16 PROFESSIONAL BOATBUILDERROVINGSANDREI ROCHIAN (BOTH)A year ago, in the Rovings item “ e Manchurian Candi-
date” (PBB No. 163), we visited with Andrei Rochian, a
Romanian naval architect practicing in the United Kingdom,
who shared photos and renderings of a 43' (13.1m) motor-
yacht that he described as “the rst series-produced berglass
motoryacht built in the ‘Industrial North’ of China, more spe-
ci cally Shenyang, capital of
Manchuria, the ancient home
of the Qing Dynasty.” Rochian
o ered insight into the emerg-
ing yacht-building industry in
that region of the country, cit-
ing a French company making
aluminum boats and another,
composite catamarans, adding
that the Wanda Group in
Dalian owns the well-known
brand Sunseeker Interna-
tional, based in the United
Kingdom.
Rochian seems to have
built his design practice, in
part at least, by his willing-
ness to work with entities in
far- ung parts of the globe, such as
Brazil; his Focker 255GT powerboat
was built by Fibrafort Boats and sched-
uled for launching at the 2018 boat
show in Rio de Janeiro. In the U.S., he
worked with the Regal Boat design
team in Orlando, Florida, to create its
new Sport Coupe 42 (12.8m).
In the same Rovings item, we men-
tioned his working with a builder in
South Korea; that project, a 40' (12.2m)
aluminum sailboat, has since been
completed. During his six years work-
ing in Asia (China, Taiwan, and Hong
Kong, for brands such as Selene, and
Prout Catamarans), Rochian developed
a relationship with GHI Yachts in South
Jeolla Province, South Korea.
Rochian: “ ey were initially a naval
shipyard. e name comes from ‘heavy
industry.’ ey started [in yachts] by
building a number of trawlers and sail-
boats in steel and aluminum on low-
cost sets of plans. en they commissioned the design of a
63 ' [19.2m] sail catamaran from a French design o ce,
which they built in aluminum; the catamaran looks good.
ey set up a very ambitious program of building 100'+
[30.5m] aluminum motoryachts. ey are doing theirdevelopment by nancing with the Korean Government
Development Agency. I think what they do is develop a
portfolio of delivered aluminum motor and sail and catama-
ran yacht projects, develop the know-how and the skills, and
establish a name for themselves. I think they mostly aim to
sell to Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Southeast
Asia, and perhaps they are
also targeting France, as their
main design partner is
French.
“ ey contracted me for
the design of their agship sail
yachts. I delivered the full
design package, including
conceptual design, exterior
and interior design, construc-
tion plans, Korean Registry
certi cation documentation,
cutting les, 3D CAD model-
ing, and many renderings and
visualizations. ey are not
experienced with regards to
sail yacht design, and there-
fore they caved in to the pres-
sures of the French design o ce, which
in uenced them with regard to some
aspects of my 40' design. is is why
they did the transom platform as you
can see in the photos, inspired by the
French 48' Bénéteau Oceanis.” Rochian
performed the structural engineering
for the project, employing nite ele-
ment analysis (FEA) from Intact Solu-
tions (Madison, Wisconsin).
Rochian says this part of South
Korea is well known for its boatbuild-
ing innovations, dating to the 16th
century when “the famous admiral
Yi Sun-sin defeated a huge Japanese
eet.”
Basic specifications: LOA 40'
(12.2m), LWL 34' 10 " (10.6m), beam
13 ' 2 " (4m), dra 6' 0 " (1.8m), displace-
ment (dry) 20,900 lbs (9,500 kg), sail
area 883 sq (82m^2 ).
Andrei Rochian, Lissenden 7, 1
Burton Rd., Branksome Park, Poole,
Dorset BH13 6DS, U.K., tel. 44 7434887442, website
http://www.yacht.ro.
GHI Yachts, 1697-5, Nanchun-ri, Samho-eup, Youngam-
gun, Jeonnam, KR, tel. +82 61–464–0900, fax +82 6641–
464–0790, website ghiyachts.tradekorea.com. —D.S.Rochian says the builder, who also works
closely with a French design rm, adjusted
his drawings to incorporate a Bénéteau-
inspired retractable transom swim platform.Andrei Rochian, a U.K.-based naval architect, has been working
with the South Korean shipyard GHI Yachts to develop a line of
aluminum boats, beginning with this 40' (12.2m) sailboat, tted
out with U.S.- and European-brand gear.Designing an Aluminum Sailboat for Southeast Asia
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