To Draw a Boat, Part 2

Magic Discs and Shark Noses

Last month, we discussed “burning bilges” -- the fire one needs deep down in his gut to be a success drawing boats. We then went over ten easy steps to “get to the top” -- and the letdown thereafter. In this exciting installment we look inside the boat design business.

A Glamorous Profession?

Every industry, including the boat design business, is infected with “posers” -- people who think it would really be neat to be able to say they “design yachts” at cocktail parties or think they will get rich quick or feel they can spend every day playing with boats.  I receive resumes all the time from guys (and gals) graduating from the top naval architectural/engineering colleges in the country looking for their “dream” job.  I have interviewed a good number of these “wannabes” over the years who profess that all they ever wanted to do was design boats. I can tell you that, except for very, very few, they do not have “the fire.” Of dozens interviewed over the years I’ve hired only two.  

I will never forget interviewing two guys from one of the most prestigious naval architectural colleges in the world.  Both expressed strong desires to be “yacht designers.”  Both guys showed up at our office for interviews with a very high level of enthusiasm.  As I showed them through the office and explained just what it is we do, I could see their enthusiasm waning faster than a Florida barometer during hurricane season.  It was a big letdown for these guys when they realized that they would spend the majority of their time belly up to the drawing board or a computer screen/key pad drawing boats.  With their high level of education, these guys felt they were too dammed good to “draw boats.”       

Playing with Mice

In this age of creeping mega byteism computers have, slowly and sadly, altered the art of drawing boats (and, done the traditional way, art it is).  With the powerful computers and purpose-designed software available to us today, virtually any turkey who can punch a key board or play with mice can draw a boat with little or no knowledge of the principles behind those drawings. This is dangerous -- akin to giving a Lamborghini to a camel driver -- and has resulted in a good number of disasters that would not have occurred if the “designer” was fully qualified.          

Nowadays, it is possible to do 100% of the drawings necessary for a complete design package “on the tube” without having to know anything about India ink or pounce or French curves or spline weights or “ducks.”  This results in clinically clean, perfect drawings …which have absolutely no character. A computer can never include the subtleties of a hand done drawing, and, in fact, a computer excels at removing these subtleties. It is these subtleties that determine the character of the drawing and give the drawing personality.  

In a hand done drawing, not only do the lines on the paper or Mylar have character but the drawing itself has its own character. It’s like the memories a veteran tie which has attended countless outstanding meals (with bits of each meal embedded in its fabric) evokes. Velum or Mylar does the same.  There is where the cat jumped on wet ink.  Here is a gravy spot from one of the numerous TV dinners consumed while the drawing was taking shape. That little spot of red is where you pricked your finger with the dividers.  

Yes, an original hand done drawing when it’s finished probably has been bled on, drooled on, sneezed on (or worse). The drawing becomes a visual record of the trials and tribulations involved in putting a boat design together.  It’s an “original” from the soul (or sole if the drawing happens to hit the deck for some reason). 

The Magic Disk

The difference between computer drawings and hand done drawings is the difference between a beautiful letter written in perfect script and a form letter spit out of a printer.  Doing an outboard profile on a computer is like producing a Da Vinci painting on a plotter. Sadly and inexorably, computer drawings will become the standard in boat design as more builders switch to CAD/CAM cutters which can pump out pieces of fiberglass or wood or aluminum directly from a magic disk.  About 15 years ago, our office was dragged, kicking and screaming, into the computer age and, to be honest, I have had mixed feelings about it to this day.

Boyish Wonder

There is a very thin line dividing boat designers from boat builders and brokers.  The fact is, boat builders and brokers are simply boat designers who can’t (or don’t like to) draw. Rather than get their jollies putting funny lines on paper, builders revel in taking abstract lines on paper and putting them together to form a real boat.  Oftentimes, yacht brokers can have more fun than boat designers and often do spend every day playing with boats.  Over the years, I have met countless people in the business who have never lost the boyish wonder of messing with boats. 

 I am talking about people like (to name but a few) Bob Derecktor (who both designed and built boats) his son Paul, David Ross of Burger Boat Company, Pat Sullivan  and Dick Peterson of Mikelson Yachts,  Fritz DeVoot of Feadship, Roberto Martins of Riostar (Brazil), Arno Paupitz (Brazil), B.J. Johansen, Mike Joyce of Colonial Yacht Sales, Don Canavan of Rex Yacht Sales, Jay Coyle of Yachting Magazine, the Lo brothers of Cheoy Lee in Hong Kong and everybody in my office. That these people have succeeded -- and succeeded big time -- is testimony to “the fire” each of them has in their bilges. Do you question “the fire?”

Next time you bump into any of these people at a Boat Show, shake their hand and, at the same time, put your other hand on their belly (Don’t worry! Tell them I said it was “OK”!) I guarantee you will feel the heat.

Shovel or Shark?

A few years ago one of the pre-eminent automobile stylists in the world who worked for one of the “big three” (I’d love to be more specific, but I can’t) visited my office.  At the time, a new car had just been introduced for which he was the chief designer.  He told me a story about the front end of this car which, as it turned out, had a “shovel nose” shape with a “jut jaw” (the lower edge protruding further forward than the upper edge) producing a swept back surface.  His boss, the guy in charge of all styling for the company felt strongly that a “shark nose” profile (with the upper edge leading the lower edge) was the way to go.  

This guy fought with his boss endlessly until it was finally decided that they would let the wind tunnel determine which was best.  As it turned out, the big cheese’s “shark nose” design was aerodynamically better than the shovel nose configuration.  But so passionate was this designer about his work -- so hot was “the fire” -- that he fudged the wind tunnel results to make his configuration appear more efficient! This is exactly the kind of guy that succeeds in the design business.

And so, before you sign up for that Yacht Design School or submit resumes to design offices, check deep down in your bilges to really see what is going on there. If “the fire” rages, by all means sign up with the school or send your resumes.  But if what is found below is but an ember or mere warmth … well, I hear there are some good positions available for cotton stuffers in aspirin bottling plants.

(Reprinted with permission of Regina Fexas.)

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