Yacht design at Solent
If you have a passion for engineering and an interest in water sports, our yacht design courses offer the chance to carve out a great career helping design everything from race-winning yachts to multi-million-pound superyachts.
Solent University offers unique and highly regarded courses in yacht and powercraft design and production, delivered right in the heart of the south coast’s marine industry.
Our design degrees will help build your theoretical and practical knowledge to take the first step in your career as a yacht designer. You can study the engineering science underlying great design, along with the fundamental principles of naval architecture, construction methods and high-tech fibre-reinforced composite materials. You will also learn essential planning and management processes for the efficient, effective production of racing sailing yachts, RIBs, motor yachts, cruising yachts, patrol boats and commercial craft.
Based in the heart of Southampton – a busy city port on England’s south coast, with a thriving watersports and yachting scene – we are perfectly placed to help you build your professional network and benefit from work experience opportunities. Students attend local boat shows, including the Southampton Boat Show and Seawork International, with previous students having also benefitted from yard visits to renowned companies such as Sunseeker.
Our graduates are noted across the globe for their unique skills, and have gone on to various industry roles – including naval architect or design engineer – at companies such as Laurent Giles Naval Architects, Sunseeker Yachts, Humphries Yacht Design, Monaco Marine, Viareggio Shipyards in Italy and Incat Crowther Design in the USA.
The courses are delivered by a team of specialist naval architects and production designers, supported by CAD/drawing office instructors and FRP workshop instructors. All team members come from the yacht and small craft industry and maintain their close links through consultancy, design practice and professional bodies.
Courses
BEng (Hons) Yacht and Powercraft Design
Plot a course for your engineering skills - specialise in naval architecture for power- and sail-craft. Solent’s highly regarded degree is taught by experienced marine architects and designers.
BEng (Hons) Yacht Design and Production
Dream of designing race-winning yachts? This unique course, with an international reputation, has been designed alongside industry experts to deliver the skills you need.Facilities
Students have full access to the University’s specialist facilities, including industry-standard CAD and drawing offices, as well as a fully equipped specialist composite workshop, a 60-metre towing tank and a static four-metre stability tank which has been used to test America’s Cup racing yachts and other craft for industry leaders.
The Solent composites lab is designed to handle all of the processes commonly seen in composite construction, from hand- and vacuum-assisted laminating to pre-impregnated fibre construction and resin infusion. We also undertake the construction of prototype models, towing tank models, display models and tooling, offering a turnkey solution to model evaluation and a cradle-to-grave approach to creating a prototype or product. Equipped to handle polyester and epoxy resin in any combination of FRP materials – including glass, carbon and aramid fibre – the composites lab has a well-established reputation in the area of marine construction and repair.
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