work out their own solutions based around interior layout, size of water tanks, weight of batteries etc. The important thing here is keep the weight down low and out of the ends of the boat.
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There is talk of some of the details such as measurements missing from plans. I wonder whether some CAD viewing programs especially the free ones, are not so good at displaying some of these details, and especially when converting to PDF files.
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But for me, if I was ever silly enough to build another boat, there are a couple of Bernds larger designs which really tempt me and I would be happy to purchase his plans and work with him again.
