INSIGHTS TELLTA LES By Jay Coyle170 YACHTING MARCH 2018steve haefeleYachting magazine Volume 223, No. 3 (ISSN 0043-9940, USPS 504-830) is published monthly by Bonnier Corp., 460 N. Orlando Ave., Suite 200, Winter Park, FL 32789. Copyright
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I
thought i wa s
seeing double!” Capt. B
exclaimed into the
phone. “Did you tip
too many tots of bourbon?”
I asked. “No, no,” he answered.
“Do you remember the custom
64-footer we built years ago?
Well, a copy of her arrived last
night and parked in my haul-
out slip. She’s a forgery. Can’t
you designers ever come up
with anything original?”
While Noah had likely swung
an adze in Capt. B’s yard, the
64-foot relic he spoke of was
from the casual-classic earth
tones, mirrors and ultra-suede
period of the early 1980s. The
“forgery” was decades younger,
a product of the techno-classic
gloss-teak, sisal and pop-up-
TV period of the early 2000s.
“They’re identical, for God’s
sake,” he said. “It’s nothing less
than plagiarism. Don’t you de-
signers have a code of ethics?”
I pointed out that one
couldn’t plagiarize one’s own
work. Both boats were from a
fi rm I was once associated with.
“OK, then it’s the equivalent
of turning in the same research
paper for two diff erent classes,”
Capt. B charged.
“Maybe so, but the odds
of two builders cobbling the
same creation is unlikely,” I
argued. “It would be nothing
short of a miracle if you and
one of your peers had actually
followed a set of plans.”
and out of the yard’s basin. He
keeps an eye peeled for vessels
in need and ensures that only
those that are properly cured
and paid in full are released.
I passed a fl eet of recent ar-
rivals undergoing treatment
as I made my way to Capt. B’s
offi ce. He greeted me, and we
marched to the yard’s storage“No sense in debating,” he
said. “Come see for yourself.”
These days, Capt. B’s yard is
focused on faith healing (ser-
vice), but the buildings and
sheds still have the salty patina
of a place that once dabbled in
the dark arts (yacht building).
Capt. B’s home sits like a for-
tress guarding the fairway incatacombs, where a yellowed
image of his 1980s build hung
on the wall. Faded blueprints
of the design lay on the table.
“Look familiar?” he asked.
“Maybe,” I said, hoping my
initials weren’t in a title block.
“Well, perhaps this will re-
fresh your memory,” he said,
pulling open the curtain and
revealing the “forgery” that
was fl oating nearby.
“Why yes, of course. I be-
lieve I do recall her now,” I
confessed. “A proper yacht
indeed: attractive lines, and
she appears well-balanced.
I’d bet she’s a good sea boat.
Nice work.”
“That’s not her, and that’s the
point,” Capt. B groused.
“Perhaps not, but certainly
your earlier eff ort contributed
to her DNA,” I said, appealing
to his sense of reason.
“Admit it, Coyle: You and
your brethren do nothing more
than paint by the numbers,”
he said. “Yacht designs are no
more original than muscula-
tures in charcoal or bowls of
fruit in pastel.”
Capt. B had a point. While
one practices the art of yacht
design, the challenge is always
balancing the client’s stylis-
tic whims with the realities
that the sea and science de-
mand. When the “numbers
and paint” align, form fol-
lows function, and an artist’s
study is a masterpiece.PAINTING BY
THE NUMBERS
Is there any such thing as an original yacht design anymore?I POINTED OUT THAT ONE COULDN’T
PLAGIARIZE ONE’S OWN WORK.
BOTH BOATS WERE FROM A FIRM I WAS
ONCE ASSOCIATED WITH.PAINTING BY