A little exercise we’ve done some years ago but we felt we wanted to revisit it. It’s called ‘Plain Sailing’ and it’s essentially the exterior styling of a 50-60m sailing yacht. There are of course wider implications when you look at the technical differences between a sloop and a ketch or schooner, particularly when it comes to the structural integrity of the vessel. It might be possible but not necessarily practical to design a platform that would allow both configurations.

Nevertheless, we wanted to explore how we could create a kind of ‘family resemblance’ with 2 vessels (well, actually there are 3 vessels, because we still can’t decide whether the 2 masted version should be a schooner or a ketch) sharing the majority of common elements but also distinguish between the two (three), not solely by the rig but also thinking how the two (three) would each serve a slightly different purpose. For example, one would be marketed more of a long range cruiser while the other would have amore ‘sporty’ character. This having said, both yachts should really be able to serve both. 

So, like real life twins, they both have their own character. So much for the theory, the rest is… well, plain sailing!