Boats and....
Welcome to the old website of McGowan Marine Design, Inc., featuring the design and experimental work of Laurie McGowan. Opened in 2001, this is a full-service office providing custom and semi-custom boat design services: concept drawings, CAD (3D modelling and movies, 2D plans, renderings), 3D 'unfolding' to 2D patterns, and stability, speed, powering, propeller, sail and rigging analyses.
The new website is almost completed, with finished boats, some getting built, and many in-design - including those in WoodenBoat Magazine’s “Design Sketchbook” .
What’s New:
Mischief Yachts - several very different designs for a client in Indonesia: A 64’ sloop, a 14’ sailing tender (built), a 50’ ocean-crossing power trimaran, and a 14’ Sea Sled.
playground climber
for the Halifax
waterfront - beside
the Maritime
Museum of the
Atlantic.
Fundy Cat 16 - a true 16’ (4.9m) sailing performance cruiser with lots of sail, solar/electric auxiliary, and weekend cruising for a small family.
Zip - a fast and fun 23’ (7m) tabloid trimaran
32’ Pilot Boat - a fast and seaworthy workboat for the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Built by LeBlanc Brothers Boatbuilders, of Wedgeport, NS
Evergreen - a 6m (19.67’) design
competition collaboration with Michael Schacht.
All vessels and structures on this page were designed using TouchCad: here is a small copy of the movie, Final Presentation.mp4, that I presented while a panelist at the 2012 IBEX show in Louisville, KY. And also a fun project that Claes Lundstrom - creator of TouchCad completed in 2013: the Despicablimp! I am a TouchCad beta tester and get a lot of help from Claes when finding a software problem or need a special boat design-related feature in the program. I don’t receive anything from him except programmer and software design help.
A slippery cruiser with a unique look, layout, drive and steering system.
A versatile 25’ (7.62m) Trawler Yacht based on a Nova Scotian workboat hull.
- a 43’ (13.1m) biplane-rigged catamaran for a very experienced sailor and author in Australia
HMS Bounty: I am completing the preliminary work on a 120‘ (36.6m) on-deck full-rigged sailing replica for the Tall Ship Bounty Development Project. More soon....
- 18’ (4.5m) Sailing Canoe for an experience canoe sailer and woodworker in New Jersey.
- a 24’ (7.32m) One-person ocean racing outrigger for a (big) client in California. When a small canoe just won’t do!
Design Sketchbook: I had a spot in WoodenBoat Magazine for 7 years where people wrote in with their dream boats and (sometimes with the help of friends) I designed them! See Aurora, Gypsy, Seahawk, Stella Maris, Mini Mocha, Loon, Eureka!, Chimaera, etc...
60’ Schooner - Hull fairing and ballast and construction patterns for schooner builder David Westergard, in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
Copyright 2001-2021 inclusive McGowan Marine Design, Inc.
Hull Speed the new boat design booklet and theory - used to design FUSION in WoodenBoat No 261 (March/April 2018) may be downloaded here: Hull Speed_ 2017.pdf. Sadly, Alan died in early 2020. Please write to me if you have any questions about Hull Speed and The Component Waveform Theory. LM
