On Design

“I can see from the little acquaintance that I have with using AI programs to make music, that what you spend nearly all your time doing is trying to stop the system becoming mind numbingly mediocre. You really feel the pull of the averaging effect of AI, given that what you are receiving is a kind of averaged out distillation of stuff from a lot of different sources.” Brian Eno

It’s that single measure in the mix that contributes more to your enjoyment on the water than any other piece of equipment or design feature. You can’t buy it at the chandlery, you can't order it online and you’re not likely to see it in the inventory or the specifications. It’s a hull form that’s conceived at the design stage to maximise waterline length, quiet the motion in a bumpy anchorage, dampen pitching motion in a head sea and enhance optimum all round performance. It’s a...

First, design is imagining a future and working toward it with intelligence and cleverness. We use design to close the gap between the situation we have and the one we desire. Second, design is a practice built upon making things for other people. We are all on the road together. These two things dictate our relationship to the world and our bond to one another. They form the foundations of the design practice, so our work should revolve around these truths.

There is something mysterious that we call quality that is inherent in some objects, in some actions, in some works of art. We intuitively know it's in there but difficult to identify, to point to. Quality is somewhat subjective and potentially deceptive in the hands of a maker with not so good intentions. Apparently the ancient Greek philosophers had quite a bit to say on the topic. But can we be sure their thoughts on the matter have been faithfully and comprehensively translated over the...

As our technologies advance at an ever faster pace the distinction between human made technologies and natures "technologies" is increasingly difficult to delineate. Natural technologies have demands and trajectories. And so do our human made technologies. "Sometimes we should surrender to technology's lead and bask in its abundance, and sometimes we should try to bend its natural course to meet our own. We don't have to do everything that the technology demands, but we can learn to work with...

"If we start being too certain about anything it means we're missing something"; The above is a quote from Iain MacGilchrist, neurologist and author writing in his book "The Master and His Emissary." Do we understand the physics of what lifts our boats to windward and allows us to fly on foils? How can we be certain and is it even a good idea to be certain? Most of us used to think that mainsails with a parabolic head were the most efficient plan form. I imagine the logic behind that was that...

I used to think of the relationship between the hulls and the platform as one of three parameters we work through in the design process to determine the sailing characteristics of a new design, the other two parameters being the displacement to length ratio and the power to weight ratio. I now see the relationship between these parameters very differently, largely due to the way the modern cruising catamaran has evolved and continues to evolve. The displacement to length ratio and the power to...

I have struggled with this one. I think if you built an asymmetrical car or aircraft it would just look weird. But when I see a sports car with the driver's seat and steering column on the centreline axis it doesn't feel right to me. When people want to put the companionway door to one side or or other on a cat, or only have transom access on one side of the cockpit I'm not opposed to the idea on a practical level but I do feel a little bit queazy about the aesthetics. And yet proas are mostly...

On Form and Function The basic three box shape of motor cars hasn't changed in more than a hundred years in spite of the changes in technology they employ. Compare that with the way phones have evolved over the same period. One thing that really fascinates me is the variety of forms that boat hulls take in different cultures, even when those cultures are geographically adjacent and the hulls they build are used for very similar purposes, catching the same species of fish for example. Are these...

There has been a number of times over my time in yacht design where I have had to reflect on my decision making and in some cases completely revise some aspect of my thinking that I had long held to be true and unquestionable. It’s important not to hold too tightly to ideas and concepts what is true today may not be true tomorrow. And it may not even have been true in the first place. The following passage from Bruno Munaris’ Design as Art” sums it up eloquently.