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Boat Design:
Conventional University Training:
Unfortunately conventional 4-year universities have never spent a
great deal of time worrying about or courting folks intent on breaking
into the
yacht or boat design trade. I guess they simply thought of it too
much as a "trade". The emphasis has always been, and to a
large extent still is the world of big ships.
That has mitigated a small bit starting about 10-years ago as the big ship builders around
the US began to close their doors. At almost that same instant small boats
and the designers that create them looked
a lot more attractive. So now small boats are supposedly more of a
focus of the big universities. Well, at the risk of sounding cynical,
I'm not so sure. It is hard to detect from their curriculum.
Below is a
list of schools of Naval Architecture or those offering the now more
environmentally correct curriculum "Ocean Engineering". At least these
are the ones I'm familiar with. I'm not presenting a wealth of contact
information only because they are not hard to find with a simple web
search.
University of
Michigan
Webb
University
University of
New Orleans
Virginia Tech
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
UCLA
Other Full Time Schools:
Schools which teach the requirements of the design trade as part of a
multi-year discipline.
Landings
School - The Landing School is a full-time
post secondary vocational school specializing in education for careers
in the marine industry. It provides educational programs for
students seeking career opportunities as designers, builders, or systems
technicians of both recreational and commercial watercraft.
The Landing School
P.O. Box 1490
Kennebunkport, ME 04046
Tel: 207-985-7976
Fax: 207-985-7942
http://www.thelandingsschool.org
Correspondence Training:
For decades
one of the most respected avenue for learning the skills necessary to
become a small craft designer has been through distance learning.
If you question that fact, you need only to look at the long list of
experienced and in some cases legendary designers who began their
careers studying at home.
Westlawn institute of Marine Technology
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Founded in 1930, Westlawn is the only
nationally accredited and state approved distance-learning school of
small-craft design in the United States. It also has the most respected
list of designers among its alumnus. A degree from Westlawn can provide
the specific skills necessary to do the job. If you couple that
small craft specific training with additional engineering study or
better still an engineering degree, you'll have the best of all the
options. But that's just my opinion.
Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology
c/o Mystic Seaport
PO Box 6000
75 Greenmanville Avenue
Mystic CT 06355
Tel: (860) 572-7900
Fax: (860) 572-7939
http:///www.westlawn.edu
More to Come
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