Predetermined Pedigree
Can today’s technology establish the value of your perfect sportfish?

By: Heather Maxwell

(Originally published Marlin Magazine February 2003)

Last night I was pleased to find one of my favorite movies on the television. “In Harm’s Way” in all its glory right there in prime time, probably due to the fact that Pearl Harbor Day is just around the corner. As a consummate John Wayne fan my husband put up with the black & white film and joined me on the couch. Just as the Japanese began their bombing attack Billy jumped off the couch shouting about a launch boat on the screen – the shot was at a perfect angle and her chine was clearly visible. “That’s where it all started” said my husband “Warren O’Neal just added more V and more flair after his days of building PT boats for the Navy.” “Can you see it?” he added. And I could.

From There to Here
To fully understand the technological advances in boat building it is necessary to take a look back at the beginning. In Dare County the beginnings are simple and definite. In the late 1950’s O’Neal, who is dubbed the father of boat building, revolutionized hull design by adding the deep-v entry that is the standard today. At that time hulls were hand honed and planked with butt blocks on the inside and the whole hull was varnished inside and out. The introduction of epoxy glue is considered one of the greatest technological advances to date. By the mid-60’s hulls could be scarf planked and glued, a process that saved time, added strength and gave builders more leeway to mold the shape of the hull including the famous “carolina flair”. In 1976 Buddy Davis took a lesson from the builders at Rybovich and tried his hand at diagonally, double planking a hull, adding even more strength. Four years later Davis was the first to build a hull upside down on a jig. From the late 70’s building techniques moved along in leaps and bounds. 1984 saw the birth of Carolina’s first plug and fiberglass mold and ten years later the first computer generated design of a Carolina sportfish was rolled out on the drawing board. While the average fisherman may not have known it then, that critical moment in 1994 opened the doors of boatbuilding to us all.

Do It Yourself
Go ahead, you can do it. Okay, so maybe you’re not mechanically inclined and sawing, honing and hammering is not your style. Perhaps your time would be better spent elsewhere. But come on, admit it, you’re a fisherman and fishermen who have fished enough have some idea about the boat they would build. Somewhere in the recesses of your dreams is the perfect sportfish and thanks to today’s technology you can have her.

Researching this article I put myself in those shoes. I have a boat in my head and a pocket full of money. I seek out a designer, CNC cut a jig, throw it in a truck and head to Dare County to find a builder. “I would work with you on the design.” Says Darron Roop of Shorebreak, a marine development and design firm in Va. Beach. “But I wouldn’t recommend going into a project without choosing a builder first.” Roop sights several reasons including the fact that builders have preferences on materials and styling. Robert Ullberg of Ullberg Yacht Design took the relationship between designer and builder one step further “It’s a combination of knowledge that maintains a safety factor.” States Ullberg “The designer and the builder both have things they hold dear – the key to a good boat is compromise.”

Engineer VS. Stylist
All of the designers will agree that you’ve got to have your RG, CFD, SSR, HFDB and SLAW before you can have your CAD. What that means to you and me is back in the early 70’s a freelance yacht designer named Dr. John Letcher set about developing computer programs for conquering the functions of boat design. The advent of microcomputers nearly ten years later put Letcher on the fast track to program his machines for problem solving. Letcher’s company, AeroHydro, Inc., now provides some of the most advanced software for Computer Aided Design (CAD) and 3D surface modeling.

Today the support of computer software has made the design analysis easier. “I’m not sure a “naval architect” is 100% essential.” States Buddy Davis “but the tools that he uses in the design process are 100% essential for someone who is not a naval architect. The process is the process. You’ve got to analyze your speed and LCG and ability if you want to be sure it’s right.” Davis adds “Forget about what the boat looks like.”

It is often said that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and that is true, but I don’t know anyone who wants an ugly boat even if a CAD system says she’ll, in the simplest terms, float.

“Unfortunately we don’t get exposed to a lot of different styles.” Says Ullberg “A designer has a shape he is fond of and goes with it.” Ullberg recently worked with John Bayliss in engineering his new sportfish boats “That was the pleasure in working with Bayliss; he had run so many boats and had such extensive experience. We took the best of all of their elements, sorted through them and, well, massaged the design until both of us were happy. The funny thing about boats,” Ullberg adds “is that none of them run the same. In the end you do what is right for the boat.”

Darron Roop calls the same observation a “gut check”. “You have to get on different boats and see how they react.” He says “I have some artistic freedom and I try to make any boat I draw as pretty as I can, but I am satisfied with simply a good foundation.”

At American Custom Yachts the in-house naval architect, Walter Hahn, expresses an opinion resonant of his 30 years of experience. “You shouldn’t design something without being able to build it. When all the elements come together well you find that you can’t design something that won’t work.” So while each of these architects love to design something beautiful their number one goal is to design a boat that is safe and sound – and in their eyes that is the beauty of their trade.

No Substitute
The process is the process, so says Buddy Davis and the process is an age-old corner stone of ship design and construction. Called a design spiral, the architect moves in a circle toward the center point of Design Detail. Working the same elements time and again until hydrostatics, arrangements, stability and cost all meet at acceptable levels of safety, power and performance. “Skipping a step is called “spoking”” admits Roop and since there is a name for it skipping steps must be common. One step in the spiral is called “power” and when engines are decided on “power” and its counterpart “preliminary power” can be passed over.

“It’s a dynamic.” Says Ullberg. “It’s the dividing line between and architect and a stylist.” When Bayliss decided to start building boats he chose his niche first. “There is a trend out there to fish out of the country.” says Bayliss “These are the guys we wanted to build boats for.” With that niche came plenty of opportunities for design problem solving and Bayliss sought out an architect to handle the elements of speed, fuel capacity, redundant systems and accommodations. “Robert was key to placement of the equipment and he nailed the bottom.” States Bayliss. In turn Ullberg praises Bayliss for his keen eye and preparation for sitting down at the drawing board “He came in with these stacks of notes and drawings. He wanted to do something fresh. We took all the elements and designed around them; the boat looks like a contribution of both the architect and the builder.”

While there is no substitute for the design process, there is also no substitute for experience and a keen eye. “I started scraping bottoms.” Says Water Hahn. “I have been so fortunate at American to have worked with builders for 25 years. I worked my way through the shop, built hulls and even lofted by hand.” For Roop building experience started at minimum wage during summers off from college “There are certain things a designer must look at without the numbers.” Says Roop “I remember the day I “Got It!”, we were lofting a boat at Blackwell Boatworks and I stepped back and finally understood.” Ullberg as well believes in his eye and the abilities of his hands. “I pride myself on the fact that I can fabricate it – welding, lofting, hand honing. If a problem jumps up a history of hand on experience will likely provide a solution.” He adds “We bridge the gap between the academic side and the eye.”

Building Value
Back to my pocket full of money. I read this article and decide to find a builder before I find an architect and then the thought hits me – resale value! “It’s a gamble.” Says Dominque La Combe of American Custom Yachts. “There is so much to qualify when working through the process of elimination to find a builder.” In La Comb’s eyes 80 to 100 hulls makes a history and American is now on hull #12. “A builder with a track record maybe 3, 4 or 5 boats has built a name.” he adds “And five good boats mean fewer first steps on the buyer’s boat.” And less risk no doubt. A track record also translates into the fact that the builder will likely stand behind his product. In La Comb’s shop today there are three hulls under construction ranging from 70 to 72 feet. A built in value, and perhaps a priceless one in terms of peace of mind for the non-visionary buyer, is that several of American’s boats are available to see. “A buyer can look at four or five of our boats and tell us what they want different in theirs.”

For Ullberg and Bayliss the issue of value started the day Bayliss began seeking an architect. “I was looking for someone new because I wanted to do something new.” Says Bayliss and his process of elimination is very much like the one La Comb describes. “I wanted a designer with a pedigree.” Bayliss adds and that’s just what he got. Ullberg believes the architect adds to the intrinsic value of the boat “An architect eliminates an unknown; there is comfort there for the builder and the buyer.”

Peace of mind aside, the process of designing and building cold molded jig boats does add equity for the buyer. “Do the math.” Says Davis and Roop, whose most recent design is a 62 footer for Titan Yachts in Ocean City, Maryland spells it all out. “There is substantial out lay at the beginning of the project for design costs and the purchase of the jig, but it all includes through put.” Roop explains that the jig takes away any guesswork once building begins and frees up a lot of man hours, the computer cut (CNC) also provides the builder with a fair surface and translates into savings in planking all the way through to painting.

Buddy Davis is a legend around these parts. Most people admire him for his eye and ability but a lot of folks admire him for his tenacity. He has survived through the early changes in building technology, through the luxury tax, through potential buy outs and reorganizations. Today, at B&D Boatworks he is starting all over again. “How did I know we could sell them? Because our competition is selling them.” States Davis. And to be sure the buzz in Dare County is how busy everyone is. “The reason we are all busy is the value.” Says Davis “Where else can you buys at the price we’re delivering down here?” Davis sites low overhead and a diverse sportfish market as the fuel to the carolina builders’ fire. Davis has worked with Donald Blount & Assoc. for twenty years on his boat designs and believes that inherent value to the B&D line lies in hydrostatic analysis and stability testing. “You pay architects for their expertise, they give you the scantlings and you don’t have to do what they say, but we do.” Says Davis “We weren’t 100% sure about this, there was a gamble but we have the ability to build our boats correctly and we have great facilities for getting it done.”

The Three-Legged Stool
Darron Roop told me that every builder and buyer and architect for that matter wants everything in a boat, all you have to do is find a balance. But to find a balance you have to throw it out on the table…everything you want Mr. Buyer and Mr. Builder and Mr. Designer. As the three-legged stool takes on an all new meaning the perfect boat starts to take form.

For Hahn, the relationship between buyer, builder and designer provides a guarantee. “If you go so far as to include everyone actively, even the decorator, it eliminates finger pointing. The relationship almost provides that there will be no problems in the end.”

“Sometimes owners have pretty good ideas,” Says Ullberg “you’d be surprised.” For Bayliss’ first hull the “Endeavor” builder, designer and the buyer worked closely together. “The owner was a pleasure, he pretty much went with what John and I thought right from that first line drawing.” When faced with a challenge by an owner Ullberg is a bit of a salesman, “I never tell them no,” he admits “I tell them I have to verify that it is a do-able thing and that I will try my best.” To Bayliss it is the builder’s responsibility to satisfy the owner and that ensures balance in the project.

So “do it myself?” yes, I would still do it myself – in fact, without me the builders won’t be building and the designers won’t be designing. But do it alone – well that’s a whole different ballgame, isn’t it? From today’s computers all the way back to Warren O’Neal’s shop in Manteo, new technologies have provided advances that we may never have imagined but one truth still holds dear: Technology can never replace the touch of a hand, the rock of the eye or the product of a relationship between men striving toward the same goal.

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