schools-tips and help please

[grantlen2211]

Hello I am 16 years old and is want to design boats/yachts, and i live in the usa
What are the best schools for what i want to do in the usa, and can you give me any tips/knowledge about this major, also i dont know much about this major please help!!!!
Thanks For your help!!!!

[Leo Lazauskas]

Originally Posted by grantlen2211

Hello I am 16 years old and is want to design boats/yachts, and i live in the usa
What are the best schools for what i want to do in the usa, and can you give me any tips/knowledge about this major, also i dont know much about this major please help!!!!
Thanks For your help!!!!

Look up the web sites for:
University of Michigan
Webb Institute
MIT

You will need to get good grades in a variety of subjects at school to get into those courses, for example, mathematics, chemistry and physics.

[grantlen2211]

thanks soo much

[DCockey]

MIT merged its former Ocean Engineering department into the Mechanical Engineering department in 2005. The naval architecture aspects appear to be much smaller than they were several decades ago.

Another school in the US with a strong naval architecture program is the University of New Orleans.

Eric Sponberg has an excellent page on his website about education to become a yacht/boat designer: http://www.sponbergyachtdesign.com/ArticlesDesigner.htm

[dhardin]

Hi - You should check out the boat building programs at Cape Fear Community College in North Carolina. They have a traditional wooden boat building program and a fiberglass boat manufacturing program that covers every aspect of boat building - including electrical systems and finishing techniques.

Classes start in August and each program is three semesters long - Fall, Spring and Summer.

The instructors are fantastic! I took both programs part-time for five years. I didn't know a thing about boat building before I started and now I have my own 19' center console. It was a lot of hard work, but totally worth it. Wilmington is a great place to live - about 10 minutes away from the beach. The shop is located right on the Cape Fear River.

Jason Rogers is in charge of the Marine Technology department. His email is jrogers@cfcc.edu or you can call him at (910) 362-7403. The website is www.cfcc.edu.

Good luck!

[Submarine Tom]

The best school, hmmm, well, it may be the school of hard knocks.

It worked for me.

-Tom

[grantlen2211]

wow thank you soo much for the help dhardin that really help thanks sooooooo much

[romnickhudges]

Try MIT or University of New Orleans since they are trusted already and the quality of education might be fit for every one.



__________________________
Education is the key to Success

[DavidJ]

I second Mr. Sponberg's article. Michael Kasten has a similar article on his site:
http://www.kastenmarine.com/student.htm

The only thing I would warn is that both of these established designers approach the question of becoming a boat designer from the perspective of the do it all independent designer. This is a very rare job and there are zero entry level positions, and few positions at all for this type of do it all designer. Most boats and yachts are designed by teams of people and if you pick the wrong education you may find you have limited opportunity to work on the aspects that you actually want to work on.

In my opinion the most important thing to do is to figure out what it is about boat and yacht design that interests you and what aspects you'd most want to work on and make your education choices based on that. If you have zero interest in math and engineering then it would be pointless to get a naval architecture degree. Likewise if you can't draw to save your life and couldn't care less what a boat looks like as long as it performs well then you won't have much success in a pure design field.

Mr. Nazarov has written a very good article about the design process for small boats for the new RINA publication International Journal of Marine Design. In section 2.1 on the first page he explains the different individuals who can make up a design team. I'd add that what he calls a Boat Designer would be the type of guy Sponberg and Kasten are talking about, perhaps with an education from the Landing School, Westlawn, or any combination of degrees and experience really. Jobs for what he is calling a Marine Designer usually require an industrial design degree. Transport design and marine design are usually in the same departments at a university and will share many of the same classes and a job ad for that type of job could list any or all of those educations. A portfolio is virtually always a requirement. This link should work. If not search for it. The first two issues are free.
http://content.yudu.com/A1wjq5/IJMDC...ne_design.html

I'd also look at these recent threads that discussed this exact subject:
confused - in the 10th grade and looking to become a naval architect

Want to design yachts? The future designer

Learning to Design Ships - A Post Mortem

I think the last one is particularly accurate about life as a junior engineer/naval architect these days. Design in this sense isn't about picking colours or drawing neat looking boats. It can often be about plugging away for weeks on end making computer models and drawings of stuff nobody ever sees. It can be a shock to find yourself in that type of job if you thought you'd be worrying about drawing the perfect shear line. It is actually becoming such a computer intensive world that often the most successful young engineers are the ones who are the best on the computer, whether or not they have any real interest in boats.

Good luck.

[DCockey]

Transport design and marine design are usually in the same departments at a university and will share many of the same classes and a job ad for that type of job could list any or all of those educations.

Design in a typical university transport/industrial/product design department usually means asthetics and some attempt at the general layout. Good programs include an overview of engineering considerations. The typical outputs are renderings (pretty pictures) and models, both physical and virtual, accompanied by words and more pictures to explain the design.