The following is a brief
summary of how a new custom yacht design is imagined, sketched and drawn.
While seemingly complex, the boat design process is made up of a series of
incremental steps, much like the building process itself. While the
design process may vary slightly from one yacht designer to the next, if the
resulting design is to be what it should be, each of the steps outlined below
must be addressed thoroughly.
The Design Process
The goal of
undertaking the design of any new yacht is to take a set of owner
requirements and to turn them into the best possible solution to those
requests. As with any new venture, there is first the idea, and then
the bringing forth of the idea into a functioning reality. In order to
get all the necessary information on the table right at the outset, two
primary ingredients are necessary:
-
Owner's
Specification: The first 'design task' is
actually performed by the prospective boat owner. It is to create an
'Owner's Specification' or 'mission statement' for the proposed vessel.
Rather than being a highly detailed description of the result of the
design process, the Owner's Specification is instead a general guide to the
overall intent of the design. Toward that end, the owner's 'mission
statement' is best if kept fairly simple. The basic information needed is
an outline of the intended vessel's size, layout, materials of construction,
the intended use, range, speed, rig, general aesthetic, and most
importantly, the budget that is available for the project.
-
Design Proposal: It is then the
job of the designer to study the preliminary Owner's Specification, then
provide the prospective client with a detailed proposal for creating the new design.
In the case of our design work
this becomes our standard written 'Design Proposal.' It is fairly simple,
but thorough. Our Design Proposal will provide the following:
- A written outline of the design process itself
- A list of the
deliverable drawings and documents
- An estimate for the design work
required in order to create the design and to detail the plans for the vessel as described
The following paragraphs describe the design process and the
deliverable drawings and documents.
Stage I - The Preliminary Design Study
After the prospective client has reviewed
our 'Design Proposal' and decides to have a new yacht design
created, the actual work can begin. There will be a series of information
exchanges, possibly
including clippings of similar vessels or sketched layouts provided by the
client, questions asked by the designer or the client, and replies sent.
Once the client's requirements
have been articulated and thoroughly understood, I will prepare
preliminary 'Design Sketches' showing the
proposed Plan and
Profile layout, the
Exterior Styling, and the approximate
dimensions of the vessel. These may be as simple as a
freehand "napkin" drawings to record the intent of the design, or may be in the form of a few CAD generated possibilities. If preferred, this can become a nicely rendered preliminary
Study Drawing. This is the beginning of what I
refer to as 'Stage I' or the preliminary 'Design Study.'
Right away I will create a preliminary computer model
of the intended vessel. Using the computer based design as a tool we will
already be able to determine many things, including:
- The
envelope available for the accommodations
- The overall size and hull form
- The preliminary internal structure (bulkheads and soles)
- The rig (if for a sailing vessel or motor sailor)
- The styling and features of the superstructure
- The preliminary hydrostatics
Several such preliminary design prototypes can be
viewed via links on our Prototypes
web page. Two prototype designs that nicely illustrate the results
of Stage I sketches are the 60' Steam Yacht and the 54'
power yacht Greatheart.
The overall purpose of Stage I is to establish
the accommodations, styling, size, dimensions, and the target displacement,
primarily in order to provide a "proof of concept" for the design.
With those parameters determined, there may also be enough information to
establish a preliminary estimate of construction costs, to establish the
feasibility of the project vs. the stated budget.
When these preliminary sketches have been approved by the owner, Stage II
can begin.
Stage II - The Estimating Plans
With owner feedback from the above described
'Stage I' Preliminary Design Study, there will be enough known about the design
to begin 'Stage II.' The design work done during Stage II is
directed toward creating the first few sheets of full size Building Plans,
plus several essential documents.
The first part of Stage II
involves developing Study Drawings of the vessel. Ordinarily
the Study Drawings include:
- The proposed Sail Plan or Outboard Profile
Drawing
- The proposed Interior Profile and Arrangement Drawing
Once the interior layout and exterior
detailing have been approved and
finalized, the rest of Stage II can be undertaken in order to create the
Estimating Plans. When completed, the Estimating Plans Package
will include:
- Sail Plan / Outboard Profile
- Interior Profile & Arrangement
- Structural Profile and Arrangement
- Equipment List
- Vessel Specification
- Painting Specification
- Preliminary Weight Study
- Preliminary Power & Range Analysis
- Preliminary Hydrostatics Analysis
- List of Boat Builders Suited to the Project
- Designer's Cover Letter to Builders
- Owner's 'Request for Quotes' Template Letter to
Builders
For smaller vessels
there will be three drawing sheets at this point. For larger vessels
there may be two or more sheets in each category. The goal of
Stage II is that enough information be presented in the
Estimating Plans Package that firm quotes can be obtained from
prospective builders for construction of the vessel.
If you would like to review an
example of our design work up to this point, Study Drawings and Estimating
Plans are available for the designs listed on our
Plans List page.
Stage III - The Building Plans
During 'Stage III' the remaining
design work is completed. With additional owner and builder feedback,
further decisions can be made with regard to equipment and finish in order
to accommodate the overall budget for the project.
The drawings and Vessel Specification are refined to
include any requested changes, then the remaining drawings are completed in
order to create a final Building Plans package. These several
drawings will finally settle the interior and exterior details, the
machinery arrangement, the deck plan, the scantlings, the construction
sections, and all of the boat's final dimensions.
From that final hull shape, the as-designed
displacement, range, performance predictions, hydrostatics and stability can
be determined. The Building Plans will usually include:
- Outboard
Profile: The sail plan or other exterior details of the hull;
- Interior
Profile & Arrangement: The vessel's accommodations;
- Sectional
Views: The structure and interior joinery sections;
- Inboard Profile: The vessel's structure
& major components: the engine, drive
line, tanks, major bulkheads;
- Deck Plan: Cabins,
hatches, fittings, mooring and anchor gear;
- Spar and
Rigging Plan as needed;
- Various
Structural Details as needed;
- Scantling List;
- Hull Fitting Details;
- Hatch & Deck Fitting Details;
- Companionway, Door & Portlight Details;
- Interior Joinery Details;
- Mechanical
/ Machinery Details as needed;
- Lines Drawing;
- Rudder Details;
For larger vessels, each of the
above drawing categories may include several sheets.
During Stage III the weight
budget is finalized, the final as-designed stability and performance
analyses are done, and the Vessel Specification is finalized in order to
accurately describe the intent, the layout, the scantlings, the
construction, the systems and the outfit of the vessel.
In addition to the drawings, there will be the
following documents in a Building Plans set:
-
Offsets Table (unless the vessel is NC cut, in which case the
Offsets are of no use).
-
Equipment List: The complete list of major equipment items,
including appliances, electronics, mechanicals, etc.
- Vessel Specification:
includes specifics such as construction details, vessel powering
considerations, inventory, etc.
-
Painting Specification
-
Welding Specification for metal structure
-
Fastening Schedule for wooden structure
-
Laminate Schedule for GRP structure
-
Weight Budget
-
Hydrostatics & Stability Report
-
Power and Range Analysis
- Designer's Cover Letter to Builder
Having finished Stage III, the
Design Phase of the development of a new yacht will be
complete. At this point, sufficient information will have been
developed and presented in the drawings and documents so that any
professional or amateur builder can build the vessel as
intended.
Then the Construction Phase of the project may begin.
Standards Used
When creating a new design, the various classification
societies' rules are our guide for structure. We will confirm
compliance with the ABS Rules or Lloyd's Register or the German Lloyds Rule
as is appropriate to the vessel type or to the build venue.
We assess stability according to criteria
established by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for power
vessels, or according to the International Standards Organizations (ISO)
recommendations for offshore sailing vessels as adopted by European
Union countries. If for passenger vessel use in the US, we make
use of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) for safety and stability
criteria.
Throughout the design process
as it is practiced here, a vessel design is developed with the following
goals:
- Suitability to the owner's requirements
and to the intended service.
- An interior and on-deck layout per the
owner's requirements.
- A pleasing
aesthetic.
- A thorough
specification for the sake of longevity and ease of maintenance.
- Sensibility of
structure for the sake of ease of construction.
- A functional machinery and equipment
layout.
- A distribution of weights that will provide
correct trim and adequate stability.
- Performance suited
to the expectations of the vessel type.
- Structure according to the ABS, Lloyds, DNV, or GL
scantling rules as is appropriate to the vessel's structure or
location.
- Power vessel stability per
International Standards Organization (ISO-12217) criteria for ocean
service.
- Sailing vessel stability per
International Standards Organization (ISO) Stability Index (STIX)
criteria now used within the EU.
- For passenger vessels, stability and safety per the US Code of
Federal Regulations according to the service category required, or
according to other locally applicable criteria.
Ocean crossing capability, strength, durability,
excellent sea keeping, all are considered to be requirements for each of our
designs. The strength of our boats is calculated per the ABS
classification requirements. Stability is per the yacht and commercial vessel
standard within the EU.
It should be noted that for private yachts within the US,
there are no requirements for stability or for structure. However even
for vessels built and used within the US, we feel it is essential that
yachts be held to the above standards as a minimum.
Construction Support Services
We ordinarily recommend that plans be submitted to
three hand-picked yards for their construction estimates. We have worked with a variety of builders
in a number of places worldwide. We are therefore
location agnostic, and will try to match a project with an appropriate
builder, even if that may be outside the US.
During the
Construction Phase of the process, there may be various
requests for additional design / construction related services in support of
construction. We are available as owner's representative during the
construction of our boats, and although we don't get into project management
per se, we do certainly follow through during construction of the yacht whenever
we are asked to do
so.
Additional Drawings, Documents, Schematics...
Ordinarily, system schematics and other 'shop' drawings
are developed in-house by the builder as needed during construction.
However on occasion the owner or builder may request that the designer
provide additional drawings to illustrate specialized features or other
details, or possibly to develop System
Schematics or other illustrations in support of construction.
The need to pursue any additional
Shop Drawings or other documentation will thus depend on the owner's wishes, possibly
in order to have more control over the construction process, etc. or may
depend on the builder's requirement for additional detail if they do not
have an in-house ability to generate shop drawings and schematics.
For passenger vessels or other commercial craft, there
may be the requirement to provide additional drawings and reports to the
USCG in order to document structure and stability compliance with the
provisions of US CFR-46.
When a vessel is destined for construction and use
within the European Union, we can prepare documentation that makes the CE
Mark paperwork a relatively easy process for the EU builder.
We work equally well with the metric system or the
Imperial measurement system, according to the requirements of the project or
the location where the vessel will be built. If an owner wishes to
pursue any of these various Construction Support Services, we will be
pleased to separately quote the costs involved as needed.
NC Cutting Files
Without question, the most valuable Construction Support
Service we can provide is to develop
NC Cutting Files in order to automate a portion of the vessel's
construction.
What is NC...? It simply means Numerically
Controlled...
By this method one can use a
numerically driven plasma cutter to create frames and plates for a metal
vessel, or use an NC driven router to cut mould frames for a wood or
composite superstructure. It is even possible to carve an entire
male plug or female mold out of foam for use in building a composite superstructure,
directly from the computer model that was created during the design of the
boat.
This leverages the work already done
in order to
create the computer model, provides a significant labor savings to the
yard, and dramatically improves accuracy of construction. With NC
cutting, the labor saved during fabrication of a metal hull will easily
pay for the cost of developing the NC cutting files, usually several times
over.
In other words NC cutting is an opportunity to effect a true
cost savings
and to even "earn back" a portion of the original cost of
having developed a new vessel design.
The Role of the Computer
The Process: We use
Maxsurf, a hull modeling and analysis program developed by Formation
Design Systems in Australia. With Maxsurf a preliminary hull model is
quickly generated and an initial round of hydrostatics, stability, and
performance calculations performed to see where the design can be improved.
The great thing about this kind
of approach is that the computer generated model allows the design to be
enhanced quickly at an early stage of design before it has become fixed, or
even to be modified without too much fuss later in the process.
In fact, without such an easily used computer modeling tool (as compared
to manual drafting) those subtle refinements would rarely be
undertaken even if given a substantial budget. Manually done
drawings simply take too much
time to make substantial changes.
Several other benefits are also
evident. For example, via the computer generated model
it is easy to assure that the surfaces are developable, so building a metal
or plywood hull is made simpler.
A substantial benefit of having
created a computer model of the hull is that the vessel's structure can
also be computer generated and NC cut.
By this method, having detailed the hull plating and structure, the parts
are nested onto available plate sizes. The completed plate nestings are then sent to
the metal cutters - usually by email...! This is extremely
convenient since the cutter can receive the information immediately in order
to start the work. When completed, the cutters have a "boat kit" that
can be shipped wherever needed.
For more information about this process and our work-stream, please review our CAD
Design Stream article.
The Savings: Among professional builders,
there will often be a difference in the amount of labor savings they estimate
when NC cutting is used, primarily due to each builder's varying familiarity with
computer cutting.
When
building a metal boat in a production environment, assuming one-off
construction, industry feedback is generally that NC cutting will save some
35% to 50% of the
hull fabrication labor. The percentage of
fabrication labor saved by an amateur owner-builder is dramatically greater. If the project is repeated, the potential
labor savings are greater still.
For example, consider that lofting is
eliminated, as are templating for frame and plate patterns.
Other Benefits:
Via NC cutting an extremely accurate fit results. For a metal hull
this means
there will be far less distortion during the weld-up.
For construction in other materials such as GRP, NC cutting nearly
eliminates the labor required for mold construction. An entire hull
and superstructure mold can be carved by five axis NC router directly from the
computer model, avoiding nearly all tooling labor.
A builder can also pre-cut glass fiber or
carbon fiber cloth, especially useful with 'pre-preg' cloth (cloth that is pre-impregnated with resin and post-cured
by UV or by heat). Where the materials cost is high, the improved
efficiency will quickly offset the
cost of having developed the structure via computer modeling.
Yet another use of this technology is for
prototyping. With the computer generated model of the hull and superstructure
already having been created, it is a simple matter to make a scaled down
model for towing tank testing, or to verify the styling of
the yacht in three dimensions. For more detail on all of this, please see
the article: Computer Cutting for Boatbuilding.
Why Bother to Develop A New Design...?
As you may have surmised from
the above, there is a fair bit of work involved in designing a boat well,
even if it is a simple one!
Given the number of designs
that already exist it may seem a little bit wild to commission a new yacht
design. On the other hand, it is an unquestionable delight to see one's
ideas turned into one's own personal yacht.
You may be surprised to
know that the cost of developing a new yacht design is less than a yacht broker's
typical fee
simply to purchase an existing yacht...! I will repeat that in
case you missed it: The cost of custom
yacht design is less than a yacht broker's
fee...!
Further, as a percentage of the
yacht's cost, when comparing the price of a stock design
vs. a custom design, the
difference is quite small. If you also consider that a custom design will be
tailored to ones particular requirements, rather than being an
"off-the-shelf" solution, the difference in satisfaction may well
be worth that small
difference in cost. This is especially so if a custom designed yacht
will serve its purpose for a longer time than one built to a stock design,
in which case the cost of custom design work will have paid off many times over.
Is It Proven?
The question
inevitably comes up: " Is it a proven design?"
The answer is an unqualified
"Yes!"
The basic principles of boat
design, while seemingly complex, are well established. If faithfully
attended to, the success of a new vessel is assured, and the result will
nearly always be an improvement on what has been done before on existing
designs. Where unusual features are incorporated, tank testing can
provide valuable insight as to vessel behavior; performance; stability;
seakeeping; etc.
What ultimately
makes a boat a success is whether the vessel is safe, seaworthy, sea kindly,
beautiful to behold, and above all, whether the vessel satisfies the
originally stated wishes of the owner.
Our Approach to Boat Design
We work with ocean capable yachts both power and sail in all materials. Our aim is to engender
superior aesthetics along with safe and comfortable boating. We want to "raise the bar" regarding what is
expected of a marine design office. We provide a
thorough analysis of performance and structure, an appropriate form and
function, and an overall quality within the resulting vessel.
Most importantly, we strive for a pleasant experience during the design
and building process, and for long term owner satisfaction with the
resulting vessel. We use the most up to date methods, including software
optimized for
hull modeling, stability and performance analyses, and detailing the
vessel's structure. With this, we can offer an economical NC cutting file package
to pre-cut that structure.
Our goal is to provide a complete "design service" from the point of
imagining a new vessel, through creating the ideal solution to those
conjurings. Our specific task is to take a new boat design all the way
from 'napkin sketch' to building plans, and when requested to also provide
the various "construction support services" noted above.
Where To Begin?
The place to start the design process is to
first create an owner's specification, or "mission statement." This can be as simple as
a paragraph to describe the intended vessel, or possibly a simple list of
desired features such as preferences for rig, power,
equipment, materials of construction, overall size, accommodations, budget,
project timing, and so forth.
The owner's 'mission statement' need not be elaborate, since
the particulars will always follow from the general parameters...
It can be sent by fax, email or by letter. While sketches or design
examples are not at all needed, if preliminary sketches or
inspiring examples are available,
certainly they can be included.
Your 'mission statement' becomes our "Owner
Specification." Once I've understood your requirements I will provide our usual
written 'Design Proposal' - usually by return email or if necessary by letter or fax.
Our Design Proposal is offered free of charge and implies no obligation
whatever. At this point it is just good information for your planning
purposes...
In order to pursue a design inquiry in greater detail,
please feel free to contact me
for more information or to request a Design Proposal. You may be surprised to discover that creating a new yacht
design costs less than you think. It is by far the most rewarding path
to long term boat ownership, and the process itself can be quite a lot of
fun...!
For preliminary info on the cost of custom yacht
design check out our web article on Design Costs.
If you determine that a
new yacht design is the best path toward finding 'the right boat' -
we are ready to do so!
What do our clients think...? Please review some
of their Testimonials to find out...
Professional Memberships
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Member
Royal Institution
of Naval Architects |
Member
Society of Naval Architects
and Marine Engineers |
Member
Society of Boat
and Yacht Designers |
Member
Metal Boat
Society |
Member
American Boat
and Yacht Council |
