How to build custom | Baltic Yachts
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
The next step is putting together the design team: naval architect, interior designer and owner’s representative. Quite a few clients over the years have asked us to do all the design work ourselves. Even though we have all the skills in house to do that, we encourage them to appoint their own project team with whom we’ll work with closely on all aspects of design, development and engineering.
‘The choice of naval architect is a very personal one,’ Henry says. ‘It’s important that you gain their full attention and commitment, or you risk just being handed an old design. It’s worth considering the potential resale value of a yacht designed by a well-known naval architect, but balance that against the value of an up-and-coming naval architect who will give absolutely everything to the project.’
Some owners have a preferred naval architect in mind and engage them initially for a design development before awarding the full commission. Others give a design brief to several naval architects and ask them to work on concepts.
Around the same time, the owner’s rep is engaged with a first task of drawing up a working specification. This covers every aspect of the yacht from interior styling and systems design to the rig, sail handling setup and so on. ‘As boats have got bigger and more complex, with advanced technology and systems implemented and installed, having a solid and highly detailed working spec at the start of the project has become increasingly important,’ Henry says. His advice is to select an owner’s rep with a lot of prior experience, specifically on large sailing yacht builds.
The interior designer is another very personal choice. It helps to have a yacht interior specialist on the team with knowledge of yacht construction and the compromises that have to be made, but we’ve worked with innovative designers from outside the marine sector like Andreas Martin-Löf on the Baltic 110 Zemi, with superb results. ‘He really appreciated working with us because we were open to listen to him coming from a completely different industry,’ Baltic’s Elisabet Holm explains. ‘We attract people like that who are creative and also open to listening and learning.’
WHY BUILD IN COMPOSITE?
Carbon composite construction lends itself especially well to a full custom build. The primary benefit, of course, is weight reduction. Combined with its exceptional stiffness, this makes a huge difference to sailing performance. Weight is crucial when considering the load cases on board from the sail handling systems to the power requirements for propulsion. ‘Another benefit of composite is flexibility in styling and design,’ Henry says. ‘Complex curvatures are more easily achieved.’
Thermal efficiency in the hull and deck is also a significant advantage, and not just to boost the efficiency of air conditioning systems in hot weather. ‘We’re getting more questions about sailing in colder climates and on some boats we’re using used thicker sandwich construction to offer insulation against cold,’ he says.