"One of the great privileges of running YDS is that we get to meet so many of the great yacht designers of the future." -Tom MacNaughton

Generally the Yacht or Small Craft Designer is a Naval Architect specializing in vessels under 200 feet (or 60 meters) in length. No amount of education defines a competent Naval Architect.  No degree or test measures his or her worth.  A person with wide experience and the ability to look up a formula in a book can be competent to design conventional vessels within a type they thoroughly understand without any formal training at all.  However, a person can memorize any number of facts, attain any degree, and pass any test without attaining competence as a designer if they haven't been taught good judgment in applying their knowledge. This course aims primarily at the development of judgment in the use of theory and skill in design development rather than stopping at teaching the theory alone.  It also works hard on increasing the general level of competence of the the field through careful gathering and testing of current knowledge as well as a program of original research intended to expand our knowledge.

The opportunities for employment for designers are excellent.  One can hang out one's own shingle, or work as a draftsman for another independent, possibly leading to recognition as a full designer with that firm.  Top boat yards and boat builders all either have, or should have, a competent design and drafting department. Since there are so few practicing yacht designers, it is easy to stand out and become known to the public.

Becoming a Designer

Traditionally one became a designer by the apprentice system. Often people started quite young working in the boat shop sweeping up, or in the office emptying waste baskets and sharpening pens. Progress in knowledge and responsibilities was at a natural pace, and by late teens or early twenties a quick mind could be established as a designer and look forward to a long working life. Strict enforcement of child labor laws has made this informal learning process almost unattainable.  Today many large yacht builders, large ship naval architects, practicing yacht designers, and people looking for second careers in a field that they love also take our curriculum to expand their knowledge and achieve their professional goals.

Nevertheless, here are the elements of experience it is desirable to acquire in addition to formal design training: Experience with boats on the water is foremost. Ideally you should always own and use a boat to keep your thinking fresh. Second in importance is experience with repairs and maintenance in the most competent yard you can find. Experience with new construction, in as many materials as possible, is next in importance. While CAD has now almost entirely replaced manual drafting, it is still useful to understand the techniques of manual drafting and lofting thoroughly and have experience with freehand drawing.  Further, any type of marine construction, materials science, or structural analysis training will be of great help, as a basis for understanding the more specialized information in our curriculum.

Today there are several routes to becoming a yacht designer through formal training. Basically these divide into home study courses and residential class room courses. Our school is one of only two teaching distance learning students and we believe still  the only one taught by practicing designers.   So far as we know we have one of three residential programs. We have a large number of distance learning students all over the world and often have students studying with us here in Eastport as well.  Primarily we would describe ourselves as a "distance learning" institution.  Unfortunately recently we have seen several programs at schools of "industrial design" both in the United States and abroad, which purport to have "yacht design" programs.  Sadly these schools seem to be teaching "styling" and "interior decorating", but not the essential naval architectural principals, methods, and calculations that are vital to a true professional.  We would be the last to say that we are your only good route to a career in yacht and small craft naval architecture.  If you are most comfortable with our approach, we are the school for you.  But do watch out for schools which don't really teach the entire package of skills you will need.

YDS's Philosophy & Approach to Testing and Grading

Designing is one long open book test. Tests are graded only for your information. "A" is professional quality. "B" is suitable for a draftsman working for another designer or on early lessons shows sufficient understanding of concepts. "C" is not acceptable. However, students do not graduate with an "average". This is not "pass or fail" either. It is "pass or redo". In other words you don't "flunk" and you do proceed at your own pace. Remember it is not necessarily the quickest student who is the best designer.  To take the course you must be reasonably proficient in English.  All other educational defects, including limited math training, we will assist you in over coming without additional charge.

We make a determined attempt to teach not just a series of techniques but a coherent approach designed to promote not just competence but excellence in yacht design. We firmly believe that excellence, and indeed genius, is to a large extent a matter of training and experience. We attempt to provide as much of both as possible.

To complete the course requires about the same amount of work as the courses for one's major at a four year college or university.  However, you proceed at your own pace. There are no time limits and no financial penalties for not keeping to a schedule.  Most students should expect to take four years but of course the determined student may well be able to reduce this time, just as they often can at a university.  Pricing is given below. The "lesson" or course titles are as follows, but over the years the number and names of lessons have evolved and this can be expected to continue:

Most students today take our Computer Assisted Design Course, "CAD course", before starting the Main Curriculum.  This teaches how to use the Rhinoceros(r) or "Rhino" CAD software used by most yacht and small craft design firms today to handle problems in marine design work.  This course is taken by students at other schools as well as those planning on taking our Main Curriculum.  You will find on the Enrollment Form current costs for this course and several bundle options incorporating Rhino Version 4.0 and a number of rendering and animation plug-ins that are of great use in working with design clients, doing technical articles, books, assembly drawings, and promotional renderings.  The special educational bundles and pricing allow designers to establish today offices with extraordinary design capabilities unheard of a few years ago for less than the cost of a minimally equipped manual drafting office.

The Main Curriculum at present consists of the following lessons.  This is a humbler word than courses, but that is what they amount to:
 

Manual drafting tools if you wish to use them, materials, and books may be purchased through the tool order form and the publishing section of our web site. You may also purchase them independently if there are appropriate sources in your area.

The twenty-four lessons cost $200 each with two exceptions. The first lesson, due to its introductory nature, costs $100. The last lesson costs $300 due to the large amount of time necessary to correct the tests and the additional materials provided along with the diploma upon graduation. Payments may be made by check, money order, Visa/MC or American Express. You may enroll online, by telephone, or through the mail.

Thus the total tuition, not counting computer programs, any manual drafting tools you desire, materials, and books comes to $4,800. The cost of the books and either CAD software or, even today occasionally, manual drafting tools adds to this. You can find some information on that in the frequently asked questions.  However, at the end of the course you should have an impressive library of technical works and all the tools of a complete design office. You will probably also have enough complete designs to form a good stock plans portfolio to launch you in the profession.

The pace is individual and the lesson fees are the sole "tuition" costs. Since the cost is strictly pay as you go and satisfaction guaranteed, you need not sign any contracts, you can stop and resume work if you need to without penalty. Naturally, if you decide the course is not for you, any lesson for which we have not corrected the tests at least once can be returned for a refund. There is only one minus to this pay as you go system. We reserve the right to raise lesson fees over time and these increases will apply to those in the middle of the curriculum as well as new students. We do not raise rates more than we can help. The total cost of the course has only risen $2,800 since we started about 21 years ago.  We intend the course to be run as efficiently as possible and wish to always keep the costs as low as they possibly can be.  Comparison with other options will show that we are doing well for our students at keeping costs down.  It should be understood though, that other schools which charge substantially more are not overcharging.  It is merely that they have a very different business model.  Remember that we do not advertise the school, other than the information on our web site.  All promotion other than the site is by our students, alumni, and the design firms which are gracious enough to refer prospective students to us.  Another way we keep costs down is that we do not rent impressive office space.  We run this school in the modern way with all our staff and instructors working from their own offices, which they maintain anyway for their own design work.  Almost all our expenses we would have anyway without the school because we are all practicing design professionals.  All this means that the school is kept very personal and very inexpensive.  We had always assumed that the school would remain small.  However the school has grown to be a major institution.  To maintain the personal quality and individual attention that we feel is so necessary to producing not just competent but truly excellent yacht and small craft naval architects, our major development thrust these days is finding and training to our teaching standards enough practicing designers so that everyone continues to have unlimited personal attention from really top people fully trained in our methods.  See our staff biographies for those working with us at present.

Work study programs can sometimes be available for students who choose to study here in Eastport..

There are no formal lectures for residential students but a practicing yacht designer is constantly available to help students on an individual basis.  We are told by our residential students that they feel the primary advantage that they get is the constant inspiration of being around a working design office.

The Degree

Upon satisfactory completion of all lessons you will receive a nice dignified diploma. This attests to your standing as a Naval Architect with a specialty in yacht and small craft design. Many people ask us if this is "accepted" as demonstrating that you are a qualified naval architect. Generally we think our students are well received by firms in that they are primarily looking for competence in producing designs under the direction of the firm. In this sense our recognition of your standing is commercially acceptable. We only know of  two jurisdictions where you need licensing to call yourself a naval architect.  We know of none in which you need a license to call yourself a yacht designer or small craft designer.  Some people will wish to call themselves engineers and advertise that they practice marine engineering as well as naval architecture.  In that case you will often need to have a license from your particular jurisdiction to use those terms.  Generally naval architects really only need to know hydrostatics, structural analysis, and other ordinary technical calculations and there is little economic advantage in having all the knowledge of  an engineer or engineering license per se.  

A Special Note for Residential Students

We do not have dormitories. Students vary in age and family responsibilities. There are apartments available in town in the $300 to $450 per month range.

Legal Notices

The State of Maine has had extremely complicated requirements and significant costs which it imposes on "trade" schools.  Recently these have eased and we are trying to find a way to get formal recognition by the State.  The sole hold up was that we are required to have a surety bond.  We do now have such a bond and expect to license the school shortly.  Until we can get this formal recognition we promote this course as an "avocational" course and note that it should be considered that we are charging for the publications and any support from instructors and all lesson correction is provided free of charge. This doesn’t make any difference in the instruction. It does allow us to operate and provide you with this service until such time as it becomes possible to gain their recognition as a vocational course, which will have advantages to students in obtaining loans, state and federal aid, etc.   It is important to understand that this state licensing does not in any way rule on the academic quality of the school.  If it were a guarantee of educational quality it would have more value to more of our students.  What it does do for students is to make reasonably sure that the school has consistent financial policies and is not some sort of scam.

The Learning and Skills Council in Britain does recognize our school and will, under certain circumstances, help British citizens with the money necessary to attend.  Again it is very important to emphasize, as other schools often fail to do, that this does not in any way mean that the Council has examined or approved the academic content of this school.

Generally you should understand that there are a great number of licensing, registration, and accreditation programs of various sorts world wide.  We are happy to apply for any which benefit specific students and will not significantly raise the cost to the student body as a whole.  However you should be aware that most of these are completely meaningless for the purposes of most students in that they do not examine the school's academic standards.  The most important standard you can go by remains the acceptance of our school by firms in the industry.

We should also note that the words "school" and "degree" are used herein in the common English sense and may not conform to the legal usage of these terms in any given jurisdiction.  Where these words would be inappropriate in the context we use them they should be considered to be whatever other words mean what we mean when we use them in common English.  We apologize for all this "legal stuff" but it is best to be completely clear on all this.