SuperyachtNews.com - Fleet - Designing with crew

By SuperyachtNews

Designing with crew

It is all too easy for owners to feel that crew shouldn’t be involved in a yacht’s design at all, or at best only in the later stages of its build, but their early input can be instrumental in ensuring more efficient and intelligently-designed crew areas and a happier ownership experience.…

It is all too easy for owners to feel that crew shouldn’t be involved in a yacht’s design at all, or at best only in the later stages of its build, but their early input can be instrumental in ensuring more efficient and intelligently-designed crew areas.


Credit: Angela Audretsch

From Tuesday 24 toThursday 26 June, SuperyachtDesign is offering crew the chance to get involved. SuperyachtDESIGN Week will be held at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, London, and will provide attendees with the chance to hear from and network with yachting’s top designers and innovators.

Crew involvement in design is a topic surrounding which a plethora of crew have a wealth of opinion. Ex-chief stewardess and current executive vice president of Wright Maritime Group, Ellen Anderson provided a viewpoint echoed by many a chief stewardess when she told us, “When considering design of interior space, the golden rule is there is no such concept as too much space allocated to stowage.”

In addition, a debate on our sister website TheCrewReport.com, which asked whether crew should be involved in the design of a yacht, has drawn some interesting responses in recent months. One user stated: “The crew should be able to put their ideas forward with reasons why the design should be changed and what advantages this would have on the working operation of the yacht. The only problem is convincing the owner [who] is picking up the bill.” Meanwhile, another user added: “It would be a step in the right direction, instead of someone who has never worked on board.”

But it’s not just the crew who want to get involved – it’s the builders and designers, too. In Issue 8 of The Superyacht Owner, Peter Buescher, design project manager at Donald L. Blount and Associates, explained: “There are simply some elements of a vessel’s arrangement that are understood most intimately by the crew. For example, the traffic pattern associated with bringing food and beverage service from an interior galley to an exterior beach deck.”

In Issue 66 of The Crew Report, moreover, Billy Smith, vice-president of Trinity Yachts, revealed that crew can have a hugely positive effect on the result of a yacht. “If you turn to the crew and say, ‘How do we service this? How do we access it?’, they normally come up with very good ideas.” Smith even draws on the example of 56m motoryacht Pangea, on which the crew created their own space in the pipe tunnel - now a common feature of many Trininty builds. Issue 69 of The Crew Report will see design editor Andrew Johansson speak to senior crew about design particulars on board that make daily working life problematic for crew.

Crew involvement in design is an ever-evolving topic worthy of lengthy debate, and SuperyachtDESIGN Week will allow crew to take the debate further with key players in the design industry.

To register attendance at the event from 24 – 26 June, please call Suzie Hine on +44 (0)207 924 4004 or email Suzie at suzie@thesuperyachtgroup.com.

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