Westlawn: A History of a School That Builds Boats

Over seventy-five years ago (in 1930), boat designers Gerald Taylor White and E. S. Nelson founded a small school. It was named Westlawn after White's Montville, New Jersey farm. There had never been a school quite like it before. White and Nelson's idea was to teach boat design via correspondence. Thirty-eight years later, Westlawn was still going and had trained many successful designers.

Originally, Westlawn taught wooden boat design and only wooden boat design. Indeed, graduate Bruce King had to get special permission to do a fiberglass vessel for his final exam. By 1968 two factors had come together. One, Westlawn in spite of its fine track record had fallen behind the times. Two, the boating industry was growing at a tremendous rate. (In 1930, there were 1,500,000 recreational boats, while by 1968 there were 8,440,000). More trained designers were required, and Westlawn needed modernization.

So it was, in 1968, that the National Association of Engine and Boat Manufacturers (NAEBM) took over Westlawn and hired naval architect Jules Fleder as Westlawn’s new president. Though Fleder had been about to start work in Phil Rhode's design office, he went with NAEBM and Westlawn. Current Westlawn Board chairman, Bob MacNeill, also came aboard and supervised a complete revamping and upgrade of the course. This process was continued and completed by future Westlawn president, Norm Nudelman; and in a very short time not only had much of the course been reworked, but both fiberglass and aluminum construction had been added. Indeed, the aluminum text was written in conjunction with the Aluminum Association by John Kingdon, a Westlawn graduate who had gone on to work for the American Bureau of Shipping.

Further texts were soon added such as Multihull Design, by Westlawn graduate Bob Harris. Conrad Miller added the Marine Engine text, and Electrical Systems was written by Charles Kelly. Westlawn graduate John Ammerman, along with Halsey Herreshoff, wrote a new two-volume text on sailboat design. Today, the course consists of 38 lessons, and takes an average of four years of part-time study to complete.

NAEBM merged with the Boating Industry Association (BIA) to form the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), which operated Westlawn until April 1, of 2003. On that day, the American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC) officially acquired Westlawn and Dave Gerr took over as director. Though it remains a rigorous and demanding course, once again it was time to upgrade the curriculum. Dave Gerr, thus follows in the footsteps of Gerry White, Jules Fleder, Bob MacNeill, Norm Nudelman, and Jim Backus in guiding the program. In the following years many upgrades have been added, but—as Gerr noted, “We will never be finished improving and enhancing the program. There is always something to add and there are always new developments. Our affiliation with ABYC and its members continues to be an invaluable asset in this regard.”

Westlawn: The Operation of a Unique School

An amazing number of world-famous designers, production boatbuilders, and professional organizations have either been Westlawn alumni or students or have employed Westlawn alumni or students (click here to see more). Indeed, there are currently only three accredited schools that have courses specifically dedicated to teaching small-craft design: Westlawn, The Landing School, and the University of Southampton. If you really want to focus your study on small-draft design (boat and yacht design), there are no other accredited options.

Westlawn is even more unusual in that it is entirely a distance-learning school. This offers unique advantages. First, students can learn at home at their own pace. Some students who've been able to devote large blocks of time to study have completed the entire course in two to two-and-a-half years. More common is four to five years. A few have taken over ten years to finish. That's the beauty of Westlawn's approach; it is designed to adjust to each student's time frame and individual needs.

Second, because Westlawn doesn't have to maintain a large campus and because there are no room-and-board costs or travel expenses, Westlawn is far less expensive than any other comparable school.

Third, anyone over 18 years old with a high-school diploma can enroll at any time. This, in the ideal world, is the way every school should work. Everyone who wanted to should, theoretically, be able to go to, say, Harvard or Julliard. If you can do the work, you graduate. If you can't, you don't. Of course for traditional campus-based schools this can't be done. There wouldn't be enough class-room space, enough facilities, or enough faculty; and slow students would hold faster students back. Westlawn, however, can do just this. Anyone who dreams of becoming a boat designer can enroll, and for a very modest initial tuition see how well he or she does in small-craft design, and how well they like it.

Now, Westlawn is a very demanding program. The fact that it takes average students somewhat over four years to complete the full Yacht-Design program gives some idea of how comprehensive it is and how much work it takes. (The Yacht Design Lite course takes about a year.) The result is that dreamers who start out do not finish. You have to be serious, dedicated, and self disciplined to complete a program like this. In fact, the whole process of doing the work to complete Module 1 (the first year) can almost be thought of as the admissions test for a normal school.

Finally, Westlawn's curriculum is so extensive that many students find work in the marine industry well before completing the course. Indeed, current director Dave Gerr got his first job as a designer when he had finished only a bit more than the first two Modules. He got that job largely based on the drawings he had produced for his Westlawn studies. Working over 60 hours a week designing megayachts and commercial vessels, it took Gerr many more years (working part time) to get his Westlawn diploma. This is not an uncommon path for some Westlawn students.

The actual study process for Westlawn is more straightforward than you'd think. Upon enrollment in Module 1 (or in Yacht Design Lite), the new student receives a complete study kit, including text books, and lesson assignments, as well as a supplemental Student Guide (technical reference manual), and various reference drawings. The lesson assignments are carefully matched to each of the Westlawn texts and must be completed in order. Students study the text, answer the required lesson questions, and email (or mail) in their lessons. The Westlawn instructor reviews and grades the lesson assignment, and returns it with a detailed lesson report, filled with suggestions, advice, and corrections. Student CAD files and manual drawings are marked up and corrected by the instructor as well. Often, additional example drawings and calculations are returned to the student to further explain aspects of the lesson. Students also call and email with questions frequently. There can be a great deal of interaction between the student and instructor during the course of completing a single lesson.

Every lesson, in every subject must be passed with a grade of 75% or higher. If the grade is lower, the lesson is marked "Preliminary" and returned to be redone (along with all the instructor comments and additional information). The next lesson can't be submitted until the previous lesson has been passed. Students can redo a lesson as many times as needed to pass. This brings up another nice feature of the Westlawn program—no one fails. If a student is having difficulty with some lesson, he or she simply keeps trying until they get it. Of course, some students go through quickly with high grades and virtually no "Preliminaries." Others, have may have to work longer to master some concepts and take more time.

Like all distance-learning courses, there are no semesters and no fixed dates for the beginning or completion of studies. Students in the Yacht Design and Yacht Design Lite programs have one year (from whenever they enroll) to complete a Module, but they can (and many do) simply sign up for extensions to continue their studies if they haven't been able to put in enough time that year to finish. (Most of Westlawn’s shorter continuing-education courses allow six months for completion.)

Today, the Internet plays an increasing role in communication of all types. Westlawn is no exception and most lessons are received and returned electronically via Westlawn’s Web-based Lesson Center. Westlawn's website includes an active student forum and other on-line features to enhance the Westlawn learning experience. These Internet/on-line components are integral to the curriculum.

The Internet, however, does not change the basic working principles of the school. This is a model that remarkably enough, over more than 75 years, has trained more practicing small-craft designers than many of the other institutions in the world combined (see Success Stories). Westlawn continues to be one of the very few institutions in the world to train professional small-craft designers. We do not rest on past accomplishments; however, and have exciting plans for future enhancements based on Westlawn’s tried and proven teaching system