Naval Architecture vs. Yacht Design

What is the difference between Naval Architecture and Yacht Design?

 

good question i've been wondering about as well.
i have some ideas like NA is mainly bigger commercial ships while YD is more privat pleasure boats. there are Yacht Designers and Naval Architects on the forum and i keep myself posted for a better explanation.

 

It basically boils down to the fact that in most jurisdictions to use the title "Naval Architect" you need to take and pass a test to be formally accrediated by the body which governs this professional title. Whereas anyone can use the title "yacht designer" legally.

I'm not sure how the above applies outside the US, and I'm sure others here can give a better reply or add to this as well.

 

A yacht is different from a boat or ship. It is a luxury vessel with a high degree of finish. They are as different as a Louis XV dinner set is from the pressboard you buy at K Mart. They both serve their purpose, however, one is a work of art. A true yacht designer is a specialist in the marine architecture field.

 

Thank you very much for your response I would love to hear from more of you.

I was told at the 16th annual Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Symposium that the money is made in Naval Architecture while being a yacht designer it is sort of being like a starving student. Does this have any real truth to it?

Joseph

 

A yacht designer is more like a starving artist - There are probably fewer than 100 yacht designers who design the majority of the yachts in the US. It is a very competitive feild that is difficult to break into.

In addition the recent moves toward PE registration for anyone engaging in yacht/ship engineering design are going to restrict entry into this business even more.

The bulk of ship naval architecture and marine engineering work in this country is for Naval ships and the offshore oil and gas industry. This is quite a different kettle of fish, and yes there is probably money to be made.

 

Would any of you suggest that I study yacht design at the Landing School or go straight for the technical degree from say U. of Michigan? Or maybe start with a year at the Landing School and then in the future go to U. of Michigan for the technical information? I currently have a B.s. in Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science.

Joseph

 

Naval Architect

To help to clear the steps in Architect handling on various vessels:

Yacht is a pleasure vessel; boat is a small craft; ship we mean an offshore vessel from 200 ft to over 1000 ft.

Boats or small craft usually operate in protected waters, perhaps in low seastates.

Most architects deals with Classification vessels and naval or government and military vessels.

Yachts refers a self propelled passenger vessel designated for recreation. The yacht architect usually is a naval architect favoring artistic work. Much of their work is to be able to address on style and good layout, good choice of equipment, in particular to the interior decoration. But, for ships the interior decoration task is usually performed by interior design firm, if the extent of interior work covers a large area of public space, such as casino vessel, passenger vessels. For cargo ships, the architect will handle all the tasks with the other discipline of mechanical, marine and electrical engineers.

The risk of try and error method in ship/boat constructional design can cause failure in the deliverable. The architect will have to perform a sound and acurate weight and center estimate.
Check stability, perform powering estimate, estimate comfort index or similar numeric indicators, compose lines plans. Assess trim / stability and damage stability (for large vessels). Often, working on small crafts the architect is faced with the sensitive effect on LCG that can triggered a bow trim condition at the design waterline. Weight control is vital in small craft.

So you see a small vessel is model of a big ship, there are a lot of calculations to be performed. A common naval architect can go into the yacht design and construction field to face the artist challenge. There are some yacht school in USA, UK and other countries. In the States, check in the FL area.

Look in the SNAME web, www.sname.org and use links to get to the university/college links on the right. The site hosted a yacht event: The 16th Chesapeake Sailing
Yacht Symposium
03/21/03 - 03/22/03
Annapolis, MD

http://www.sname.org/maritime_links.htm

You may use the link to check out the RINA small craft branch.

Peter

 

This thread was related from back in 2001 - http://boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=27

Does anyone have a followup?

 

I think this is a very good point. It's unfair to yacht designers to be 'classified' as less than a naval architect.

 

My suggestion is to study aeronautical engineering if you're interested in yacht design, then go to Southamton Institute in England or St. Johns in Nova Scotia (associated with IMD). The aeronautical is an even better fallback than ship naval architecture. Virginia Tech has a program that combines aeronautical & ocean engineering.

 

A couple of points:

1.) I believe that the Canadian school of naval architecture that Stephen Ditmore is referring to is The Marine Institute in St. John's, Newfoundland. This school (my alma mater) is associated with Memorial University in that city. The Institute for Marine Dynamics (IMD) is located on the Memorial U. campus, but is operated by the National Research Council of Canada. A related research facility operated by Memorial is the Centre for Cold Ocean Research and Engineering, or C-CORE.

2.) There is a program in Naval Architecture offered in Halifax, Nova Scotia at the Technical University of Nova Scotia. An undergraduate degree in science or engineering is a prerequisite for this program, I believe.

3.) My take on Naval Architect vs Yacht Designer is that to be a NA you must have a degree in engineering specializing in naval architecture; a designer does not necessarily have to have any formal education qualifications at all. I disagree with the latter part of that statement, but it is sadly true. Anyone can hang out a shingle in the USA and Canada and call themselves a yacht designer, and it is up to the client to determine whether they are qualified or not.

 

Thanks for improving on my info, mmd, and all your points are good ones.

I disagree somewhat with the last, though. A person can be a great building architect without having a degree in structural engineering. A structural engineer is consulted where required. Same for boats. I'm not saying there should be no professional criterion, but schooling in architecture, industrial design, or years of boating and boatbuilding experience are also valid as backgrounds. I believe in design review by a P.E., the Coast Guard, or a classification society, but I see no reason why a person with a different background should not originate a design.

In the Naval Architecture firm where I worked from '92-'97 the Chief Engineer was a P.E., but the Head Naval Architect (and company president) was not.

 

Stephen, I agree completely that a designer need not be a P.Eng., and in fact, not even an N.A. My concern is for the lack of any form of credentials. The fellow that I worry about is the guy who is a dreamer about boats and can passably draft, so draws a pretty boat and sells the design on the internet to unwitting home-builders. While this is probably fine for a rowboat, I worry about boats large enough to go far enough to get their occupants in danger, or at least serious financial hot water. As an illustration, there is a fellow I know of who recently began providing design services to small boatshops whose sole qualification as a designer is that he has built R/C model boats for the past decade and now has a free down-loaded hull design program. No knowledge of stability, structural stength, boatbuilding skills, etc., but he can draw a shape that looks like a boat.

With the advent of computers in boat design (mostly a very good thing) combined with the relative anonymity of the internet, I worry that it is too easy to put bad designs in the hands of first-time back-yard builders who do not know enough to recognize a bad design. I feel that some form of accreditation needs to be implemented, possibly in the form of a professional association. SNAME and RINA are fine models for this, but I think that they are not presently suited to small craft designers.

I'd pay reasonable annual dues to be able to have something like ""Member, Professional Small Craft Designers Assoc." on my business card, and would not mind having my work undergo an initial or periodic peer review.

If anyone here is interested in a debate on this topic, there was quite a lengthy discussion on this - in which I was a rather long-winded participant - on the WoodenBoat forum ( www.woodenboat.com ) in the "Misc. Boat-Related" thread under the title "Boat builders and engineering credentials". A warning, though; enter the "Misc. Non-Boat Related" thread at your own peril - it gets kinda rough down in what the WB forumites refer to as "the Bilge".

 

In my humble opinion the best yacht designer in the world is probably designing toasters right now, or is not even a designer, and it could be you.

If you want a career then you need a qualification, if you want to design boats then just do it. Start small, dinghy or RC is fine and build up. I am a qualified Engineer, Master of Science, Bachelor of Engineering etc. but those qualifications do not make me a good designer, whether it is cars, toasters, or yachts they just enable me to earn money and get some credibility. Good design comes from within.

Almost all the knowledge you need is available without qualifications. The net is a wealth of information and has transformed design, if you can't find what you need to know then you can ask forums like this.

I am not knocking qualifications, and I hope I am not offending anyone; I am just saying if you want a career then go the qualification route, if you want to design boats then just do it. Don't worry about whether you are a naval architect or a yacht designer.