SKAW Sailing

Due to the complexity of sailboats and the small size of the company, my role as a Junior Naval Architect spanned across many fields of engineering. Working in tight knit team in a racing environment like Lorient was especially exciting as it is one of the most active areas for sailing and racing innovation in the world.

My contributions revolved a lot around foils, notably on the design of a mechanism to control their position. This involved measurements, CAD, 3D printing, and structural FEA. I also combined programming skills with new knowledge of aerodynamics to design and analyse wing profiles in foils using software like XFOIL, AVL and grasshopper.

Throughout the six months, I gained a valuable amount of knowledge on carbon fibre and its applications as well as in electronics when working on a low-cost, low drag hydrogenator. I was also able to use a lot of my design and graphics skills to improve company logos and assets and communicate projects and concepts to clients. One particular achievement was creating a deck of four A1 spreads to communicate a design concept in response to a tender which we won.