Improving exterior customization in super yacht design at AMELS Holland B.V.

Abstract

This master thesis concentrated on the process of designing an exterior customization concept for standardized super yachts. It was executed for the Dutch yard AMELS Holland B.V Currently AMELS builds semi-custom yachts, which is a compromise compared to custom yacht building. In custom yacht building the client can decide about design, layout and technical requirements. In semi-custom super yachts, the exterior is standard and the interior can be customized by a yacht architect, based on a standardized layout. The exterior design is already defined when a client is not involved in the project yet. In the future of large yacht building it is expected that more customization is asked. The AMELS portfolio shows a large visual overlap between the yachts and is expanding towards larger yachts. Therefore the largest yacht from their fleet was chosen for customization. To be able to assess which items determine yacht exteriors, an evaluation model was developed. It is an adapted version of the automotive form hierarchy model (Grondelle and Van Dijk, 2004) and was used to qualitatively evaluate yacht exteriors. It resulted in a set of styling items which had impact on exterior aesthetics. Technical analysis on the building process and on the current AMELS 242 showed interferences between shaping components, technical systems and construction. Therefore an upgraded platform was developed. In the platform the shaping components were separated from the technical systems and construction. Next to the grey items, it is now possible to customize the form language layer (green items). When AMELS maintains the delivery time and competitive pricing, and there is no reason to assume they will not, a great advantage is created. Built on the core values of the company and the proven quality of the platform, clients are now able to involve their own designers in order to create a custom interior and exterior.