| You might think that yacht design is a very | | | | <strong>Three wins!</strong> |
| specialized business best left to the professionals. | | | | I'm not a technical person by any means, I work in |
| Well, I used to think that too and when I built my | | | | the retail business, but I have to say I surprised |
| first yacht in 1990 I commissioned a professional | | | | myself with the yacht designs I have produced. One |
| yacht designer to draw up the plans for me. It cost | | | | of my designs, that I produced for a member of my |
| me over eleven percent of the overall cost of the | | | | club and that he built a year later, has won the 6 |
| project. | | | | meter challenge cup at our club for three years |
| <strong>I wasn't happy</strong> | | | | running. |
| And, to tell the truth, I wasn't that happy with the | | | | <strong>Experiment</strong> |
| plans I finally ended up with:a) They arrived four | | | | I'm now in the middle of my next design. Designing |
| weeks later than promisedb) They lacked significant | | | | your own boat gives you the opportunity to |
| detailc) The designer was very reluctant to make | | | | experiment with shapes and curves. And if the |
| changes that I wanted, and that I felt to be | | | | software you are usung has the built-in resistance |
| necessaryd) They were expensive | | | | and hydrostatic calculation modules, so much the |
| <strong>Easy to learn</strong> | | | | better. This will enable you to quickly and easily test |
| I decided I was never going to make that mistake | | | | the effects that any changes you might make to |
| again. If I want a yacht design, then now, I draw it | | | | your design will have on speed and displacement. |
| up for myself. And it's not that difficult. I was rather | | | | I'd never go back to using a paid designer. Drawing |
| apprehensive when I started but, with the modern, | | | | up my own yacht designs is the best investment I've |
| highly flexible software that's now available it was | | | | ever made in my yachting career and certainly one |
| easy to learn the fundamentals and then build on that | | | | of the most satisfying. |
| knowledge as I progressed. | | | | |