Stephens Waring Yacht Design

Spirit of Tradition Yachts Designed In Maine

Charleston, SC Floating Villa | Sneak Peek

and filed under Immerst, Marine Engineering, Sustainability, SWD News & Stories

The Charleston, SC Floating Villa is the latest IMMERST client design.  IMMERST is distilled from 30 years of marine industry leadership translated to floating architectural innovation. With IMMERST, Stephens Waring Design provides a design-build consultancy dedicated to creating sustainable aquatecture with energy-efficient work /play / living solutions. Design Highlights: Proprietary OASys – Ocean Architecture System: an integrated system of floating foundations minimizes environmental impact and mitigates any motion from harbor wake — protects against extreme weather or hurricane storm surges. Sustainable design combines green building techniques with efficient use of space to conserve energy and minimize operating demands on local resources. A […]

Utilities on a Floating Home

and filed under Immerst, Marine Engineering, Sustainability

The attraction of living on a floating home is easy to see: a life on the water, immersed in nature and the ability to enjoy both, right out the front door. The caveat for some homeowners interested in making the leap to an on-water residence may lie in the less romantic area of home utilities. At first glance it may seem that there has to be a trade-off. A house on the water must be a hassle, right? When it comes to electrical circuitry and plumbing systems…how can these possibly work seamlessly in a wet environment?  This month our exploration […]

The Need for Speed

and filed under Boat Nerd Tech, Design, Marine Engineering, Racing, SWD News & Stories

Last week, on the hot dry sands of Australia’s remote Lake Gairdner, something incredible happened. On a 46.2-foot-long, 4-wheeled, carbon-fiber land-yacht called Horonuku, Glenn Ashby and Team New Zealand set a breathtaking speed record of 222.4 kmh (or 138.2 mph) in a wind-powered vehicle. And just a few weeks earlier in Luderitz, Namibia, a windsurfer named Heidi Ulrich completed a 500-meter run at 47.16 knots setting a new women’s windsurfing speed world record. That’s pretty fast especially when considering she was navigating a channel only 500 meters long and just 14 meters wide. These feats of speed are part of […]

The Rising Tide for Floating Communities

and filed under Construction, Design, Immerst, Marine Engineering, Sustainability, SWD News & Stories

By Reed Rowley The concept of the floating metropolis has lived as a science fiction concept ever since French author Jules Verne described them in his novel The Floating City in 1871.  Since then, the idea of the large modern floating municipality has been parked on the scientific and engineering backburner. Today there are more people living in Antarctica than in modern floating communities around the world.  However, with the twin pressures of population density and climate change causing sea levels to rise, serious attention is being refocused on reimagining and reinventing floating communities as a solution to the challenges […]

5 Principles Building Boats Can Teach Us About Building on Land

and filed under Design, Immerst, Marine Engineering, Sustainability, SWD News & Stories

As a design firm rooted in the marine industry, we often reference the great naval architects and boat builders of the past to draw inspiration. Looking back through the annals of marine history provides not only fascinating insight into the past, it also sparks the imagination to find the next great design innovation. While boatbuilding and marine design may constitute only a small percentage of the larger architecture and design world, it’s increasingly clear that there are many best practices and principles of boatbuilding (both old and new), which can help inspire, innovate, and guide the future of architecture, construction, […]

Against All Odds Shelter Island Resort Can Expand

and filed under Design, Immerst, Marine Engineering

California dreamin’ is a way of life for millions of Americans who live at the junction of land and sea in Southern California. The dream becomes a little foggy if your dreamscape includes developing Southern California waterfront property. Developable land along this stretch of coastline is scarce at best. And going one step further, on Shelter Island in San Diego Bay, it’s non-existent.  Built upon an unimpressive mudbank formed by the San Diego River, Shelter Island emerged from the shallows as San Diego Bay was dredged for Naval purposes in World War II. Initial elevation? A whopping fourteen feet. In […]

Zemphira returns to the shed

and filed under Boat Nerd Tech, Construction, Design, Marine Engineering, Spirit of Tradition, SWD News & Stories

We are always excited to tell you about our designs: whether in-build, getting refit, or living the life they were designed for. And so it was this spring we started telling you all about the thorough refit one of our favorite boats enjoyed last winter, in which we were deeply involved (Zemphira-(re)fit for a King). But as they do, stranger things happened which changed that story dramatically by creating another project and a new chapter in the life of Zemphira.  Mere hours after leaving the dock in Camden, Maine, on her maiden delivery voyage after the work was done,  the […]

The Complicated Life of the Modern Transom

and filed under Boat Nerd Tech, Construction, Design, Marine Engineering, Spirit of Tradition, SWD News & Stories

Given the variety in styling, operational performance, and construction made possible by current design aesthetics and materials, the modern transom is often one of the more detailed elements of a yacht’s design. On Cirrus, the 68-foot, Spirit of Tradition sailing sloop in-build at James Betts Enterprises (click here for build photos) in Anacortes, Washington, we went for a fairly traditional looking transom to match her sweetly shaped haunches. In Cirrus’s case, however, looks most certainly are deceiving.  With the push of a button, or operations made manually, convertible transom designs are found on all manner of yachts. A transom with […]

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