Paige's Blog

This is a picture of my view at about 7:30 in the morning. I haven't taken a minute to enjoy the view at that time of day because I'm always in a rush to get to school... or sleeping in on the weekends :) But I'm going to make a point to enjoy my surroundings before everything is snow-covered.
I am the student ambassador for yacht design. This means that I have lunch with the president of the Landing School and other student ambassadors once a month. During lunch we talk about our concerns and recommendations to improve the school. It has been brought up that the Landing School should have a sailing team. That sounds pretty cool and the President loved the idea. The school would have to purchase a sailboat.... or make one? I don't know how to sail, but I'd still enjoy going to the races! That is something that probably won't get started up until next year, though. A student requested some couches next to the student lounge and couches were there just a few days later. So the president really does seem to listen and take our requests seriously.
I went to the movie, Rush, last week and also saw Gravity yesterday. Both movies were good. I'm more excited to talk about the theater itself, though. It is called Smitty's Cinema. They have a huge full-menu and bar. I've been to a theater that served food before, but it was a fancier one. Smitty's isn't fancy at all. I love it. You get your movie ticket, grab a menu, and then go sit in the theater. A waitress comes in before the movie starts and takes your order and will bring the food in after the movie starts. Here is what it looks like. These are all kind of like big comfy office chairs. They wheel around. It's just different than what Spirit Lake or Ames has... and I like it.

I'm finally getting into the fun stuff in yacht design classes. The DESIGN part! The sketching part. My O-40 yacht design brief was approved, so I have moved on to drafting the General Arrangement (GA). The GA is basically blocking out where all of the interior stuff will go like beds, tables, kitchens, etc. It includes a birds-eye view as well as a profile view as if the boat were cut in half. The school doesn't have a scanner and I don't have one in my apartment. So... unfortunately I've resorted to taking pictures of my drawings with my phone. They are pretty poor quality images compared to how much better these look in person. I'll probably put in a recommendation for the school to get a scanner soon. A scanner sounds pretty simple to get compared to buying a sailboat and starting a sailing team, right?

Here is the GA:

I also had to do an "Outboard Profile" sketch. Which is a sketch that I would show the client to make him/her understand what the boat will look like. I only took a photo of two of the sketches. I chose to pursue the first sketch with the smoother lines over the more jagged lines in the second sketch:

The last sketch we've been assigned to do is the "Perspective Cockpit" sketch. The swim deck would be folded up to create a wall on the back end so the sailor doesn't fall out into the water. But I left that out to make it easier to see the wheel base. It's an okay sketch for my first try. I see a lot of mistakes that I won't point out haha. I am looking forward to practicing and getting a lot better... but drawing a boat that is such an irregular shape in perspective is tough! All of these sketches are just Round #1. Once we learn more about plumbing, electrical, fuel tanks, sail plans, etc, lots of our stuff will have to be changed and moved around. So there are more sketches and updates to come :) This project will be finished in January, so I am excited to see where the final design ends up!