Insight: Lateral Naval Architects one year on

A year ago this month, during the annual HISWA press tour, an exciting brand was announced; Lateral Naval Architects was established to deliver a new perspective on innovative engineering and naval architecture. This new company was formed as a way for two long-time strategic partners to work collaboratively on some of the world’s most unique superyacht projects, marrying creativity with engineering expertise, and has been one of the industry’s most talked about business developments over the past year.

Since the launch, it’s been both an eventful and successful year for the Southampton-based company. The first major event was Lateral’s unveiling of the next-generation 102-metre Sinot designed superyacht concept Balance, in addition to an interesting partnership with young designer Jeremy Kitzinger to conceive Lavilla. 

January 2019 saw the delivery of the much-anticipated 109-metre superyacht Bravo Eugenia from Oceanco whose naval architecture came from Lateral’s drawing boards. More recently, in February the striking 105-metre eco-friendly explorer yacht concept Esquel was unveiled at the Dubai International Boat Show, designed by Timur Bozca and Gina Brennan with naval architecture from Lateral.Photo: Sinot Yacht Architecture & Design

In terms of their services, Lateral provides complete engineering expertise to the superyacht industry from the conception of a project right through to its delivery. Lateral is collaborating with shipyards, designers and a wide spectrum of industry partners on a highly diverse portfolio of projects. With its core competence in engineering, the company focuses on developing meaningful innovation, which according to its manifesto, begins with asking new questions.

To find out more about the new questions Lateral has been challenging over the last year, and its aspirations for the future, SuperYacht Times finds out the latest from Managing Director James Roy.

What has been the particular focus for the workforce over the last year?

We have a number of specific areas we focus on in the business and it is very much about balancing the needs of today with the vision of tomorrow. Today's work is delivering a high quality, flexible and responsive service to our current projects. We have 377 metres of new-build under construction for which we are providing engineering and naval architecture. 

In addition to this, we are working with multiple owners’ teams delivering technical consultancy and early project development in the pre-contract stages of four projects, the smallest at 65 metres, through to the largest at 130 metres. On top of this, we have a steady stream of smaller consultancy and refit projects. In our first year, the team of 55 will have undertaken over 100,000 man-hours of engineering, and that takes a lot of energy and focus.

At the same time, we have to balance that against looking to tomorrow’s future. Our R&D focus is heavily biased towards the development of new propulsion and energy architecture systems, with particular emphasis on electrification, alternative fuels and hull refinements for improved performance. It is an exciting time in the wider marine industry, and we are leveraging technology from many areas into our thinking.Photo: OceancoHow do you think has Lateral been able to secure its position as one of the top players in the industry so quickly?

We are fortunate that we started from a very solid baseline within BMT, the core of the business was well established and the BMT brand well recognised in the market. Married to that a simple and compelling strategy for Lateral, and a carefully developed plan for the first year. Ultimately good old-fashioned business development skills have been a key ingredient, which means getting on planes, trains and automobiles and talking to people across the entire superyacht ecosystem.Photo: Francisco MartinezThe launch of Bravo Eugenia within our first year has also served as tangible evidence of our brand’s credibility, and the LIFE platform that underpins her the degree to which we can bring technology to bear in better serving the design community. All of that said, we continuously reflect on ourselves and recognise that we remain a new brand and many parts of the industry have not yet heard of us, so there is no room for complacency.

It is worth noting that, in launching the company there has been some confusion with some people thinking that we are diversifying into design. We have no short or long term plans to do so: our business is built on our core competence of engineering and naval architecture and to enable design and will continue to be so.

What makes Lateral so unique?

That is an interesting question. When I really reflect on an authentic answer, it is that we do more than just supply naval architecture and engineering. Our brand DNA which has a focus on innovation not being just about creating new solutions, but starting with asking the right questions, indeed asking new questions. Via this thinking we can help bring new perspectives from the start of a project onwards. What that means in practice is that we make ourselves part of a project’s ideation; what is the narrative and how is the application of technology going to serve that and give the design community greater creative flexibility? That insight can be critical in laying the foundations for a complex project: it is far more than numbers and drawings. 

How would you describe the working dynamic of the team at Lateral?

Our workload is very high and fast-paced, so intense would be one way of describing it. We have put in place a core management team who are the experts that lead our technical disciplines and projects, we very much want to develop leadership at all levels of the business so that we have a supportive and open working environment. I think that if we had a motto, it would be work hard and play hard.

What plans does Lateral have for the coming year?  

The last twelve months have passed very quickly. Time flies when you are busy either doing the work or chasing it, and even more quickly when you are doing both! The year ahead has some exciting milestones with existing projects coming to life and exploring new ideas via collaboration with a wide spectrum of designers, shipyards and technical partners.

If you had shown me everything we would achieve in 365 days I would have said we don’t have enough people! I would like to thank the entire Lateral team for their hard work and commitment over the last year, as well as our clients and partners with whom we openly collaborate. Here’s to the next 365 days! 

Head to the company’s website to find out more about Lateral’s exciting projects and plans for the future.