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Fuzzy Logic SpreadsheetsI'd like to show you how to use a great set of spreadsheet to find good cruising sailboats. A few years ago, John Holtrop, a sailboat designer did some work on a method of selecting sailboats on the basis of "fuzzy logic", and he produced a set of spreadsheets to find good cruising sailboats. The spreadsheets contain a searchable database of over 1280 different sailboats, including all their design parameters. You can select one make and model of boat and search for other boats that are similar in terms of handling and performance to the one you select. This is very useful if you have your heart set on say a Tartan 30 and can't find any good ones around. You can go into these spreadsheets and find several other boats that are very similar to the Tartan in performance and handling. You will need Excel 97 or later to view the spreadsheets on your computer. Watch the VideoI've made a short screencast video showing how to download and set up these spreadsheets. You'll also see how to use the spreadsheets to uncover boats that may work for you. There's also a series of virtual boats in the spreadsheets, one of which is an "optimal coastal cruiser". You can use this boat as your "template" boat and find all the boats in the database that are similar to this optimal coastal cruiser. This should be of interest to anyone thinking of buying a boat for coastal sailing. You should watch this video before you download the files. The video will open in a new window. To view the video click here Download the Files The "Fuzzy Logic" article is here The download page for the spreadsheet is here. Download sail_data.xls The Technical Stuff The boats in the database are compared with each other on the basis of the following parameters:
There's also a series of graphs in the spreadsheets that show how these parameters are related to each other. It's not really necessary to understand these relationships in order to use these spreadsheets to find good boats. But if you do understand them, it does put the opposition firmly on the back foot when the debate starts at the bar!
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