Schools - Yacht Design

[Paul Blackstone]

I am looking for reputable schools and programs to enter the field of yacht design. Can anyone offer any suggestions on programs or schools in the NorthEast. I am currently in CT but willing to move further north or south.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Paul Blackstone

[paladin]

Probably the Westlawn School of Yacht Design is the best known and has an excellent reputation...I did about 2/3 of it though and it makes me really dangerous. They advertise I think in Woodenboat and Cruising World magazines, find them at www.westlawn.org, 1-(800)-836-2059 or Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology, 733 Summer Street, Stamford, CT 06901.....or direct phone (203) 359-0500. They also teach you how to use the Nautilus program, and as a student you get it at a discount....it's neat......and good luck.

[Mike Field]

I agree with Chuck. I think their two courses seem very good. But I was a bit p'ed off that I couldn't study single subjects with them, but had to enrol for the whole of one of the courses (neither of which I wanted to do in entirety.)

Also, they seem to me to be pretty pricey too, but I don't have much information on US university fees to compare them with.

[imported_Conrad]

Westlawn and The Landing School (see Wooden Boat) offer home study or one year courses. University of Michigan and the Webb Institute offer college courses.

[pjwalsh]

I think the Landing School design program is really excellent - admittedly biased view as I went there in '91. The only problem was that after finishing I wanted to go to engineering school.

They teach a very well rounded 10 month course in the design of yachts and smaller commercial craft. They have boatbuilding and systems courses as well - the combination of these three makes for a nice exposure for someone interested in design. A very nice feature of the course is a short practucum in a professional design office. Until I did finally go to engineering school much of my employment was either directly or indirectly related to connections I made at the school.

I had a great time there too.

[Nicholas Carey]

Originally posted by conrads:
...[the] University of Michigan...offer[s] college courses [in Naval Architecture].

Unfortunately, while UMich is a great school and one of the few schools that offers degrees in Naval Architecture, the program is about as far removed from yacht design as it is possible to get. It's pretty much entirely oriented toward container/tanker/bulk-carrier ship design.

[Thaddeus J. Van Gilder]

My girlfriend is getting her NA from Webb in Long Island, and I am trying to talk them into letting me do a master's in NA.
It's a great school, and If you can get in, you get a full scholarship,(worth $50,000/year in september)

I couldn't recommend the school highly enough. It's a great program, and it translates to field's other than containerships. My girlfriend wants to design tall ships.

[Wild Dingo]

Originally posted by Mike Field:
I agree with Chuck. I think their two courses seem very good. But I was a bit p'ed off that I couldn't study single subjects with them, but had to enrol for the whole of one of the courses (neither of which I wanted to do in entirety.)

Also, they seem to me to be pretty pricey too, but I don't have much information on US university fees to compare them with.

Mike do you know of any Aussie courses? Would prefer correspondence or computer based but am amiable except to travel great exhorbetant distances (like overseas)

Take it easy
Shane

[Mike Field]

Years ago, RMIT over here had an NA course which it dropped (some time in the 80s, I think.) But in any case, as with Nicholas' comments, it was only for big-ship design. There's nothing in Melbourne now, but I think there might be in Sydney -- but still only for tankers, ore-carriers, and so on.

(TonyH, do you have any knowledge here?)

The Shipwright's Point School in Tassie has a world-famous course in building small boats (as I daresay you know,) but nothing yet in designing them as far as I know. Ownership has just changed, though, and I understand that a design-only course may be under consideration.)

But perhaps you'd class Tassie as overseas, anyway?

[Jeff Robinson]

Paul & Others,

Tom McNaughton runs a yacht design school by correspondence - I read the first part and did not go on with it so I cannot comment on content etc. Tom has a web page if you search on his name (I am not sure about the spelling).

JR

[Mike Field]

Well, if enough people told Woodlawn, to convince them that there was a demand for single-subject study, maybe they'd change their philosophy a bit. I already have, but what's one voice from 10,000 miles away?

[Thaddeus J. Van Gilder]

WEbb is free once you get in!!!!!!!!!!

[Tom Jackson]

I believe the Westlawn program is done by correspondence, and the company is now offering a version called "Yacht Design Lite" intended to be less career-oriented.

[Buzz73]

There's a website that lists and ranks all naval architecture schools (resident and home-study) internationally. It has Westlawn, MacNaughton Yacht Design School, a correspondance school out of England, and many others. The website is www.boatdesign.net/Directory/Technical_Resourses/Schools/
Hope that helps.

[fair&fair]

Landing school is a good program, and their new design teacher is quite good. I went there last year and learned loads, and had a blast too.

[paladin]

I believe the McNaughton School is a carry-on/carry-over from the original Ted Brewer "Yacht Design Institute Course".

[TomRobb]

Mr. Jackson editor sir, how about a muckraking story in WB about the schools, their strengths, their weaknesses, their results (grads who got jobs in the field), etc.? Inquiring minds seem to want to know. It couldn't be any more irrelevant than yet another gondola installment or megayaaat pictorial for the obscenely wealthy

[This message has been edited by TomRobb (edited 01-25-2002).]