Yacht Design Competitions?

In this thread Gades mentioned Concept Boat 2002

Does anyone know of any other interesting design competitions?

 

Every few years (I don't know if it's something like every 2 or 4 years) the British magazine Yachting World has a design competition. The last one (this year) was not really succesfull. Even they had a record number of entries, no one got the prize. The jury (spelling?, sorry) decided that none of the competitors had met the minimum requirements. The problem was that this time, the design requirements were too specific; and it's not that it was too dificult, but not everyone likes to design the same type of boat, I guess. The prizes are not huge, and you can face profesionals and/or amateurs at the same time, but if you win the get a good publicity at the magazine.

Here in the UK, there is also another competition, but it's open only to UK students. The RINA gives a prize to the best project of a final year student within the UK. But this could be anything related to Naval Architecture. Last year, a German student from Southampton Institute won the prize with his 44 sailing yacht. This project was mainly based on the structures side (composites). And actually, this person (I know him) is working with one of the best (probably the best) composites company in the UK.

Right now I can't think of any one else. But I'd like to, so that I can try...

 

Somewhat on topic, www.duckworksmagazine.com is now featuring the entries in its annual amateur design contest. This year the contest was to design a small boat to be made from 2 sheets
of plywood. The projects can be seen at http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/contest2001/entries.htm

 

Has there been any change re: design competitions?

ie - Are there any?

 

Jeff, couldn't Boatdesign.net set up a design competition?

It might not have the BANG and internationally wide audience that a magazine based winner would have. The winner would be voted on by us, "the inhabitants" of boatdesign.net. And to make it reasonably fair the voters must have made say perhaps 30+ posts (removing spammers, new accounts etc. Or some other limitation to be able to vote.

The winner would gain frontpage and banner exposure on boatdesign.net and perhaps you could also get a sponsor to donate some interesting bits.
Say maybe you could get Mr MaxSurf to donate some VPP or limited ( no not THAT limited) version software to the winner. Or Perhaps Robert McNeel could sponsor with a full version of Rhino.

Rules:
Only unpublished and newly developed designs are in.
No guidelines or specific uses for the vessel at hand. Small to medium size recreational vessel 8-50 feet perhaps.

This might be a too big undertaking for you Jeff and I do realize that, but the level of complexity for the competition doesn't have to be that high.
But then the simpler the show, the lesser the rewards or something like that .

Good or bad idea?

 

Very Good Idea

 

I'll second that... but how do you ballance the scales between a professional NA and someone like me who is currently a very amature designer? To what level does the design go to. Is it simply a design proposal, limited to Profile, Plan and Body views with simle measures, capacities etc or will it have to include moments and such, of which I or someone like me would have minimal to medium knowledge of? I know that most of my designs, although done with Carene software, could be ripped apart technically for not enough this or too much of that. Be that as it may, all of the ones that I have designed and built have performed up to the specs that I was expecting them to. Also, Pretty 3-D pictures should have no bearing on the merrit of a design as there are more non-CADers than CADers out there. There should also be limitations on the # of entries per participant and a certain non participation time period for winners. With perhaps 2 contests per year, the winner of one cannot enter for the next 2 contests, or not be elegible to enter a contest where his/her previous winner would be a viable entry??? Each contest could be comprised of a scenerio and parameters designed to produce designs within a certain (but quite loose) slot eg: Trailerable sail/motor cruiser for 2, or small tender/sailer, or Multi-use Fishing/Skiing pleasureboat under X length, etc. Just some thoughts for those who may be seriously considering this. I would be very interested in participating in something like this

Steve Lewis

 

Yes, more like an "idea competition" than a cad/rendering/calculation competition. Maybe just sketches of the body, profile, arrangement and possible construction methods and some estmates of weight and cost?

 

Exactly!!

Steve

 

It all depends on what would be the intended goal with the competition.

A sponsor might have something to say about it too.

The level of complete design is interesting indeed. Personally I'd like to see at least a conceptual drawing (to scale, no napkin stuff) with complete deckdesign, interior layout and basic data that are realistic and that should be supported at least by some basic calcs. Stability/SA or weight/HP requirements for example. Otherwise it would just be a sketch contest.

But the question is, are rules really needed?
Some yes, but I say let the competition be open, BUT with the requirement that the entred design havesmall bio stating who did it, education and wther they are amatures or pros. And then let the vote decide.
I would expect a lot more from the pros that go here and that they support their contributions with more data and stats than I would an amatuer. I'd still vote on what I feel like is a nice design. Don't care wether it's done by a pro or not.

If a lot of pros would enter the competition would surely be mentioned in magazines and over the net after the fact. If no pros enter, will there be enough "power" to generate any interest other on this website for a competition like this?

Only time will tell...And perhaps Jeff and a sponsor or two...

 

This is definitely an interesting idea Erik. Lots and lots and lots of details to work out, but I think it would be well worth it. For those reading this, if you would be interested in taking part, please post a quick note with your thoughts as well. All ideas are welcome at this point...

 

What I'm thinking here is that it might be tempting to consider a design more worthy if it is backed up by a significant volume of figures (perhaps generated by $10k software) that your typical pizza delivery guy that dabbles in design just doesn't have access to. Perhaps separate categories for Pro and Amature would level the playing field out a little more.

Steve

 

Before trying to set the rules there's one basic concepts that need to be thought about.

Why are we going to have a competition?
This is THE most important issue!

Answer that, and the rest will follow almost by itself.

 

Innovation

It seems such a competition would maximize its value by emphasizing innovation.
That would also give amateurs and pros a level playing field without going into complex classifications that might limit creativity.

Yoav

 

I'm not so sure that I agree...
Not that I don't like innovation. But the more restraints placed on a competetition the more closed it will get.
Personally I feel that the first ever boatdesign.net design competitition should be open minded.

No small jury with their own agenda.

YOU set YOUR agenda wih YOUR design entry.

Then we will ALL vote for what we like and for reasosns that WE (I/you) feel are close to our hearts/souls/whatever.

Limitation is not the mother of inovation in my world. But an open mind is.