Last week SolidWorks put out a press release about the two competitors in this years America’s Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand and Alinghi Switzerland.
Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) and Alinghi are competing in the America’s Cup 2007…Taking place off the coast of Valencia, Spain, the 32nd America’s Cup features a rematch of the two yachts that competed for the championship in 2003.
What’s unique about this competition is that both of the boats were designed using SolidWorks. The hull, keel, winch mounts, and other deck hardware of both boats are some of the aspects of each that were designed to withstand the forces of the high winds and mighty sea.
As I’m writing this, Alinghi has just won. Go swiss. You can see the race highlights at the America’s Cup website.
It’s very interesting to see what goes into designing vessels like this. My brother owns a 30′ sailboat and we always talk about designing a boat in SolidWorks.

To see some more about the design for each boat:
Emirates Boat Design
Alinghi Boat Design







SolidSmack is a very small behemoth of an online community about 3D CAD, technology, design, robots, and ninjas… Ok, maybe not ninjas so much, but those guys are COOL so there just might be something about some dang ninjas.
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I loved the Images, You Guys may See More Videos and Images of Yachts and Sea on http://WWW.SPLASHVISION.COM
I loved the Images, You Guys may See More Videos and Images of Yachts and Sea on http://WWW.SPLASHVISION.COM
Such amazing engineering…
Such amazing engineering…
Wow, if I only had the knowledge. Truly awe inspiring work.
Wow, if I only had the knowledge. Truly awe inspiring work.
Hey Richard, would be a great challenge designing a boat huh. My brother is really interested in boat design and we’ve had conversations about designing stuff. hope to one day!
Hi Josh, I have an idea for you. Why don’t we join forces on this one. I have plenty of ideas on this but not much expertise yet with SolidWorks. I wanted to build digitally a model boat just to see if I could do it using SolidWorks. I am pretty sure now that after seeing those boats you posted that it can be done. I saw recently a post on a nice looking cabin cruiser and also a 100 foot yacht. Let me know my friend and I will try working out some ideas. I’m still learning basic things with SolidWorks. I’m kind of behind here but I’m retired and still learning different things. SolidWorks is the very best retirement tool I have in my arsenal. Bye for now.
I’d be REALLY surprised if they designed the hulls in SolidWorks. We design and build boats here, and we’ve tried for years to use SW for the actual hull design. It is possible, but the fairing tools are just not there. I read the press release repeatedly, and there is wiggle room in the verbage- they may have done the structural work, lots of attachments, FEA (probably not on the composites!), etc, but I doubt the hull itself…
I read similar article also named Yachts designed with SolidWorks | SolidSmack – SolidWorks 3D CAD Technology Design Blog, and it was completely different. Personally, I agree with you more, because this article makes a little bit more sense for me
True. SW would be possible, but for class A surfaces only StudioTools or ICEMsurf. Deck above, SW all the way.
True. SW would be possible, but for class A surfaces only StudioTools or ICEMsurf. Deck above, SW all the way.
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