suppliers for special drawings when their published catalogues are insufficiently accurate.

The net result of all these is an increase in productivity which enables a small team to produce more designs in finer detail faster than previously possible; to explore more design options and portray them more accurately. Freed from much of the frustration of expressing themselves through paper and pencil, the designer can concentrate on the substance of his designs. Why should he have to spend time drawing both sides of a symmetrical object when a computer can mirror one half instantly. Why should it be necessary to laboriously rescale off a general layout before getting down to a detail drawing? Computer drafting cuts through all this and makes the designer's time more productive, more satisfying, and ultimately leads to better yachts.

When we initially bought our Intergraph CAD system we were told that we would still be finding out new things we could do with it in four years time, and its potential would be limited only by our own imaginations. Although we refused to accept it at the time, this remark has proved very true. I do not expect we will ever know it all”, but every improvement in accuracy, convenience, presentation, efficiency and technique brings closer the day when one would no more think of designing a yacht without a CAD system than without a calculator.

While our Intergraph system is a powerful design tool I have not abandoned the use of my experience and artist's eye to draw the primary curves that determine the aesthetic lines. These are then digitised into the Intergraph system for completion to a level of accuracy that is not possible by traditional small-scale drawing methods.

The computer has enhanced the capabilites of my team. The faster a designer can get his ideas into communicable form, the less obstruction there is to creative flow. Changes are easy to incorporate, so there is a greater incentive to explore alternative design possibilities. Often one is faced with a small