Just before I left for the Antigua Charter Yacht Show, I had a visit in the office from Jim Robert Sluijter, a Dutch design student who gained experience at internships at Feadship De Voogt Naval Architects and Andrew Winch Designs. To obtain his master’s degree in Integrated Product Design at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, he decided to take on the challenge to design a 43 metre sailing yacht.
To have the best learning experience, Jim spent two months at the office of Andrew Winch Designs and three months at Vitters Shipyard to complete this graduation project.
The assignment was to design a new deckhouse and cockpit area for a 43-metre sailing yacht. As a starting point for this project the hull and layout of an existing 43-metre sailing yacht were used, except for the cockpit and salon/deckhouse.
The idea was to design the yacht around a young family with two children, aged 4 and 9, with room to accommodate 4 extra guests. Child friendliness is a key design feature. The yacht’s layout ensures that when underway, children are always able to hold onto something, and there is a dedicated area aft in the spacious deckhouse for them to play in.
The kids corner contains a multifunctional wall that hides trophies of the children, and provides storage for locally found items, like rocks and shells, as a fun and adventurous way of memorizing the journey.
Another key design aspect, is that the yacht had to be well suited for tall guests, so the salon has a 2050mm headroom. By detaching the profile line from the deckhouse towards the front, a sleek exterior profile is maintained. To maintain this sleek profile, equipment had to be rearranged and ventilation air slots were moved. The latter now form a unique detail, shaped like fish’ gills, which have a comparable functionality.
The yacht is designed to have an aluminium hull and an aluminium or carbon fibre superstructure, depending on the wishes of the client.
Jim graduated from university this week, and SYT congratulates him on a job well done!
Jim Robert Sluijter
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