The BBY Design Team Ups Their Game with a New 3D Printer
by Will Sturdy, Chief Designer at Brooklin Boat Yard
Thousands of small parts go into every boat we build - cleats, chocks, winches, fairleads, pedestals, brackets, machinery mounts, ducting, covers, hatches, door knobs... It's never-ending! We source many of these components through our extensive network of specialty suppliers, but what about when we need something that doesn't exist? What goes into making some of those parts and pieces? Here's a "behind the scenes" look at one of the new tools in our toolbox.
We are constantly evolving.
Over the years we've used just about every manufacturing method under the sun to cut metal, wood, and the various composites that go into our boats- CNC mills, lathes, routers, waterjet cutters, plasma cutters, laser cutters, and many others have long been the go-to tools for bringing the custom parts we design in the computer to life. At their core, all of these tools work similarly; they shape big pieces of material into small parts. However, as technologies have evolved over the past several years, additive manufacturing methods, particularly through 3D printing, have become our go-to solution for an ever-increasing number of parts.
Having an immediate, on-site resource is a game changer.
Need a custom low-profile titanium padeye? Bowsprit snout with curved internal tackline leads that couldn't possibly be drilled? Prototype of a custom door knob? Pattern for casting a bronze rudder shoe? Mold for an infused carbon bracket? Funky air conditioning duct? Weirdly shaped ventilation louvre? More and more, 3D printing is the answer. Some of these parts require multi-million-dollar machines in dedicated facilities running twenty-four hours a day. For those parts, we've developed an extensive network of suppliers so we can have access to these technologies without distracting ourselves from our core focus of building boats. But, when we need a part and we need it NOW, the convenience of having these technologies on-site is huge.
We currently have two printers in our workshop.
The first machine is a small printer capable of printing a wide array of thermoplastics. We're constantly on the lookout for ways to improve our build process. When we first bought this machine, we weren't sure exactly how it would fit in our design and build flow. It quickly proved its worth in shortening the design process for custom hardware by reducing time waiting for custom components to arrive- building functional mockups and rapidly creating precise tooling for the myriad complex molded carbon parts coming out of our composites shop. We're not limited to visual shells and tooling, though. With some of the engineering thermoplastics available, we can make structural parts, too. We even printed spreader tips for Vortex as part of her conversion to continuous composite rigging last year.
There's only so much that can fit in a small cube, though. To up our game, we recently invested in a large-format 3D printer that increases our build volume by a massive 18x. The first parts to come off this printer were a set of patterns for casting a two-part bronze rudder shoe for the 56' offshore cruiser launching this month (see above). This 60lb casting forms the termination of the hand-shaped wood and S-glass skeg and houses the lower rudder bearing, making for a bullet-proof rudder installation and almost entirely eliminating the risk of hanging up on pot-warp or kelp. For this offshore cruiser, the weight and drag penalty is well worth the peace of mind! This is just one small example of how we're using new technology to solve old problems in precise and efficient ways. 3D printing is certainly not the solution to everything, but we're very excited to add this to the hundreds of other cool tools we use every day!
The pattern for a two-part rudder shoe sits next to the final product on the brand new Fitzgerald-designed offshore cruiser that launched in August of 2025.
