CHANGES IN DESIGN APPROACH FOR LARGE YACHTS

A Yacht is a ship destinated to the transportation of people, for pleasure and generally without a military or commercial use. Since the Old Ages, in Ancient Egypt or in the Roman Empire, the guide line of this kind of ships was always to show the economical, political, cultural power of the Owner, such as the Pharaon ships, Caligola Ships, the Bucintoro in Venice, the large sailing ships of Spain, France, England and so , but they didn’t actually differ from the military or commercial ones. In most situations the design of the so-called Pleasure Ships was based on the transformation of an existing type of ship, to achieve the goals described, so the Designers had to follow the requirements of the “know how” of building ships adapting the design of the structures. The requirements of the Naval Architecture and the available Technology were so strict that there were not many possible changes: perhaps only as for luxury materials, maybe a larger size, maybe more rowers or sails and sometimes more weapons, but the base was almost the same. In the last 40 years the design of yachts has changed significantly for several reasons: A Yacht is no longer only a “State ship” showing the power of a Nation, a King or a President, but can be considered as “the Toy” of a private Owner, so instead of thinking of it as of a ship, with all her superstructures, compartments and technical aspects, Yacht Designers started taking into consideration her Shape and then adapting their projects to it. Of course her functions are always something to respect, but more and more designers first began to imagine an “awesome solution” and then to find the way to realize it. The previous rules had to be followed but the challenge of showing the “power” of the Owner moved also (or maybe again) on the field of the technology exhibition. So now, considering all the mentioned aspects, we had to change the way of approach a project: first, there are goals to be defined: swimming pools, floodable basins, luxury car garages, ecologic propulsion systems, and then Designers must find the way to guarantee the function. Basically it can be said that there is a new kind of Renaissance going on in the art of Yacht Design.