scbafreak via BoatKB.com wrote:
Not many designers draw these styles of boats. Most are sleek and pointed
and not my style. I really like the old "Pirate Ship" style and I want it to
be as much along the style of old sailing ships as possible while still being
safe and capable.

You have to ask yourself why the best designers are not making piratey
boats. The boats that you like are not very seaworthy, need a large
crew, probably can't survive being rolled by a wave, are very heavy and
very slow.

The pointy boats that you seem dislike are easy to drive with a small
crew, are very efficient, go faster, use less fuel when motoring, and
are way, way easier and cheaper to build.

As somebody who is building a steel boat I have the following
recomendations. Don't dismiss them too quickly, they come from
experience:

1) Buy a small boat to develop your skills as a sailor, to know how
things work, and how much you can take it out there. A 20+ footer would
do. More than a few would-be sailors spent fortunes and precious time
before realizing that they (or their spouses) hate life inclined at 20
degrees or that they get seasick easily.

2) Try to get one of those pointy boats designs that offer the
possibility of buying already cut plates. Cutting plate is boring,
unhealthy, expensive and time-consuming. If I had to start again I'll
buy the already cut kit and, probably, I'd have saved money. The gunk
left by a plasma cutter would make a lead mine worker choke. The other
methods are dirtier.

3) The least important consideration of a boat is looks. You can make a
boat that sails well and has robustness look prettier. But you can't
make a pretty hunk of steel sail well in heavy seas if it does'nt do it
already.

4) Count that it would take at least 3 times longer to build it that
your most pesimistic estimate. And it would cost at least 50% more than
you expected.

5) The best boat in the world is worthless if you are too old to sail
it. Do something that would put you in the water soon. I remember
reading about a guy that spent 30 years building a ferrocement boat.
When he finished he was in his 80's, way too old to enjoy iy.

Good luck, and don't be stubborn: the best sailors are flexible types.