"William R. Watt" wrote in message
I thought all designers ripped off other people's designs.
That's what boat designers do.
Can anyone name anyone who has designed a boat with no research or
study of other people's boats?

I once walked in a major (and I mean major) designer's office while they
were working on the concept drawings of a new boat.
There were plans and pictures all over the place, they had graphs of data
about other boats and a list of desired features mostly referring to other
designs.
I would not trust a design that is not based on research and data compiled
from previous designs.
We have a library of hundreds of plans and spreadsheets full of data from
boats designed by others. I would not start a new design without studying in
detail what has been done before.
The novice will often think: "That design looks very much like a Bolger,
it's a copy . . " not knowing that Bolger got the idea from Sucher who
collected and analyzed data taken from boats he measured on the waterfront
and those boats themselves were the product of an evolution etc. etc.
The problem is the lack of knowledge of the neophyte.
The art of the designer is to pick all those features and blend them in an
harmonious new and original design. That assumes that he also understands
what works and doesn't.
There is much out there not worth copying, it usually comes from amateur
designers who did not do their homework. They try to be different not
knowing that it has been done and failed..
Their weird plans are like no others, they don't "copy".