Contact:
Skip Burdon at ABYC
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990-4460, x25
sburdon@abycinc.org

Westlawn Institute and
PassageMaker Magazine
Announce the 2009 Design
Competition Winners!
Three Amazingly Different Designs Are Finalists
January
14, 2010, Annapolis, MD:
The Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology is pleased to announce the winners
of the 2009 Westlawn/PassageMaker design competition sponsored by Imtra Marine Lighting, with matching
funds from ABYC. Published in the
October 2008 issue of PassageMaker, the primary goals for this competition were
to create an economical and affordable cruiser for Jane and Bob, and their
65-pound black lab, Bart, to live aboard for two or three months while cruising
such routes as the Great Circle or the Inside Passage to Southeast Alaska, as
well as tropical cruising in the Caribbean and Mexico. These inland waters
include bridges and will have areas with some limits on draft. (For the
complete competition rules and conditions see the October 2008 issue of
PassageMaker, or Click
Here to read online.)
Twenty-four
designers submitted a remarkable assortment of innovative boat concepts.
Entries ranged from basic sketches to bound books of design calculations and
drawings from a PhD naval architect. Boat sizes ranged from 31 feet to 78 feet,
and were both monohull and multihull. Construction materials ran the gamut from
fiberglass to aluminum to wood/epoxy and steel.
Three
Finalists
After the
initial weeding-out process (all judges looked at every boat design submitted),
there were eight potential finalists vying for top honors. Each of these was
put on the drawing table as all the judges reviewed every sheet for each of
these designs. One by one, the remaining entries were winnowed down until three
finalists were left. Though the judges had now eliminated twenty-one of the
submitted designs, there was universal agreement on the designs eliminated as
well as on which three should be in the top three. From here, the process was
more challenging.
It would
be hard to imagine three more completely different designs those that were
sitting on the finalist’s table: a 49-foot, slender-hull power tri; a 44-foot
monohull with traditional styling; and a 32-foot lobster yacht with a
hard-chine hull. Each design had supporters among the judges, and intense
debate ranged about their merits and drawbacks.

Yves-Marie de Tanton’s LST.32
The
Winner – An Economical Lobster Yacht
Yves-Marie
de Tanton’s LST.32 hard-chine hull lobster yacht took top honors. The
judges were impressed that the design met all the criteria in one of the smallest
and thus least expensive packages. Not only does the boat have good deck access
(with stairs gentle enough to even be used by a large dog) and a large outside
fly-bridge deck with helm station, but the interior arrangement has a generous
forward master stateroom with enclosed head and a completely separate shower.
The pilothouse saloon has a usable though compact galley with a comfortable
dinette/settee berth that will really seat four for a meal. Further, the boat
has an aft cabin with a washer drier—a real boon for the live-aboard cruiser.
The single aft berth extends to form a double, so another couple can join Jane,
Bob and Bart for weekend cruises with their own private cabin.
The LST.32
gets quite a lot out of a small volume, and the smaller size not only reduces
initial cost, but makes maneuvering in tight spots on inland waterways easier.
The judges reservations about the LST.32 were minor—dinghy handling was
acceptable, but interfered with the use of the swim platform, and—though a
good-looking boat—it struck most of the judges as somewhat high in appearance
relative to its length. This, however, is almost an inevitable result of
working so much into 32-foot LOA. In fact, Tanton notes that the high profile
requires a bow thruster (included in the design) to insure good handling in a
stiff breeze during docking. The bridge clearance of 19-feet 5-inches will pose
some issues on inland waters.

Karl Stambaugh’s Redwing 40 Hybrid
A
Traditional 40-Footer with Hybrid Drive
Karl
Stambaugh’s Redwing 40 Hybrid struck almost all of the judges as the
most attractive of the designs submitted. Though 8 feet longer than the Tanton LST.32,
the Redwing 40 is actually nine inches narrower and has just 4 inches
more draft. Bridge clearance, is considerably lower than the LST.32. In
fact, with 12-foot 6-inch bridge clearance the Redwing 40 will go under
many bridges without waiting for them to open. Lowering the mast would reduce
bridge clearance to just 8’ – 9”. Initially, several of the judges felt quite
strongly that the Redwing 40 Hybrid should be the winner. Being larger,
though, this boat will cost more and so everything would have to really be spot
on throughout this design to justify the extra expense. Though the Redwing
40 Hybrid, was the personal favorite of several judges—after accounting for
a few minor issues—this design’s score on the final-criteria judging sheet came
in behind the LST.32.

Jon Ames’ Triple Threat
Radical
and Innovative – A Power Tri
Triple
Threat—a 49-foot
modern power trimaran with slender hulls—impressed all the judges with its bold
innovation and handsome styling. It’s rare to see a truly fresh and different
boat design that six completely independent judges all agree is handsome and
inarguably unique. Triple Threat accomplished just that, no mean feat!
Further, all the judges were impressed with how carefully and sensibly thought
out this unusual concept was. It is quite a difficult design challenge to work
in usable accommodations in the odd form and tight spaces of a trimaran of this
size with its very slender hulls. Designer Jon Ames accomplished just that.
Long,
slender hulls can be driven very economically with much less power for a given
speed than any conventional monohull. Such hull forms are fundamentally more
fuel efficient. These long slender hulls also slice through the waves and have
small waterplane areas, factors that combine make for lower heave and roll
motions, and the multihull from will roll to much smaller angles than a
monohull. Taken together, this creates a boat with particularly comfortable
motion. (Note multihulls with fat, beamy hulls—and there are many such out
there—don’t gain many of these advantages.)
All the
judges concurred that this design would be the most expensive of the three
finalist deigns. Indeed, none of the judges believed Triple Threat could
be built for under a million dollars. This is not a design fault. It’s a
necessary result of the complexity of the multiple hulls, as well as the
intricate superstructure and the lightweight, composite construction required.
The cost plus a few details was all that kept Triple Threat from the top
spot.
For more
detail on the designs, the designers and the judging process, see the December
2009 issue of Westlawn’s quarterly journal, The Masthead at:
http://www.westlawn.edu/news/WestlawnMasthead11_Dec09.pdf
Or see the
January 2010 issue of PassageMaker magazine.
Click
Here to read comments from some of the judges on PassageMaker’s website.
Imtra Marine Lighting is a
leader in the design and manufacture of lighting for boats and a pioneer in
marine LED lighting. Safe, dependable, and long-lasting, Imtra’s eco-friendly
“green” LED lighting includes spots, fixtures, reading lights, courtesy lights,
chart lights, engine rooms lights, and other LED products. Combined with its
extensive line of switches, dimmers, and transformers, Imtra offers a complete
one-stop-shop for marine lighting and delivers the most advanced solutions on
the market. For more information, visit www.imtra.com.
Founded in
1930, the Westlawn Institute of Marine
Technology is the only nationally accredited and state-certified
distance-learning school of small-craft design in the United States. As the
not-for-profit educational affiliate of the American
Boat and Yacht Council, the mission of the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology
is threefold:
■ To provide our students with
the skills and knowledge required to build a rewarding career in the profession
of yacht and small-craft naval architecture.
■ To support continued growth of
the recreational and small-craft marine community through the development of
well-trained, safety-oriented, boat designers developing better products for
the benefit of the boating public.
■ To provide continuing
education to marine-industry professionals.
To learn
more about Westlawn, please call (207) 853-6600 or visit the Westlawn website
at: www.westlawn.edu.