General Description
This is an ideal career for visionary and creative thinkers. Naval architects are designers of ship structures, hulls, and compartments as well as floating structures.
Career Advice - Naval Architect Career
You work closely with equipment engineers and ship or boat builders to ensure that the craft functions efficiently and that its overall system is sound. You could be designing a variety of craft including naval craft, passenger and cargo ships, submarines, tugs, boats, yachts, high-speed ferries and catamarans.
Your work is always custom built for a buyer. The craft’s structural design must allow for the equipment needed to run it, the people who will occupy it, the speed and manoeuvrability it will require, the stress it must withstand, and many other factors. The requirements of a luxury liner, a high speed ferry and an oil tanker are all different.
Your work also selects and specifies materials the builders are to use. You will be working to a budget and the craft must be economical to build as well as to operate. You supervise the building process as you have the ultimate responsibility for the finished product and because some portions of your design must be completed during the actual construction.
Many naval architects specialise in a particular area. Your specialist area could be in the design, in the type of craft such as a yacht or luxury liner, remodelling vessels or researching the use of new materials or techniques. Others specialise in processes such as cost estimation, manufacturing processes, mechanical propulsion and systems engineering.
What you do every day
A standard working day as a naval architect will depend on your specialisation. You may prepare initial designs after gaining an understanding of the craft’s objectives by communicating with your client. The design process involves considering the craft’s function, appearance and safety. You will use complex mathematical equations and physical models to guarantee a sufficient technical design that meets safety rules and standards. You must estimate the construction costs of the vessel, as well as the lifetime running costs.
If you specialise in construction, you will likely hold a management position. Here, you are responsible for the management of the shipyard, or sections of it. You supervise and coordinate the work of engineers, builders and the overall construction. Depending on your position, you may also plan, manage and evaluate trials of the craft, carry out a survey of the complete craft, and organise repairs and any necessary alterations.
Other areas of specialisation include consultancy, where you provide clients with engineering solutions, technical and commercial recommendations, and support and project management. You may be a research naval architect, and look into maritime related studies, such as efficient ways for vessels to move through water. You may also decide to work in regulation, surveying and overseeing.
In this position, you are employed to evaluate the safety of vessels and marine structures using the rules of classification societies, and those of worldwide organisations such as the International Maritime Organisation. You provide risk assessment, and are required to approve aspects such as strength, stability and lifesaving.
Best thing about this career
The best aspect of being a naval architect is the ability to incorporate your technical and engineering knowledge with your imagination. You can use your intelligence to design functional, safe and visually appropriate vessels, and watch your ideas take form as your designs are developed through the stages. Despite the pressure of meeting a deadline, nothing beats the pride and satisfaction of seeing your work built or constructed just as you imagined it.
This occupation is vital to the development of marine vessels and offshore constructions. There is a wide variety of career paths allowing freedom to change your specialisation. The demand for your services continues to be greater than supply.
Worst thing about this career
The worst thing about being a Naval Architect is design failure and especially if it reaches the news. An environmental disaster resulting from an oil spill from a tanker you designed and the breaking in half and sinking of the Australian yacht ‘One Australia’ whilst defending the America’s Cup are just two examples.
There are big dollars and big budgets in this occupation and with this comes the stress and pressure to create functional, aesthetically pleasing and precise designs, accounting for every minute detail of a vessel including safety rules and regulations. A design flaw can waste a large amount of money on reconstruction.
If you do not handle the pressure of responsibility well, then this job might not be for you. When things go wrong, you need to be able to problem solve quickly. Exceeding deadlines usually means more development money is needed and larger overall costs. The responsibility stops with you!
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