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Tony Castro is a world-class designer who has a lifetime of experience. Like many of his peers Tony's career started with racing yachts and his designs have won no less than 5 world championships.

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Yachting Monthly

• Digital edition

25 of the best small sailing boat designs

• Nic Compton
• August 10, 2022

Nic Compton looks at the 25 yachts under 40ft which have had the biggest impact on UK sailing

There’s nothing like a list of best small sailing boat designs to get the blood pumping.

Everyone has their favourites, and everyone has their pet hates.

This is my list of the 25 best small sailing boat designs, honed down from the list of 55 yachts I started with.

I’ve tried to be objective and have included several boats I don’t particularly like but which have undeniably had an impact on sailing in the UK – and yes, it would be quite a different list if I was writing about another country.

If your favourite isn’t on the best small sailing boat designs list, then send an email to [email protected] to argue the case for your best-loved boat.

Ready? Take a deep breath…

Credit: Bob Aylott

Laurent Giles is best known for designing wholesome wooden cruising boats such as the Vertue and Wanderer III , yet his most successful design was the 26ft Centaur he designed for Westerly, of which a remarkable 2,444 were built between 1969 and 1980.

It might not be the prettiest boat on the water, but it sure packs a lot of accommodation.

The Westerly Centaur was one of the first production boats to be tank tested, so it sails surprisingly well too. Jack L Giles knew what he was doing.

Colin Archer

Credit: Nic Compton

Only 32 Colin Archer lifeboats were built during their designer’s lifetime, starting with Colin Archer in 1893 and finishing with Johan Bruusgaard in 1924.

Yet their reputation for safety spawned hundreds of copycat designs, the most famous of which was Sir Robin Knox-Johnston ’s Suhaili , which he sailed around the world singlehanded in 1968-9.

The term Colin Archer has become so generic it is often used to describe any double-ender – so beware!

Contessa 32

Assent ‘s performance in the 1979 Fastnet Race makes the Contessa 32 a worth entry in the 25 best small sailing boat designs list. Credit: Nic Compton

Designed by David Sadler as a bigger alternative to the popular Contessa 26, the Contessa 32 was built by Jeremy Rogers in Lymington from 1970.

The yacht’s credentials were established when Assent , the Contessa 32 owned by Willy Kerr and skippered by his son Alan, became the only yacht in her class to complete the deadly 1979 Fastnet Race .

When UK production ceased in 1983, more than 700 had been built, and another 20 have been built since 1996.

Cornish Crabber 24

It seemed a daft idea to build a gaff-rigged boat in 1974, just when everyone else had embraced the ‘modern’ Bermudan rig.

Yet the first Cornish Crabber 24, designed by Roger Dongray, tapped into a feeling that would grow and grow and eventually become a movement.

The 24 was followed in 1979 by the even more successful Shrimper 19 – now ubiquitous in almost every harbour in England – and the rest is history.

Drascombe Lugger

Credit: David Harding

There are faster, lighter and more comfortable boats than a Drascombe Lugger.

And yet, 57 years after John Watkinson designed the first ‘lugger’ (soon changed to gunter rig), more than 2,000 have been built and the design is still going strong.

More than any other boat, the Drascombe Lugger opened up dinghy cruising, exemplified by Ken Duxbury’s Greek voyages in the 1970s and Webb Chiles’s near-circumnavigation on Chidiock Tichbourne I and II .

The 26ft Eventide. Credit: David Harding

It’s been described as the Morris Minor of the boating world – except that the majority of the 1,000 Eventides built were lovingly assembled by their owners, not on a production line.

After you’d tested your skills building the Mirror dinghy, you could progress to building a yacht.

And at 24ft long, the Eventide packed a surprising amount of living space.

It was Maurice Griffiths’ most successful design and helped bring yachting to a wider audience.

You either love ’em or you hate ’em – motorsailers, that is.

The Fisher 30 was brought into production in 1971 and was one of the first out-and-out motorsailers.

With its long keel , heavy displacement and high bulwarks, it was intended to evoke the spirit of North Sea fishing boats.

It might not sail brilliantly but it provided an exceptional level of comfort for its size and it would look after you when things turned nasty.

Significantly, it was also fitted with a large engine.

Credit: Rupert Holmes

It should have been a disaster.

In 1941, when the Scandinavian Sailing Federation couldn’t choose a winner for their competition to design an affordable sailing boat, they gave six designs to naval architect Tord Sundén and asked him to combine the best features from each.

The result was a sweet-lined 25ft sloop which was very seaworthy and fast.

The design has been built in GRP since the 1970s and now numbers more than 4,000, with fleets all over the world.

Credit: Kevin Barber

There’s something disconcerting about a boat with two unstayed masts and no foresails, and certainly the Freedom range has its detractors.

Yet as Garry Hoyt proved, first with the Freedom 40, designed in collaboration with Halsey Herreshoff, and then the Freedom 33 , designed with Jay Paris, the boats are simple to sail (none of those clattering jib sheets every time you tack) and surprisingly fast – at least off the wind .

Other ‘cat ketch’ designs followed but the Freedoms developed their own cult following.

Hillyard 12-tonner

The old joke about Hillyards is that you won’t drown on one but you might starve to death getting there.

And yet this religious boatbuilder from Littlehampton built up to 800 yachts which travelled around the world – you can find them cruising far-flung destinations.

Sizes ranged from 2.5 to 20 tons, though the 9- and 12-ton are best for long cruises.

The innovations on Jester means she is one of the best small sailing boat designs in the last 100 years. Credit: Ewen Southby-Tailyour

Blondie Hasler was one of the great sailing innovators and Jester was his testing ground.

She was enclosed, carvel planked and had an unstayed junk rig.

Steering was via a windvane system Hasler created.

Hasler came second in the first OSTAR , proving small boats can achieve great things.

Moody kicked off the era of comfort-oriented boats with its very first design.

The Moody 33, designed by Angus Primrose, had a wide beam and high topside to produce a voluminous hull .

The centre cockpit allowed for an aft cabin, resulting in a 33-footer with two sleeping cabins – an almost unheard of concept in 1973 –full-beam heads and spacious galley.

What’s more, her performance under sail was more than adequate for cruising.

Finally, here was a yacht that all the family could enjoy.

Continues below…

What makes a boat seaworthy?

What characteristics make a yacht fit for purpose? Duncan Kent explores the meaning of 'seaworthy' and how hull design and…

How boat design is evolving

Will Bruton looks at the latest trends and innovations shaping the boats we sail

How keel type affects performance

James Jermain looks at the main keel types, their typical performance and the pros and cons of each

Boat handling: How to use your yacht’s hull shape to your advantage

Whether you have a long keel or twin keel rudders, there will be pros and cons when it comes to…

Nicholson 32

Credit: Genevieve Leaper

Charles Nicholson was a giant of the wooden boat era but one of his last designs – created with his son Peter – was a pioneering fibreglass boat that would become an enduring classic.

With its long keel and heavy displacement, the Nicholson 32 is in many ways a wooden boat built in fibreglass – and indeed the design was based on Nicholson’s South Coast One Design.

From 1966 to 1977, the ‘Nic 32’ went through 11 variations.

Credit: Hallberg-Rassy

In the beginning there was… the Rasmus 35. This was the first yacht built by the company that would become Hallberg-Rassy and which would eventually build more than 9,000 boats.

The Rasmus 35, designed by Olle Enderlein, was a conservative design, featuring a centre cockpit, long keel and well-appointed accommodation.

Some 760 boats were built between 1967 and 1978.

Credit: Larry & Lin Pardey

Lyle Hess was ahead of his time when he designed Renegade in 1949.

Despite winning the Newport to Ensenada race, the 25ft wooden cutter went largely unnoticed.

Hess had to build bridges for 15 years before Larry Pardey asked him to design the 24ft Seraffyn , closely based on Renegade ’s lines but with a Bermudan rig.

Pardey’s subsequent voyages around the world cemented Hess’s reputation and success of the Renegade design.

Would the Rustler 36 make it on your best small sailing boat list? Credit: Rustler Yachts

Six out of 18 entries for the 2018 Golden Globe Race (GGR) were Rustler 36s, with the top three places all going to Rustler 36 skippers.

It was a fantastic endorsement for a long-keel yacht designed by Holman & Pye 40 years before.

Expect to see more Rustler 36s in the 2022 edition of the GGR!

It was Ted Heath who first brought the S&S 34 to prominence with his boat Morning Cloud .

In 1969 the yacht won the Sydney to Hobart Race, despite being one of the smallest boats in the race.

Other epic S&S 34 voyages include the first ever single-handed double circumnavigation by Jon Sanders in 1981

Credit: Colin Work

The Contessa 32 might seem an impossible boat to improve upon, but that’s what her designer David Sadler attempted to do in 1979 with the launch of the Sadler 32 .

That was followed two years later by the Sadler 29 , a tidy little boat that managed to pack in six berths in a comfortable open-plan interior.

The boat was billed as ‘unsinkable’, with a double-skinned hull separated by closed cell foam buoyancy.

What’s more, it was fast, notching up to 12 knots.

Credit: Dick Durham/Yachting Monthly

Another modern take on the Contessa theme was the Sigma 33, designed by David Thomas in 1979.

A modern underwater body combined with greater beam and higher freeboard produced a faster boat with greater accommodation.

And, like the Contessa, the Sigma 33 earned its stripes at the 1979 Fastnet, when two of the boats survived to tell the tale.

A lively one-design fleet soon developed on the Solent which is still active to this day.

A replica of Joshua Slocum’s Spray . Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

The boat Joshua Slocum used for his first singlehanded circumnavigation of the world wasn’t intended to sail much further than the Chesapeake Bay.

The 37ft Spray was a rotten old oyster sloop which a friend gave him and which he had to spend 13 months fixing up.

Yet this boxy little tub, with its over-optimistic clipper bow, not only took Slocum safely around the world but has spawned dozens of modern copies that have undertaken long ocean passages.

Credit: James Wharram Designs

What are boats for if not for dreaming? And James Wharram had big dreams.

First he sailed across the Atlantic on the 23ft 6in catamaran Tangaroa .

He then built the 40ft Rongo on the beach in Trinidad (with a little help from French legend Bernard Moitessier) and sailed back to the UK.

Then he drew the 34ft Tangaroa (based on Rongo ) for others to follow in his wake and sold 500 plans in 10 years.

Credit: Graham Snook/Yachting Monthly

The Twister was designed in a hurry.

Kim Holman wanted a boat at short notice for the 1963 season and, having had some success with his Stella design (based on the Folkboat), he rushed out a ‘knockabout cruising boat for the summer with some racing for fun’.

The result was a Bermudan sloop that proved nigh on unbeatable on the East Anglian circuit.

It proved to be Holman’s most popular design with more than 200 built.

Credit: Alamy Stock Photo

Laurent Giles’s design No15 was drawn in 1935 for a Guernsey solicitor who wanted ‘a boat that would spin on a sixpence and I could sail single-handed ’.

What the young Jack Giles gave him was a pretty transom-sterned cutter, with a nicely raked stem.

Despite being moderate in every way, the boat proved extremely able and was soon racking up long distances, including Humphrey Barton’s famous transatlantic crossing on Vertue XXXV in 1950.

Wanderer II and III

Credit: Thies Matzen

Eric and Susan Hiscock couldn’t afford a Vertue, so Laurent Giles designed a smaller, 21ft version for them which they named Wanderer II .

They were back a few years later, this time wanting a bigger version: the 30ft Wanderer III .

It was this boat they sailed around the world between 1952-55, writing articles and sailing books along the way.

In doing so, they introduced a whole generation of amateur sailors to the possibilities of long-distance cruising.

Westerly 22

The origins of Westerly Marine were incredibly modest.

Commander Denys Rayner started building plywood dinghies in the 1950s which morphed into a 22ft pocket cruiser called the Westcoaster.

Realising the potential of fibreglass, in 1963 he adapted the design to create the Westerly 22, an affordable cruising boat with bilge keels and a reverse sheer coachroof.

Some 332 boats were built to the design before it was relaunched as the Nomad (267 built).

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6 m cabin launch design #228, ‘ila’ in a brisk wind design #98, sail plan for design #82a, ‘rain bear,’ ready for a for a coastal cruise., paul gartside is a boatbuilder and designer currently based on long island, new york. we build in wood using both traditional and modern methods, provide custom design services in all materials, and offer a catalogue of stock plans through this web site., custom boatbuilding.

Visit the custom boatbuilding section to see the wide variety of boats that have taken shape in our shop.

Contact us for custom drawings and custom building, or browse our Stock Plans for a sense of what is possible.

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Plans & Dreams: Ready-to-Build Boat Design Books

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Water Craft  magazine from the United Kingdom publishes a complete set of Paul Gartside boat plans in every issue. Subscribers can build right from the pages of the magazine. With each issue, we offer a special discount for digital download of the same full plan set.

September/October 2024:

This issue of Water Craft magazine contains full plans for the 13 ft. 6 in. Canoe Design #282 . 

The three sheets of scale drawings for these plans are available by digital download for the special price of US$50.00 (regular list price is US$95.00). These pdf files may be printed to scale at any good copy shop. Sheet size is 34 in. x 24 in. This offer lasts until October 30th 2024. (Discount applied at checkout.)

13 ft. 6 in. Canadian Canoe Design #282

November/december 2024:.

This issue of Water Craft magazine contains full plans for the 15 ft. outboard skiff, 'Floosy' Design #283 . 

The three sheets of scale drawings for these plans are available by digital download for the special price of US$50.00 (regular list price is US$140.00). These pdf files may be printed to scale at any good copy shop. Sheet size is 34 in. x 24 in. This offer lasts until December 31st 2024. (Discount applied at checkout.)

15ft Flat Bottomed Runabout Design #283

Recent designs from the drawing board, special: full lines plan.

Half models are a perfect small-scale boat building project and a good first step towards creating the real thing. With a few hand tools and a quantity of well dried softwood, we are set for hours of absorbing work. For US$20 you may order the full Lines Plan of any of the designs in our catalog.  Type the name or number of your chosen plan in the note section of the shopping cart, and we will send a  PDF of that Lines Plan (1 sheet)  to you. 

Top 8 Best Boat Design Software in 2024 (Free & Paid)

Written by: 3DSourced

January 16, 2024

Whether you’re a student, a hobbyist, or a professional, finding the right software is the key first step to designing a boat. However, with such a wide range of programs available, you need to make sure you choose the best boat design software for you.

We usually talk about 3D software in relation to 3D printing, but 3D modeling techniques are used across many applications and industries, including boat design. In fact, 3D printing is becoming increasingly prevalent in the boat design industry, with one example being Tanaruz’s 3D printed boats .

Quick Overview

• Free!ship : Best Free Boat Design Software for Linux
• Sailcut CAD : Free Sailboat Design Software
• Bearboat SP : Free Boat Designer for Small Boats & Kayaks
• DELFTship : Intuitive Free Boat Design Tool with Professional Option
• Fusion 360 : Best Free Boat Design Software for Beginners & Mac
• SketchUp : Best Boat Design App for iPad
• Autoship : Best for Naval & Marine Architecture, Best for Windows
• Solidworks : Best for Aluminum Boat Design Software & Best for Yachts

In this guide, we review several 3D ship design software to help you do just that. We’ll take a close look at both free and professional options, so that you’ll be able to find a suitable program regardless of your budget and experience.

Read more: our feature story on 3D printed boats

Best Free Boat Design Software

1. freeship – best free boat design software for linux.

Completely free and open source 

Subdivision modeling to design any hull shape

Can export designs in a range of file formats

Can submit support and feature requests 

Positive reviews from users 

Can be tricky for novices to get used to 

Not available on Mac 

Unlike most of the boat building software on our list, Free!ship isn’t developed by a company, but rather by an individual called Marven with a desire to make boat design accessible to anyone.

Free!ship is a surface modeling program for designing ships and yachts, using subdivision surfaces modeling rather than NURBs, providing the freedom to design hulls of any shape. 

Available on Windows and Linux, you can get started with this free CAD software by automatically generating a basic boat structure to use as a template. You can then easily use the nodes on the structure, as well as a variety of tools like curve, split, collapse, and insert plane, to reshape the design to your liking.

You need to fill in certain parameters, such as:

• Boat length
• Beam length
• Longitudinal and vertical direction

Once you’ve done that, you can view your boat design in four different perspectives and every angle to help you finalize your structure.

Free!ship offers the option to fill out support requests, feature requests, and report bugs. However, bear in mind that design beginners may be better off with a professional free ship design software that has more support options and tutorials available, as you don’t get any training with Free!ship.

2. Sailcut CAD – Free Sailboat Design Software

Specialist sailboat design software 

Easy to use node editing

Supports a variety of sail designs

Export designs in different file types including DXF files

Not suitable for designing other boat types

If you’re looking for a free small boat design software specifically geared towards designing sails and sailboats, you can’t go wrong with Sailcut CAD .

This design and plotting software can be used to design the sail, hull, and rail of a boat, in addition to precisely computing panel development in flat sheets.

You can use it for a variety of different sail types, including wing sails, cross cut, twist foot cut, vertical cut, mitre cut, and radicul cut, so it’s a versatile tool that will suit virtually any sailboat designer.

The software provides a base design template that you can then edit and view in a variety of formats, including shaded, wireframe, and development. It provides control over all the key dimensions of your sailboat, such as boat length, gaff round, and seam width.

Sailcut provides documentation that explains how to use it for CAD as well as community mailing lists and a bug tracker where you can report issues.

3. Bearboat SP – Free Boat Designer for Small Boats & Kayaks 

Specialist kayak design software 

Simple to use 

Control all aspects of your design

Multiple view options

Advanced tools like wetting

Not suitable for larger boat designs

Dated interface 

Bearboat SP is a specialist kayak design software that can also be used to design other similar types of small boats.

People have been using Bearboat to design kayaks since 1998 – and it’s the most popular program for this specific type of boat design. 

It’s a fairly simple, no-frills software that makes it easy to get stuck straight in. You begin by filling in the core boat hull parameters, such as length, stability, and design deplacement, and then just click the ‘create’ button to generate your base kayak template. 

From there, you can go about making structural changes to aspects like shape seam, bow and stern seam height, and rockers parameters. You can also easily change dimensions using the nodes on the 2D wireframe design.

There are three viewing options – bird view, side view, and cross-section view – for inspecting your design from different perspectives, as well as options such as changing the color of the wireframe design for easier analysis. 

Advanced features include the ability to view the wetted surface and underwater area, and a drag spreadsheet that contains all the parameters of your boat design, making Bearboat SP a well-rounded boat design tool overall.

4. DELFTship – Intuitive Free Boat Design Tool with Professional Option

More up-to-date and intuitive than other free boat design software tools

Impressive model rendering

Professional license and extension options

Perform basic calculations to check buoyancy and other factors

Free version has limited features compared to paid version

DELFTship is another great free boat design software, and offers a somewhat more professional and up-to-date solution versus Sailcut and Free!ship, with more impressive renderings than other free programs.

This 3D hull form modeling program is very intuitive with a range of easy-to-use design features, including lots of nodes that make it simple to edit your base model just by dragging and dropping.

You can inspect your models from five different viewpoints and convert them to wireframes and other formats to better analyze structure. Features like the keel and rudder wizard make it simple to design additional components of your boat.

DELFTship provides an unlimited free version alongside a professional license that costs $160. You can also add on extensions and board stability analysis calculations upon request for additional fees.

Even without the paid license you can still use DELFTship free to perform basic hydrostatic calculations and resistance calculations to help improve the precision of your designs, making this one of the most impressive free boat design tools. 

5. Fusion 360 – Best Free Boat Design Software for Beginners & Mac

More beginner-friendly than other boat design software 

Lots of learning resources & tutorials

High quality, flexible 3D modeling tool

Impressive renderings

Available on Mac

Not a specialist boat hull design software

Unlike the other programs we’ve covered so far Fusion 360 is a general purpose 3D modeling software that’s not specifically made for boat designing. However, it’s still widely used in boat designing, and its more general nature has some advantages.

For starters, designing a boat is a fairly large and complex task, and the more specialist software like Free!ship and Bearboat SP are complex if you’re new to computer aided design. 

While Fusion 360 still has a learning curve, it’s one of the best designed, intuitive, and beginner-friendly 3D modeling software out there. On top of that, it has a huge range of learning resources and tutorials, great support, and a large user community, so it’s very popular among new designers.

In fact, there are a variety of YouTube videos and written tutorials showing how to use Fusion 360 for boat design and for different types of vessels, including yachts and canoes. These include videos showing how to design wooden boats , so it’s a good choice if you’re looking for a plywood boat design software.

Another benefit of Fusion 360 is that, unlike most naval architecture boat design software, it’s available on Mac. It even has iOS and Android apps that allow you to view designs and collaborate via your smartphone or tablet. 

Fusion 360 is also free for three years as long as you’re using it non-commercially.

Best Paid Boat Design Software 

6. sketchup – best boat design app for ipad.

• Price : $119 a year for the app (free online version available)

3D modeling iPad app

High quality renderings

Intuitive and beginner-friendly

Free online version available

Not specialized for boat design

SketchUp is another general purpose 3D software used for boat design. While it’s not one of the most widely used boat design programs, the reason it’s on our list is that it’s one of the few premier 3D CAD tools that has a fully-fledged mobile app for iPad.

While some programs like Fusion 360 have viewer apps, these don’t have the modeling tools of their desktop counterparts. However, with the SketchUp iPad app, you can enjoy advanced modeling on a tablet, and you can even get creative using an Apple Pencil stylus.

There are a variety of tutorials and videos showing how to design boats with SketchUp, and as a user-friendly software it’s a good option for beginners. SketchUp also boasts high quality renderings for producing 3D boat designs that you can easily share with anyone. 

While the SketchUp boat design app has a yearly fee, you can also use the software for free using the online-only version, or choose from a variety of desktop licenses that vary in terms of features and storage.

SketchUp also offers iPhone and Android apps, although these are more stripped back versions more suited to viewing and sharing designs on your mobile.

7. Autoship – Best for Naval & Marine Architecture, Best for Windows

• Price : upon quote 

Large software suite that covers the entire boat design pipeline

Used by professional boat manufacturers

Highly intuitive NURBs modeling

Comprehensive testing features and data management

Extensive training and support

Can be used to create load plans

Not available on Mac

Steep learning curve 

Autoship is a software suite designed for professional naval and marine architects that provides solutions for every aspect in the boat design process, from modeling to construction and load planning modules for more optimal loading.

In terms of design, Autoship software offers five different CAD/CAM solutions:

• Autoship Pro – a hull design and surface modeling program.
• Modelmaker – for creating 3D models of vessels and components.
• Autohydro Pro – for analyzing hydrostatics and stability of your models.
• Autoplate – a plate design, expansion, and management system.
• Autopower – for resistance and powering predictions.

So, you can create a package with any number of these programs based on your needs. The great thing about Autoship software is all the programs are fully integrated, so any changes made to your model integrate into each solution.

Autoship Pro is the primary design solution in this suite, with a vast array of advanced features for designing vessels. Based on NURBs modeling, the intuitive interface allows you to work in up to four views simultaneously with ten levels of zoom and unzoom for top precision.

Some of the impressive features of this vessel design software include extensive context menus to help speed up operations, the ability to color surfaces so it’s easy to pick out parts in complex designs, curvature displays for curves and surfaces, hydrostatic and resistance calculations, and strength assessment tools.

Overall, with its mix of powerful design, testing, and engineering features, Autoship is one of the most complete boat design software on the market.

8. Solidworks – Best for Aluminum Boat Design Software & Best for Yachts

• Price : upon quote

Solidworks is one of the most advanced 3D CAD/CAM software out there and is widely used across design and engineering industries, from automotive to aerospace as well as boat design. 

In fact, this software is used by a number of leading boat manufacturers. One such example is Kvichak Marine Industries, a Seattle-based maker of high quality aluminum vessels, including both passenger and industrial boats.

In this v i deo , the assistant chief engineer explains how Solidworks’ highly precise 3D modeling tools allow them to improve processes by spotting issues quicker and therefore improve efficiency, with the ability to inspect every element from the individual pipes within hulls to the connections within engines.

Solidworks’ extremely advanced and flexible modeling allows you to create any type of boat you like. There’s even an eBook that explains each step in designing a superyacht using Solidworks.

While this software is mostly used by professional companies, there are also numerous YouTube videos showing you how to design a boat with it, so it’s accessible to amateurs.

What is Boat Design Software?

A boat design software is a program used to sketch, plan, and model a boat in 3D. Popular boat design programs include Free!ship, Solidworks, Fusion 360, and Autoship.

What is naval architecture?

Naval architecture is the processing of designing and engineering marine vessels like ships and boats, as well as their parts. Naval architects also work in boat and ship repair. 

Do I need special software for designing boats?

You don’t need a special boat design software to design boats and ships. While there are a number of specialist boat design software tools out there, general 3D modeling CAD programs like Fusion 360 and AutoCAD are also used for this purpose. 

What Can You Do With Boat Software? 

All boat software have different features that determine what you can do with them. For example, certain programs are designed for creating certain types of boats, such as kayaks and sailboats, so this is the first consideration you need to make to find a suitable program.

More expensive programs typically offer a much wider range of features than paid versions. At the top end are industrial solutions like Autoship and Solidworks, which offer extremely high quality and flexible modeling tools and provide support for testing, manufacturing, and engineering processes, so they’re complete solutions. 

There are also software like DELFTship and Fusion 360 that provide both free and paid versions, so you can try out the free versions and then upgrade if you want the extra features available on the paid licenses.

Buying Guide – Things to consider when choosing boat software

Type of Boat

Boats come in all different shapes and sizes, and some software are specially built for designing certain types of boats. For example, Bearboat SP is primarily geared towards kayak designing, while Sailcut is for sailboats. 

On the other hand, general 3D modeling software like Fusion 360 and Solidworks are more flexible, so you could use it as a Yacht design software and for other types of boats. The benefits of this are the increased flexibility and beginner-friendliness, but these general programs can lack some of the more specialist features that the likes of Bearboat SP and Sailcut have.

Compatibility

The device you’re using is going to have an impact on what naval architecture software you use, as most programs only work on certain operating systems.

In fact, the majority of boat design software are only compatible with Windows. If you’re looking for a boat design software for Mac, Linux, or iPad, you may be best off using a more general purpose 3D modeling software like Fusion 360 or SketchUp.

3D Rendering & Graphic Quality

Free programs like Free!ship, Sailcut, and Bearboat SP are all great for creating precise boat designs at no expense, but in terms of graphics and 3D model rendering, they’re all very basic. 

This isn’t unusual when it comes to free programs, and if you’re not bothered about graphics then it’s no issue. However, if you do want to create higher quality models and renderings – which is especially important if you’re a student or aspiring professional boat designer – then you’ll need a program that provides this, such as Solidworks or Autoship.

Usability & Training

Boat design isn’t exactly a simple process, so if you’re a complete beginner, you’ll want a software that’s easier to get to grips with. 

The free boat design software we’ve covered are all fairly simple to use, but the level of intuitiveness and support varies. If you’re a complete newbie to computer design, you may want to go for a widely used modeling software like SketchUp or Fusion 360, both of which boast great support, large communities, and more tutorials than specialist boat structural design software.

Budget & Free Trial 

The price of boat design software can vary a lot, from free programs to expensive professional solutions like Solidworks and Autoship that can cost thousands, so bear this in mind. Many paid boat design software offer free trials, so you should definitely take advantage of this to try a program out.

What software is best for basic boat design?

Free!ship, Delftship, and Sailcut are all popular free software that allow you to create basic boat designs. 

How do you design a yacht?

If you want to design yachts, the first step is to find a high quality yacht designing software such as Solidworks or Autoship.

How do you become a boat architect / ship designer?

To be a boat architect or ship designer you need to first obtain a relevant degree, such as a BEng or MEng in naval architecture.

How much do yacht architects make?

Yacht and naval architects can make anywhere from $60,000 to $150,000 depending on their experience and position, with the average salary around $75,000.

Autoship, Solidworks, Maxsurf, and OrcaFlex are all popular marine design software that are used in professional ship design.

To become a boat designer you first need a degree in a relevant subject, such as naval architecture, ship science, or marine technology. 

The best way to learn how to make a boat hull in Solidworks is by watching one the boast hull design tutorial provided by Solidworks Product Manager Mark Biasotti.

The first step to designing a yacht is finding a suitable CAD software, such as Solidworks or Fusion 360.

Lightning CAD Dock Designer is one of the most popular boat dock design software.

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Superyacht designers at the Superyacht Design Symposium 2015

The legends.

It’s a fact often lamented in the superyacht industry: the designers of these spectacular craft don’t get their due. It falls to _Boat Internationa_l, therefore, to lionise these hardy few, who share a patience unrivalled in the world of design. We gathered the top 50 designers for a photo shoot at the Superyacht Design Symposium  2015 to celebrate those who are at the pinnacle of the industry.

Tim Heywood Tim Heywood Design

The most charming man in yachting, yacht designer Tim Heywood is a true A-lister. He started his career with Jon Bannenberg before branching out on his own in 1996. His prolific output includes the hugely successful Limited Editions series with Amels and Feadship projects such as 808, now named Symphony , at 101m the yard’s biggest boat. My favourite design… “That’s like asking which my favourite child is!”

Remi tessier Rémi Tessier Design

When this French former cabinetmaker walks into a room, people nudge each other and whisper: “That’s Rémi Tessier!” Arguably the outstanding interior designer of his day, he’s self-taught when it comes to yachts and defines himself as a craftsman of luxury. My favourite design… “Every single project is special to me, I love them all!”

Espen Øino Espen Øino International

Øino’s Monaco-based studio is taking over the world. With projects in build in six countries and a recent output comprising the 140m Ocean Victory , 95.2m Kismet , 89m Infinity and the 77m Silverfast , Øino is at full throttle. My favourite design… “The latest on the drawing board! But I am very fond of Skat and the Silver series”

Terence Disdale Terence Disdale Design

Another superyacht designer who started his career under Jon Bannenberg, yacht designer Terence Disdale opened his own firm in 1973 so he could spend more time fishing and less time at a desk. It didn’t quite work out, as hit followed hit for the London studio. It soon became one of the industry’s leading lights, to the point where it has more interior designs in the world’s top 101 superyachts than anyone else. My favourite design… “The 162.5m Eclipse ”

Andrew Winch Andrew Winch Designs

Yacht designer Andrew Winch is one of the few superyacht designers to have successfully moved into more mainstream territories, including jets and architecture. But his boating output hasn’t suffered – quite the opposite, with recent launches such as the 91.5m Equanimity and 99m Madame Gu reinforcing this studio's pedigree. My favourite design… “Truthfully it is every single one of them”

The sailing greats

Bill Dixon Dixon Yacht Design

Dixon, 57, fronts this eponymous studio, which designs everything from production motor cats to sailing superyachts, but his first is his favourite: the 36m Yanneke Too , launched in 1996. Sailing icon… The 31m Ron Holland-designed sloop Whirlwind XII

Ed Dubois Dubois Yachts

Names don’t come much bigger. The 63-year-old yacht designer Ed Dubois has had hit after hit: Escapade , Como (renamed Lady May ), Mondango 3 , Zefira . But we’re really excited about his 58m performance sloop at Royal Huisman. Sailing icon… The 1973 Derecktor Salty Goose

Bill tripp _Tripp Desig_n

The only American in our line-up launched his company in 1984 – and never looked back. Tripp, 60, is the son of a designer and grew up “tinkering on a boat”. His biggest project to date, an 85m in the final stages of completion at Oceanco, is set to break cover soon. Sailing icon… The 49m Herreshoff Westward

Andre Hoek Hoek Design Naval Architects

No one does elegance quite like Hoek, who founded his company in 1986. With sleek J Class yachts and timeless sloops, the Dutchman, 60, has cornered the “gentleman’s yacht” market. Sailing icon… The J Class Endeavour . Own the iconic Endeavour , currently for sale asking €19,950,000

Mario Pedol Nauta Yachts

Pedol’s name was all over the wires in 2013 when the world first caught a glimpse of Azzam , the biggest superyacht yet constructed . The Italian designer, 60, penned the exterior of the 180m Lürssen , but it’s his Milanese studio’s prolific output of custom and production sailing yachts that makes him a great. Sailing icon… The 42m Herreshoff Mariette of 1915

The Brit Pack

Justin Redman Redman Whiteley Dixon

Redman, 51, and his co-directors have become a new establishment in British yacht design, with massive projects such as the exteriors of Vava II and Hampshire II under their belts. USP of British yacht design ... “Bespoke Britain: small, niche and very special indeed”

Martin Francis Francis Design

The 73-year-old superyacht designer Martin Francis was the technical expert for the 110m yacht A and has a big new Lürssen project in its final stages of completion. On British yacht design… “Britain’s design USP is a result of great education from places such as Central Saint Martins, the RCA and the AA”

Steve Gresham Gresham Yacht Design

Once of the Williams F1 team, Gresham, 48, moved on to yachts and went solo in 2013. On British yacht design... “[It is] like F1, where the teams are mostly based in Britain. The British psyche lends itself to creative design and engineering”

Ken Freivokh Ken Freivokh Design

A starry back catalogue includes exterior styling and interior design on the iconic 88m sailer Maltese Falcon . On the British yacht industry... “There are only a few yards, mainly busy with production or smaller yachts. It’s a pity as the skills are still here”

Mark Tucker Design Unlimited

Tucker, 51, has penned the ultra-modern 30m sailer Hamilton , and refitted the 65m classic motor Shemara . On British yacht design… “Britain is a nation of seafarers so boats are embedded in our heritage. It is part of our culture to explore their possibilities”

Andrew Langton Reymond Langton

Langton, 44, and Pascale Reymond set up shop in 2001, and designed the interiors of 134m Serene and 95.2m Kismet. On British yacht design… “We created industrial design and continue to be world leaders in many [design] fields. This exciting activity brings international design talent to our shores”

Jonny Horsfield H2 Yacht Design

Horsfield, 48, was the go-to designer for refits, before doing new builds such as 54m Talisman C , 82m _ Graceful  _and 125m Maryah . USP of British yacht design… “Our cultural ability to problem-solve as well as not being too rigid or pedantic with rules or conventions”

Dickie Bannenberg Bannenberg & Rowell Design

Son of famous designer Jon, Dickie, 53, proved himself with yachts such as 60m Bacarella and the 72m Feadship Predator . USP of British design... “An unconventional blend of irreverence and tradition, coupled with a pioneering outlook towards new ideas”

Simon Rowell Bannenberg & Rowell Design

Creative director Rowell, 46, designed the interiors on 85m Lürssen Pacific and 65m Heesen Galactica Star . On British yacht design… “Jon Bannenberg was an Australian who found London to be creative and receptive in the 1960s. So maybe it is the environment as much as the natives”

Jonathan Rhoades Rhoades Young Design

Rhoades, 42, started in architecture before turning to the sea at Ken Freivokh Design. Projects include the interior of 48m Royal Huisman sailing yacht Wisp . On British yacht design… “Perhaps it is the intoxicating history of science, craft, music, art and general irreverence in Britain that creates such a healthy environment in which to design”

The Global Players

Malcolm Mckeon Malcolm Mckeon Yacht Design

Formerly at Dubois, Mckeon, 56, has penned more than 50 30m-plus sail and motor yachts. Favourite yacht feature… “Carbon fibre masts and rigging. These have dramatically enhanced performance as well as improving the level of comfort while sailing”

Tim Ulrich Beiderbeck Designs

Ulrich, 42, is one of eight naval architects and designers at the German studio, with sailing yachts Phocea and the Swan 105RS Ti-Coyo in its portfolio. Favourite yacht feature… “Being close to the water is a most outstanding feature”

Immo Lüdeling Beiderbeck Designs

Lüdeling, 43, is part of a German studio that has turned out about 50 projects averaging 53m. Favourite yacht feature... “A terraced or liftable bathing platform. It’s the perfect way of being close to the water, even on big boats”

Jacques Pierrejean Pierrejean Design

The French studio was set up 35 years ago by Jacques Pierrejean, 62. Most notably he penned 141m Yas , the eighth- largest yacht in the world. On yacht design… “It is exciting to think about the interior in harmony with the spirit of the external design concept.”

Frank Neubelt Frank Neubelt Yacht Design of NC2

Neubelt, 54, set up German firm Newcruise in 1990, and a new company in 2012. The 115m Luna is one of his. Favourite yacht feature… “Characterful design: Luna ’s long outdoor pool and Siren’s folding helipad”. Superyacht Siren is for sale .

Philippe Briand Philippe Briand & Vitruvius

The son of an Olympic sailor, the Frenchman, 57, has penned America’s Cup yachts, big sailers such as 67m Vertigo and tough motor yachts under the Vitruvius brand. Favourite yacht feature… “The carbon wheel of a 100ft+ sailing yacht – and to be the helmsman”

Luiz de Basto De Basto Designs

The Miami-based De Basto has designed hundreds of motor boats and superyachts, and was a WSA finalist in 2014 for The Big Blue . Favourite yacht feature… “Bulkheads and balconies that can lower to open the interior to the outdoors”

Richard Hein The A Group

Hein, 56, was president of Oceanco until 2004 and has created more than 18 yachts over 50m, including 101m I Dynasty by Kusch Yachts. Favourite yacht feature… “The use of glass surfaces as construction material, with all the inherent design rules and construction challenges”

Peder Eidsgaard Eidsgaard Design

The London studio of Norwegian designer Eidsgaard, 43, has risen quickly since it opened in 2005, with 78m Feadship Tango among its triumphs. Favourite yacht feature... “Open spaces and long vistas”

Gord Galbraith Gregory C Marshall Naval Architect

The partnership between Galbraith, 46, and Greg Marshall has yielded yachts including iconic explorer Big Fish . Favourite yacht feature… “The beach club. Despite a superyacht’s size and luxury, yachting for me is always about being close to the water”

The female designers

Francesca Muzio FM Architettura

This Italian house, led by Muzio, crosses disciplines, from refits on superyachts such as the 52m Amore Mio II to designing the Signature Suites in the Shangri-La hotel at the Shard in London. Do women bring anything different to boat design? “It’s not a matter of sex, but the passion that led each person into that job”

Paola Galeazzi Zuccon International Project

As one half of the venerable studio, Galeazzi has worked on production sports fishers and the 60m CRN J’ade , featuring the world’s first drive-in tender garage. Do women bring anything different to boat design? “There’s nothing male designers, provided they are true professionals, don’t or cannot know”

Fiona Diamond Seymour Diamond

Diamond honed her skills working with Terence Disdale on more than 30 projects, including Eclipse and Pelorus , before going solo in 2010. She worked exclusively on the interior of Feadship’s recently launched 92.5m  Royal Romance . What men don’t know about boats… “You’d have to ask them!”

Laura Pomponi Luxury Projects

The Italian founded her company in 2008 and works on anything from yachts and jets to villas and penthouses. She is known for the vibrant interior of 35m Koji.   The luxury yacht Koji is now for sale .  Do women bring anything different to boat design? “It’s not about being a man or a woman, but meeting a client’s expectations”

Laura Sessa Laura Sessa

Spend some time on CRN’s 80m Chopi Chopi and you’ll soon see why Sessa won a ShowBoats Design Award for its interior. More recent is the 60m Madame Kate , the second Amels LE 199. Do women bring anything different to boat design? “You just have to love the boats and what you create"

Sandrine Melot Melot + Trillo

Melot came to yachts after a successful career designing hotels, restaurants and offices – and landed with a bang. Her first interior, on the 34m Blue Princess Star , won a World Superyacht Award. Lately, she designed the interior of ISA’s 43m Philmi . What men don’t know about boats… “It depends on the man!”

Pascale Reymond Reymond Langton

Reymond is half of one of the most successful design duos operating today. Since forming the company with Andrew Langton in 2001, she has designed some of the most iconic boats afloat, from the 78m Titan to the 134m Serene . Do women bring anything different to boat design? “I truly believe women deal with solitude and stress better than men”

Adriana Monk monkdesign

In a former life, Monk helped shape the interiors of the modern Range Rover and Rolls-Royce Phantom, later becoming chief interior designer for Jaguar Land Rover. With boats, she designed the deck sculpture, colour scheme and graphics for the 30m WallyCento Hamilton . Do women bring anything different to boat design? “Talent comes in many guises, male or female”

Daniela Zulli Terence Disdale Design

Italian Zulli headed up her own design company before joining Terence Disdale Design. She has had a big hand in many of the studio’s most notable projects, including the massive 147m Lürssen Topaz . What men don’t know about boats… “They still haven’t learnt how to put the toilet seat down after using the dayheads!”

The Dutch Masters

Marnix Hoekstra & Bart Bouwhuis Vripack

Vripack’s two creative directors lead a team of 80 and a company responsible for more than 7,000 designs since its founding in 1961.  Why is Holland such a superyacht hub? “Because of our rich related heritage and the drive to constantly innovate and collaborate to improve the end result. It’s in our DNA”

Frank Mulder Mulder Design

Established in 1979, this family-run studio has designed more than 600 boats, including some iconic craft such as the 35.36m Moonraker and 42.4m The World is Not Enough . Why is Holland such a superyacht hub? “Because of our abundance of lakes, rivers and other waterways. And the word yacht comes from the Dutch jacht!”

Perry van Oossanen Van Oossanen Naval Architects

His team are at the cutting edge of hull design. The company’s Hull Vane and Fast Displacement Hull Form are taking efficiency and comfort to the next level. Why is Holland such a superyacht hub? “Because most of us live below sea level!”

Ronno Schouten De Voogt Naval Architects

Schouten leads Feadship’s design department and has been busy of late, working on the hulls of the 101m project 808 and 83.5m Savannah .

Guido de Groot Guido de Groot Design

De Groot fell in love with yachting when he saw the fourth Highlander leaving De Vries in 1986. He launched his own design firm in 1997, and is now working on yachts in Italy, Abu Dhabi and China. Why is Holland such a superyacht hub? “Our exceptional degree of dedication, expertise, ingenuity, craftsmanship and time management”

Frank Laupman Omega Architects

Laupman’s team have six nominations at this year’s World Superyacht Awards, for sleek, sporty Heesen yachts such as Galatea ,  Alive and Monaco Wolf . Why is Holland such a superyacht hub? “We know ships, design, beauty and craftsmanship”

The design duo

Pietro Mingarelli Italian

As a designer, engineer and architect, Mingarelli has worked on more than 120 superyachts. With Tina Green, he is now designing his biggest yet. Who is your yacht design hero…? “Tim Heywood. His designs are proof that less is more”

Tina Green British

An interior designer who started off in the fashion world, Green has designed dozens of superyachts – as well as living on one. She says that it was only when joining forces with Mingarelli that she was really able to grow as a yacht designer. Who is your yacht design hero…? “Terence Disdale. I love the way he brings together different materials. He has been a great influence on my style”

Italian Flair

Enrico Gobbi Team For Design

Gobbi, 39, likes aggressive lines and nature-inspired touches, such as the gill-like windows on Rossinavi’s 48m Vellmari . Italy’s design USP… “Careful attention to every detail that elevates the overall design”

Tommaso Spadolini Design Studio Spadolini

With more than 200 yachts now afloat – including 70m Rossinavi Numptia – Spadolini, 57, has earned a reputation for classic style. Italy’s design USP… “Italian design is often more sexy than other design schools”

Giovanni Zuccon Zuccon International Project

Zuccon, 70, is the Ferretti Group’s designer of choice, with a portfolio that includes the 80m CRN Chopi Chopi . Italy’s design USP… “A culture that teaches us how to integrate different design knowledge, also allowing us to find the right relationship with history, and thus to understand the present and, above all, to imagine the future”

Antonio Romano Hot Lab Yacht & Design

Romano, 36, penned the airy interior of Palumbo’s 40m Columbus Sport Hybrid – but he and his partners also do sweeping exteriors. Italy’s design USP… “Design is part of our heritage, from industrial products to food”   Luca Brenta Brenta Design

Sailing yacht supremo yacht designer Luca Brenta , 60, boasts iconic designs such as the Wallygator in his locker, and picked up the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ShowBoats Design Awards. On Italian design… “Two thousand years ago we were building Roma while you guys were barbarians!”

Lorenzo Argento Brenta Design

Brenta’s partner Argento, 52, has penned well-known sailers including Vitters’ 37m Ghos t and now runs the design studio. On Italian design… “From a beautiful environment to beautiful food, [Italy] educates people to a certain sensibility. Beauty educates!”

Dan Lenard Nuvolari Lenard

Carlo Nuvolari and Dan Lenard, 47, have worked with Palmer Johnson, Perini Navi and CRN, since they set up shop 15 years ago. They can count the exterior of iconic 82m Oceanco Alfa Nero among their successes. On Italian design… “It’s not ‘Italian design’ that sells, it’s Italian that sells, even without the design”

Portriats by Dan Annett

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Yachting World

• Digital Edition

America’s Cup boats: 8 facts about the AC75 and why they’re unique

• Toby Heppell
• August 20, 2024

The America's Cup boats to be used on the 2024 edition of the event are immensely complicated high tech bits of kit. They might be officially sailing craft but they behave in some remarkable ways

The AC75 is the class of boat that takes part in the America’s Cup and are arguably the most radical boats the compeition has ever seen.  This type of America’s Cup boat was first used in the 2021 America’s Cup so this is the second event in which these boats have been used.  

The America’s Cup is, fundamentally, a design competition, and successive America’s Cups have featured the most extreme yachts yet – for their time – ever since the first race in 1851.

However, the foiling boats we have seen in the last four editions of America’s Cup racing (the AC72 and AC50 catamarans, and now the AC75 monohulls) do represent a new direction for the highest level of sailing.

There are plenty who argue that this technology is so far beyond the bounds of what most people consider sailing as to be an entirely different sport. Equally, there are those who believe this is simply a continuation of the development that the America’s Cup has always pushed to the fore, from Bermudan rigs, to composite materials, winged keels, and everything in between.

Good arguments can be made either way and foiling in the world’s oldest sporting trophy will always be a subjective and controversial topic. But one thing is certain: the current America’s Cup boats, the AC75s, are unlike anything seen before and are showcasing to the world just what is possible under sail power alone.

Photo: Ian Roman / America’s Cup

1 Unimaginable speed

Topping the 50-knot barrier used to be the preserve of extreme speed record craft and kiteboarders. A World Speed Sailing Record was set in 2009 of 51.36 knots by Alain Thebault in his early foiling trimaran, Hydroptere , and was bested in 2010 by kite boarder, Alexandre Caizergues who managed 54.10 knots.

Only one craft has ever topped 60-knots, the asymmetric Vestas Sail Rocket 2 , which was designed for straight line speed only and could no more get around an America’s Cup course than cross an ocean. Such records are set by sailing an average speed over the course of 500m, usually over a perfectly straight, flat course in optimum conditions.

America’s Cup class yachts, designed to sail windward/leeward courses around marks, are now hitting speeds that just over a decade ago were the preserve of specialist record attempts, while mid-race. American Magic has been recorded doing 53.31 knots on their first version of the AC75 class, Patriot.

Perhaps even more impressive, in the right conditions when racing we have seen some boats managing 40 knots of boatspeed upwind in around 17 knots of wind. That is simply unheard of in performance terms and almost unimaginable just three or so years ago.

Article continues below…

How to watch the America’s Cup live streams

The 37th America’s Cup is due to start on Saturday 12 October and will see America’s Cup Defender Emirates Team…

WATCH: Will the USA’s Radical America’s Cup Design Choices Pay Off?

American Magic’s new AC75, Patriot, has garnered significant attention due to its unique approach. While all the teams are bound…

2 A storm onboard the AC75

Related to the speeds the boats are sailing through the water, particularly upwind, is the wind speeds the sailors will feel on deck.

When sailing, the forward motion affects the wind we experience onboard, known as apparent wind. The oft’ trotted out explanation of how apparent wind works is to imagine driving your car at 50mph. Roll down the window and stick your hand out of it and there will be 50mph of wind hitting your hand from the direction your car is travelling.

So when an AC75 is sailing upwind in 18 knots of breeze at a boatspeed of 40 knots, the crew on deck will be experiencing 40 knots of wind over the decks plus a percentage of the true wind speed – depending on their angle to the wind.

The AC75 crews might be sailing in only 18 knots of breeze – what would feel like a decent summer breeze on any other boat – but they experience winds of around 50 knots.

To put that into context, that is a storm force 10 on the Beaufort scale!

3 Righting moment changes

The single most radical development of the AC75 is to take a 75ft ‘keelboat’, but put no keel on it whatsoever.

When the then America’s Cup Defender and the Challenger of Record, Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli respectively, announced that the 36th America’s Cup (to be held in 2021) would be sailed in 75ft monohulls, conventional wisdom had it that the boats would look something like a TP52 or a Maxi72 – both impressively high performance keelboats.

By doing away with the keel entirely, the design is now like nothing we have ever seen, particularly when it comes to how dynamic the power transition is between foiling and not foiling.

The boats are designed to foil on the leeward foil, with the windward one raised to help increase righting moment: to help balance the boat. This means that when the AC75 is not foiling they are extremely tippy – much more so than most other boats of the same size.

Essentially, when the wind catches the sails, the boat wants to fall over as there is too much sail area for the amount of weight underneath the boat – something a lead keel usually counters on a yacht or keelboat.

Once the boat is up and on the foils, however, that all changes, as everything to windward of the single foil in the water balances the sails. That means, the hull, the crew weight, the sail and rig weight, and the windward foil, all work to counter the sails.

What all this means is that the boats go from being extremely tippy, to hugely powerful in just the few seconds it takes to get up on the foil. “The [AC75s] are really very tippy pre-foiling and then they go through the transition where they will need to build significant power. Then immediately [once they lift off] you have more stability than, well, take your pick, but certainly more righting moment than something like a Volvo 70 with a big canting keel.

“That change all happens in a very short space of time,” explained Burns Fallow of North Sails, who was one of the team who developed the soft wing concept back when the concept was revealed.

Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

4 ‘Cyclors’ return to power America’s Cup boats

Bak in 2017 Emirates Team New Zealand stormed to America’s Cup victory in an AC50 foiling catamaran which was, by some margin, quicker than any of the other teams.

The most glaring difference was their use of pedal grinders to produce power rather than traditional pedestal arm grinders. ETNZ’s sci-fi style term for their grinders was ‘cyclors’, cyclist sailors.

The idea had actually been tried before in the America’s Cup; Pelle Petterson used pedal grinders on the 12-metre Sverige in 1977. But ETNZ’s set-up now was very different: here it was part of a linked chain of innovations, the most obvious emblem of a radical approach.

One obvious benefit was the greater power output from using legs to pedal, but beyond this it left cyclists’ hands free and allowed the team to use a highly sophisticated system of fingertip control systems, and thus to use faster, less stable foils, and then to divide up crew roles so ETNZ could be sailed in a different way.

When the AC75 was first introduced in 2021, Cyclors were specifically banned by the class rule. However, with a reduction of crew numbers from 11 to 8 in the second AC75 class rule – in use for the 2024 America’s Cup – cyclors are now allowed once again and all teams look set to be using pedal power onboard.

5 America’s Cup boats may not be heading where they point

With the AC75 sailing on its foil, drag is dramatically reduced, vast amounts of power can be generated and so speeds rapidly increase. But the foils can serve another purpose too.

In order to be able to lift each foil out of the water, the foil arms must be able to be raised and lowered. Hence the foil wings, which sit at the bottom of the foil arms (and are usually a T or Y shape), do not always sit perpendicular to the water surface and the AC75s often sail with them canted over to something nearer 45º to the surface.

The further out the leeward foil arm is canted – essentially more raised – the closer the AC75 flies to surface and, crucially, the more righting moment is generated as the hull and rest of the boat gets further from the lifting surface of the foil.

There is another positive to this: as the lifting foil is angled, it produces lift to windward, which can force the boat more towards the wind than the angle it is sailing.

Due to this negative leeway (as it is known when a foil creates lift to windward) the boat can be pointing at a compass heading of say 180º but in fact will be sailing at eg 177º as the foil pushes the boat sideways and to weather, essentially sailing to windward somewhat diagonally.

6 The foils are heavy. Very heavy.

As the foils work to provide stability to the boat (when it is stationary both foils are dropped all the way down to stop it tipping over) and to provide massive amounts of righting moment, they are incredibly heavy.

A pair of foil wings and flaps (excluding the one-design foil arm which attaches them to the boat and lifts them up and down) weigh 1842kg. To put that into perspective, the entire boat itself with all equipment (but without the crew) weighs between 6200kg and 6160kg. So the foil wings at the base of the foil arms are nearly ⅓ of the total weight of the boat.

It is partly due to this that you will see some teams with bulbs on their foils. If you decide to go for a skinny foil wing (which would be low drag and so faster) then there will not be enough volume to cram sufficient material in to make the foil weigh enough. So some teams have decided to add a bulb in order to make it weigh enough but to also keep a less draggy, slimmer foil shape.

7 Sails can invert at the head

As with everything on the AC75, the mainsail was a relatively new concept when the boat was first announced. It consists of two mainsails which are attached to both corners of a D-shaped mast tube. This has the effect of creating a profile similar to a wing.

It is well established that solid wing sails are more efficient at generating power than a soft sail and for this reason solid wings were used in both the America’s Cup in 2013 and 2017. But there are drawbacks with a wing: they cannot be lowered if something goes wrong and require a significant amount of manpower and a crane to put it on or take it off a boat.

One reason a wing makes for such a powerful sail is that the shape can be manipulated from top to bottom fairly easily with the right controls. With the AC75 the designers wanted a sail that could have some of this manipulation, produce similar power but could also be dropped while out on the water. The twin skin, ‘soft wing’ is what they came up with for this class of America’s Cup boat.

In addition to the usual sail controls, within the rules, the teams are allowed to develop systems for controlling the top few metres of the mainsail and the bottom few metres.

What this means is that the teams are able to manipulate their mainsail in a number of different ways to develop power and control where that power is produced in the sail. But it also means that they have the ability to invert the head of the sail.

Doing this effectively means ‘tacking’ the top of the sail while the rest of the sail is in its usual shape. The advantage here is that instead of trying to tip the boat to leeward, the very top of the sail will be trying to push the boat upright and so creating even more righting moment. The disadvantage is that it would come at the cost of increased aerodynamic drag.

We know that a number of America’s Cup teams are able to do this, though whether it is effective is another question and it is very hard to spot this technique being used while the boats are racing at lightning speeds.

8 America’s Cup meets F1

A new America’s Cup boat is a vastly complex bit of kit. Each team has incredibly powerful Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software packages and simulators in order to try to understand the various gains and losses.

To make these simulators and computer projections as accurate as possible each team has been getting as much data as they can over their three year development cycle.

In the case of this America’s Cup it does seem the development process is genuinely getting closer to Formula 1 (albeit with smaller budgets than a modern F1 team has behind them).

INEOS Britannia have been work alongside the all powerful Mercedes F1 team (both of who are backed by INEOS) and have been open about how much this has helped their development process and after a relatively small amount of collaboration in 2021 the British team and Mercedes have created a much tighter relationship for the 2024 America’s Cup .

But the British team is not alone. When two-time America’s Cup winner, Alinghi announced they would be coming back to the event after some years on the sidelines, they also announced their own tie-in with current F1 World Champions, Red Bull Racing, to for Alinghi Red Bull Racing .

“It’s really similar to F1,” explains Mercedes Applied Science Principal Engineer Thomas Batch who has 11 F1 titles to his name and is was with INEOS in Auckland 2021. “Certainly in this campaign the technology is close to what we have in F1.

“In terms of raw sensors on the boat you are probably talking in the 100s but then we take that and we make that into mass channels and additional analysis with computational versions of those channels that we then analyse and get into in more detail. So you are looking at 1000s of plots that we can delve into [per race or training session].

“That level of data analysis and then feedback with the sailors is very similar to working with an [F1] driver.”

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Sailing yacht design (13.734), course description.

This subject teaches students, having an initial interest in sailing design, how to design good yachts. Topics covered include hydrostatics, transverse stability, and the incorporation of the design spiral into one’s working methods. Computer aided design (CAD) is used to design the shapes of hulls, appendages …

This subject teaches students, having an initial interest in sailing design, how to design good yachts. Topics covered include hydrostatics, transverse stability, and the incorporation of the design spiral into one’s working methods. Computer aided design (CAD) is used to design the shapes of hulls, appendages and decks, and is an important part of this course. The capstone project in this course is the Final Design Project in which each student designs a sailing yacht, complete in all major respects.

The central material for this subject is the content of the book Principals of Yacht Design by Larssson and Eliasson (see further description in the syllabus ). All the class lectures are based on the material in this book. The figures in the book which are shown in class (but not reproduced on this site), contain the essential material and their meaning is explained in detail during the lecture sessions. Mastery of the material in the book and completing a design project provides the desired and needed education.

This course was originally offered in Course 13 (Department of Ocean Engineering) as 13.734. In 2005, ocean engineering subjects became part of Course 2 (Department of Mechanical Engineering), and this course was renumbered 2.996.

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