Yacht Design and Engineering

Tad, I hope you didn't think I was being critical, as I wasn't. That was one of my feable attempts at humor. To the people who run most boat companies, not to mention many custom design clients, the idea of spending thousands of dollars on a design is unimaginable. Design, whether done by an engineer or a designer, takes time. Time is money and boat designers have bills to pay like everyone else.

I am always amazed that a boat company will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to tool up a new model, then worry over a couple of thousand to the designer. Did I mention that the profit on one boat would pay for the entire design in some cases?

As for royalties, my experience with production boatbuilders is that you will never get them to pay them anyway, so don't bother asking. They will build the boat for 6 months and then change a few things in the mold and claim it isn't your design any longer. I know of one boat company that modified all their designs, closed down, and laid off all the employees. Over a weekend, the old molds were put out to pasture and the new ones moved into place. The following week the company was back in business, with a new name and no longer obligated to pay royalties. They even hired back the same employees!

I too see Yacht Design as an art. The computers are tools to help get the job done. I still find myself drawing hulls and styling by hand. As the former chief draftsman at Bertram Yachts told me when I was new to the business, computers are lousy for sketching. I guess a tanker shape can be drawn pretty easily as they are basically a shoebox with a blunt nose and round bilges. I know, that is probably a simplification, but they do appear rather straightforward to those of us unqualified to design one!

I seemed to have veered way off topic, so I'll stop now!

 

Dear Tad and Timm,
I agree with you both. There is an 'art' to designing 'boats' verses ships. I have seen some of Tad's work and I consider it masterful. And I believe he worked with Bruce King for some period of time, another rather masterful designer. I don't think I know of your work Timm.

There was a full couple of pages devoted to the similiar subject in a book I looked back thru a month or so ago (can't recall which one right now as I had looked thru 5 at the same time). It spoke of the effort to draw just the bow line (and sheer). The author spoke of spending anywhere from a day to a full week at getting these two VERY important lines right. Computers just can't draw these lines. Olin Stephens could and did. Now that I think of it I may have been reading a review of his new book "Lines" that I have not had a chance to look at yet.

I was in the retail/wholesale boat business for 18 years (72'-90') and I experienced the fiberglass revolution. As years went by I grew to describe the looks of sailboats as just so many floating clorax bottles.
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Recently I read an article in Soundings that promted me write the following:

Subject: Soundings Article by Ted Danforth, Jr.

Dear Ted,

Just finished reading your article about Ray Hunt in the June issue of Soundings, I wanted to write and let you know how much I truly enjoyed the article.

You captured not only the factual history, but more importantly, some of the essence of being involved with yachts and yacht design itself... "the measure of total understanding of the nature of a boat."

And most importantly, you included the oft forgotten element, the sheer line. What a terribly important factor! Romantically stated, but oh so true, "it is simply her sheer … sheer beauty that is. She enters the harbor like a beautiful woman entering a room. Her sheer is the line we try to get right when we doodle boats." . So many of today's boats lack this beauty, and correspondingly, some of the essence of yesteryear's yachting.

Your article brought some of that feeling back to me....some of that feeling that first inspired me to want to learn of sailing yachts and their design....that had me (virtually a non-sailor at the time) putting together a scrapbook of designs, both good and poor, for future reference.

Now it so happens that I got quite heavily involved with multihull craft because here is where free thought and innovation abounded, and here it is even tougher to create a pretty sheer line. Probably a couple of the best examples I might reference would be Peter Wormwood's 60 'Indigo' design (http://runningtideyachts.com/design-references/design-references-1.html) and a few of Peter Spronk's cats. With Spronk's designs, you would have to invoke your French observation, "you must suffer to be beautiful." I'm going to try and create a few nice looking multi-hull designs myself, and maybe in collaboration with a more artistic person than myself. My first attempt is this 65' gamefishing design sporting a rather unusual sailing rig. While the rig shape may appear strange to some, I think I got the sheer and the deckhouse lines right....
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Tad,
I found you comment interesting, "To all aspiring designers, go to some place like the Emily Carr Collage of Art and find a voice. Live your life and find something that needs to be said. Then design boats."
And I would add, don't expect to make a lot of money at this profession, and consider concentrating on SuperYachts rather than small production vessels.
Finally a sabbatical in Italy might not be a bad idea. When I was looking for an aero kit for my oldler Mercedes SLC I came to the conclusions that the Germans should do the building, but leave the designing to the Italians.

 

Great discussion.

"Running Tide" Now, there was a boat!

I've been asked to look at a production FG version of one of my boats. I'm getting wary since I spend most of the time in our discussions debunking ill conceived or incompatible concepts. Probably I should can it and rest easier.

Tad, I saw a Memory this summer on the waterway and it looked just fine.

Tom Lathrop

 

Timm;

NP, no I didn't think you were being critical, I was just struggling to clarify my thoughts. And that was a great rant you had going there, keep it up.

Brian & Guest;

Automated yacht design: I don't think so, AI has a long way to go before this will be workable. A commercial ship has extremely rigorous design criteria to meet. Get this many DWT from here to there as cheap as possible, meet Lloyd's scantling rule, be simple to build, etc. Fall apart in ten years.

But a small yacht for weekend cruising with your family? A program can draw 1000 different sheerlines, but it can't tell which one is "right".

Tom;

Thanks for your comment, and the best of luck with your project.

The mention of Runningtide got me thinking about Olin Stephens and a comment he made a few years ago. To paraphrase from memory, " When I started out in yacht design, it was 90% art and 10% science, now it seems to be the exact opposite".

I took great exception to this comment at the time, and I still disagree. That was his personal experience, coming from rule of thumb ocean racers to multi-million dollar AC campaigns. But the amount of art and or engineering in a particular design depends on what the designer or engineer brings to the project. Look at one of Dick Newick's designs, there is a seamless integration of art and engineering that is awesome, the one cannot exist without the other.

But that is what establishes the individuality of each design, the integration of various amounts of engineering and art. Look at current raceboat design by Farr or Mark Mills or Finot, the engineering element is obvious, and strong. But so is the art, even a only slightly educated eye can see the difference, and would not mistake one for the other.

The art in any design is a moving target, some will see it, others will abhor it. Same with the engineering. Which is what makes it both challenging and frustrating.

My best to all, Tad