Yacht Design School?

Indeed, even more basic.

And yes one death so far officially attributable to that: When the Maxfun 35 report was released the MAIB found that the keel bolts failed. The 'yacht designer' was found to have confused UTS with yield and apparently didn't know the difference. Noteworthy that he was following rule based design and muffed it because of the lack of really basic engineering fundamentals.

What I find concerning is that the courts consider 'yacht designers' essentially as tradespersons and the onus is on the customer to insist on class or professional review. Were it a Graduate professional NA/Engineer they are immediately culpable of manslaughter and are treated accordingly by the police and the courts. So I wonder where Westlawn would stand on that?

I also find it noteworthy that Westlawn Designers like Ted Brewer thought it necessary to employ engineers.

 

Your analysis of of the accident is oversimplified.

Here is a link to the synopsis of the official report

http://www.maib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/Hooligan_V-synopsis.pdf

The failure of the keel resulted from the confluence of several factors, some from the original design and others unrelated to the work of the designer. Incorrect specification of the bolts by the designer was one. Unbeknownst to the designer, the builder of the boat subcontracted the fabrication of the keel to an inexperienced fabricator, who made unauthorized design changes. Subsequent modification of the boat by the owner by the addition of an additional 160 kg to the bulb was another factor. Failure to include an adequate safety factor in the original design was another.

It appears from the report that the key event causing the keel to fail was the failure of the welds, almost certainly the fault of the fabricator.

Now, before attributing the keel failure to inadequate training by a yacht design school several additional facts need to be established. First, was the designer of the yacht, Mr. Maarten Voogd, trained at either Westlawn or the Landing School, or perhaps by some comparable school? If not then using this incident as an indictment of yacht design schools is baseless. Next, if Mr. Voogd was trained at one of these schools, did the school fail to teach the student this kind of material? Keep in mind that failure of a designer to apply a concept or principle does not necessarily mean that some school he attended failed to teach it.

 

I believe MikeJohns just wanted to point level of responsibility the designer is facing and level of general engineering knowledge he needs, not speaking about any particular school.

 

Engineers hire other engineers too. If the employed engineers with their focused and extensive academic engineering backgrounds had every capability that Ted Brewer has [developed], they would have the projects or be hiring him rather than the other way around.

I haven’t read any westlawn graduate saying “I have the exact same education as if I had gotten a PhD” nor “I will never have need to hire an engineer to assist on a project.”

Rather, the westlawn supporters I have heard from and read on the forum appear to have an honest understanding of what it is and what it isn’t, who it can be a good program for and who would better pursue a NA [engineering] degree.

 

This is contents of my lectures on small craft design for naval architects (3-4 year students). Ask colleagues to comment and add as appropriate.

# Lecture Contents
1 Introduction Small craft types: pleasure, special, small commercial. Power and sailing boats. Design categories. Displacement, semi-planing and planing craft. Monohull and multihull craft. Regulations applied – ISO, LR SSC, etc. Review of problems involved in design and production.
2 Architecture of small craft Architecture of hull and deck – types, applications. Aesthetics of small craft, exterior design. Art of design and styling – modern, classic, practical. Bow and stern shapes and their applications. Deck and cabin styling, functionality issues. Swimming platforms, stairs and ladders, visibility from steering station, etc.
3 Boat design process Design spiral, analysis of prototypes, design rations, hull shape factors, preliminary sketching, study of weights, calculations. Hull shape design, types of hulls and their applications. Design evaluation, optimization.
4 Flotation and stability ‘Mechanism’ of flotation and stability, stability diagrams. Stability criteria: initial, at large angles of heel, wave/wind, special criteria, stability of flooded craft. Regulations, freeboard and stability requirements, ISO12217 overview, comparison with IMO.
5 Boat interiors design Basics of interior planning, functionality, accommodation requirements, comfort factors, ergonomics. Basics of interior styling. Problems involved in boat interior design; cooperation of naval architect with interior designer.
6 Performance predictions Relative speed and Froude numbers, components of resistance. Resistance calculations methods for displacement, semi-displacement and planing craft: simplified, systematic series, model testing.
7 Powering, seakeeping and controllability Powering – types of drives; engine ratings. Interaction of engine with drive. Basics of seakeeping, accelerations, MSI/MIF/MII. Wetness and slamming, survival of craft in extreme conditions. Controllability as combination of directional stability and maneuverability, effect of different factors on controllability. Sea trials procedure, accuracy and methods of measurements.
8 Sailing boats design Elements of wing theory, basics of sailboat dynamics, VPP and polar plots. Types of sailing rig. Development of sail plan: balance, dimensioning of sails and spar. Appendages design: rudder, keel, centerboards. Deck equipment specific for sailing boats.
9 Design and production in composites Materials – resins, fabrics, cores. Development of lamination schedule. Construction methods: hand lay-up in mold, infusion, spray gun, temporary molds, panels kit assembling, etc.
10 Design and production in metal and wood Design features for metal and wood. Materials, extrusions, species of wood. Development of metal or plywood kit. Construction techniques.
11 Structural design Structural calculations for small craft – ISO12215-5 method. Full method and simplified method. General strength of hull, hull girder.
12 Deck equipment Anchor, mooring, steering; their types and sizing. Requirements for deck hatches and openings, deck safety. Cockpit drains. Suppliers and use of catalogues.
13 Marine systems Fuel (diesel, gasoline), water, bilge pumps, waste, ventilation, air-conditioning, LPG, firefighting systems on small craft. Requirements. Suppliers and use of catalogues.
14 Marine electrical systems AC and DC systems on boats, requirements, samples. Load analysis. Navigation and electronics, installation requirements. Suppliers and use of catalogues.
15 Management and economics in boatbuilding Relations with customer, design agreement, construction agreement. Design stages, construction stages. Cost evaluation – approach and samples. Certification of small craft for US, EU markets – rules and procedures.
16 CAD in small craft design (optional) Use of software as useful tool in small craft design. Types of software – calculations, drafting, modeling, visualization. Design for CAM. Useful hints, common mistakes, difference between engineer and ‘software user’.

 

Alik,

Does each of the items in your syllabus correspond to a 1 hr lecture, or would each correspond to a 1 semester course on the topic, or is it something in between?

Thanks.

 

One item is 90-minute lecture. Yes, I know it is very concentrated course.

 

Alik,

Another question, is this course intended as (what we call in the US) a "survey course," or is it intended to teach competency. If it is intended as a survey course, more or less with the purpose of giving students a little taste of each topic and letting them know what they will need to learn later in each topic, then it could be OK. If the course is intended to teach competency in each topic then it is nowhere near adequate.

I say this from the point of view of someone who does not know either boat design or naval architecture, but who does have an advanced degree in a calculus-based technical subject and who does have some experience with organizing and supervising a guest-lecturer-based non-calculus based graduate-level course in a university as well as teaching some lectures in that course.

 

It is a guest lecturer course I gave, for naval architects.

If we are looking at performance predictions, structural design, stability analysis and assessment, etc. this material plus standard curriculum in naval architecture is more than enough to do the calculations for small craft. Yes, under supervision first.

For design of small craft in general, important is personal knowledge and experience with boats. Without such experience no lectures or extensive training will help. Talent is necessary addition also, for styling and aesthetic appeal.

P.S. Engineer does not need to know everything. But he should a) know where to find required information and b) be prepared to use this information.

 

I wasn't highlighting any particular school. Just the traps that you can easily land in. With the pressure on yacht designers to often produce performance oriented vessels material/weight reduction isn't forgiving and there's no structural redundancy to catch the mistakes. Not using a class process leads to the real chance of unforseen omissions, if you don't know your engineering basics.

The full forensic engineering report that was submitted to the MAIB was more specific, and I posted about this before. It clearly identifies the designers confusion about basic principles as leading to the failure. The factor of safety was just not achieved which would have covered the mods too. Either the welds or the bolts were doomed to break and as they say two of the bolts had already snapped. That's why there was a full recall of unmodified boats also. They were all going to fail regardless and that was quite clear.

It's not the only death we could point to, a complete misunderstanding of properties of laminates in shear also springs to mind. The marketer and the consumer are attracted to a a nice Style but they cannot tell if the design lacks substance.

This is a far worse problem than it appears. Only the design errors that lead to a death get properly reported, the majority just go to an insurance claim who may settle with the designers insurer in a no-fault settlement. I get involved in some of these cases and some of the failures are shocking.
Designs to a level that the designer thought ABS ORY was indicating and muffing that or using the old inadequate version of ORY is a common oversight since it was grossly inadequate for some keel attachments.

IMO Basic engineering materials fundamentals should be mandatory for any yacht design course. Not so you can do the engineering but so you know the difference between material properties and have an understanding particularly of fatigue.

 

Absolutely

 

MikeJohns,

So now I am little confused. So far in this thread you have done nothing but denigrate the yacht designs schools, so will you please tell us clearly if you believe that the curriculum at the yacht design schools is inadequate to train someone to design a safe boat, provided that the designer learned what he was taught and stays within the parameters he was taught?

As a second question, will you please tell us if you think a typical naval architecture program is sufficient training for someone to be a good yacht designer?

 

Good at what?...what is the measure of "good"..? I think you're going to have to define, what it is you mean by the phrase, what is a "good yacht designer" and when does 'good' become 'bad'.

 

There is no official definition of term 'yacht designer'.

Bannenberg was a yacht designer but I bet he hardly knew what is metacenter.

There are few types of professionals involved in yacht design, those are often called 'yacht designers':

Stylist (interior or exterior) - creates the appearance; answering the question 'how it looks?', but not answering question 'how it works?' and 'how to make it?'.

Naval architect - specialist with degree in naval architecture, capable and qualified to answer questions 'how it looks?', 'how it works?' and 'how to make it? Naval architect is not just a calculator; I like to put emphasis on word 'architect' that indicates creative component of profession.

Yacht designer - general term often used for specialists without official degree, working in different fields of yacht design. Probably alumni of boat design schools would fit in this category.

Marine engineer - engineering specialist working with machinery/systems;

Marine designer - this is new term that is associated with transport/marine design programs recently introduced in some universities, with degree. They study creative side of profession, though associated with some technical background.

Any additions?

So once there is no official definition of 'yacht designer', it is always a big question of what his level of competency should be. I know one guy who is a hairdresser by training, and he presents himself as 'yacht designer' - yes he has some experience with building boats but I have never seen he has drawn anything!

 

You mean with denigrating comments like this:

"IMO Basic engineering materials fundamentals should be mandatory for any yacht design course. Not so you can do the engineering but so you know the difference between material properties and have an understanding particularly of fatigue".

If you are working alone after completing a yacht design course then you should have the design professionally reviewed.

Do comments like that denigrate the yacht design schools or simply inject some common sense?

I've never said that the material being taught is incorrect or unnecessary only that it should include material that it does not currently. It's a view I formed not from any bias but from involvement with the people who graduate from these courses.