Time flies

By Geraldine Roper, January 15, 2008 @ 8:35 am

It began 15 years ago as a doodle in a high school exercise book, but Andrew Hawley’s concept yacht design, the Hawley F140, is starting to take shape.

The design has advanced since he dreamed it up in science class, but the basic concept of the yacht has stayed the same, Hawley says. “Science books had blank pages regularly throughout them—an ideal canvas for doodling while everyone else rattles off the periodic table.”

In September, Hawley, joint creative director at Touchcast Next ad agency, entered his yacht design in a global competition on the Sailing Anarchy website.  “I had been meaning to do something like this for so long,” he says. “I thought to myself, ‘This is my chance to put some of the ideas I’ve had into practice’.”

He describes the yacht as a “14-metre style machine” with features similar to a 1960s Corvette Stingray car. “This boat will look cool even if it isn’t going anywhere,” he says. “It’s all about speed. No regard is given to comfort.” The self-draining cockpit, reverse bow, batwings and stingray hull make this yacht stand out from the rest—but also hike up the building costs.

Hawley estimates it would cost between $500,000 and $600,000 to make the yacht and although he would love to see it made, he doesn’t have the capital to do it himself.

But the design quickly caught the attention of boaties and speed freaks, so Hawley decided to auction the right to build a Hawley F140 on Ebay, using plans created by a team of people renowned for their design and engineering experience on America’s Cup. As Idealog went to print, the opening bid was US$25,000.

But Hawley is not too fussed whether or not he wins the website competition. He’s decided to continue fostering his passion for yachts and plans to study at the Westlawn Institute in America in 2008.

“The who’s-who of yacht design has come through Westlawn, so it will be a great place to continue developing my passion.”