Interview with Giles Barkley: “Both industry and academic parties need to work together”

Almost three decades later, those boats had grown so much that the Southampton-based University saw an opportunity in 2019 to launch its first Master’s degree in Superyacht Design aimed at vessels whose minimum length was 79 feet (24 metres) – the largest are now more than ten times longer than the average a generation earlier. As well as the size of yachts which have multiple decks and cater for crew and up to a dozen guests, sustainable design is becoming a major element of Superyacht design.

“The industry is now pushing for graduates with knowledge of sustainability,” says Barkley, who developed and leads three Yacht Design degrees at Solent University, including the Superyacht Design course, attended by six students on average every year. With the degree courses updated every five years, Solent is preparing to launch a new version of the Master’s course in September 2024, with an additional focus on designing for a sustainable future.

The sustainability aspect means studying everything from the life-cycle of materials used in the yacht’s construction to both considering and implementing alternative power and fuel sources, including methanol, electric and hybrid engines. From a “rules and regulations” perspective, this means graduates must understand the subject and the applicable maritime statutory rules regarding sustainability, which are updated regularly. To deliver this knowledge to students, Solent University has just hired a lecturer who has specialised in this area “so that yacht and superyacht design graduates will gain the knowledge and appeal to the industry.”

In addition, fast-moving technology is of growing importance. “What was complex software such as programmes for computational flow dynamics, is now becoming increasingly
user-friendly,” says Barkley. “We work alongside the yacht and superyacht design industry to see what software they are using and then incorporate this in our degree programs and
train students to use it,” he adds.

Given the importance of computer-aided design packages, Barkley says that if artificial intelligence can be harnessed to design new hull forms – he points to AI source code linked to hull modelling and analysis software – then it could generate more efficient, “less drag” hull forms which a more traditional approach to design may have missed.

Despite the many changes taking place, Barkley says: “There is still a relatively low percentage of female students on his courses at Solent University. No more than six or seven women join each year, and sometimes as few as two.” However, he
insists that they tend to excel, and often perform better than their male counterparts. Last year, three women were offered jobs before finishing their course. They had also all worked
the equivalent of a day a week with design companies during their final year of study.

Clearly, this is a talent pool which is not being properly exploited by the industry, suggests Barkley, who has taught many successful naval architects, including Jason Ker, Juan
Kouyoumdjian, Sam Manuard and Guillaume Verdier. While a greater effort needs to be made to attract more females into the sector, in terms of nationalities the industry is
certainly becoming much more diverse, as it expands beyond its Western European heartland. “We can see the industry slowly shifting east,” he says.

Given that fewer Western Europeans are applying, due to Brexit and the resulting higher tuition fees, it seems these are being replaced by a new generation of students who are now
coming from further afield – from Eastern European countries like Latvia and Poland, to Asian countries such as Korea and China. The yacht design courses are also gaining a reputation in the US yacht and power craft design industry, and Solent
is seeing an increasing number of US students wishing to enrol. The as yet unanswered question is whether that talent will remain in Western Europe or return to their countries of origin to support growing industries there.

Certainly, strong partnerships between universities and the yachting industry are essential if “design for sustainability” challenges are to be tackled fully. For one thing, it helps students
to get jobs. Here, Solent’s results speak for themselves: last year, for each of Barkley’s roughly 30 Yacht and Superyacht Design graduates, there were two jobs offered, he says. “This year, the employment market still favours the graduates,” he adds.

“The partnership between education and business works well because commercially everyone wants to go greener. For industry to do this on its own is difficult and expensive. Often, they don’t have time [to conduct research], but we do,” says Barkley of the mutual dependence between the two sectors. “We are seeing a lot of joint partnerships between academia and industry to see what is sustainable,” says Barkley, explaining that this initiative is being supported by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, who work with the UK’s Department for Transport to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from shipping. “Both industry and academic parties need to work together.”