Copyright 2025 - Woods Designs, 16 King St, Torpoint, Cornwall, PL11 2AT UK

  • production Strider 24

  • plywood Romany 34

  • lightweight 14ft Zeta mainhull

  • Strike 15 trimaran at speed

  • 28ft Skoota in British Columbia

  • 10ft 2 sheet ply Duo dinghy

  • 24ft Strider sailing fast

  • 36ft Mirage open deck catamaran

Ikea Boats

For years boats had an interior full of curves - curved seating, bunk ends, tables and so on. Not necessarily practical, but at least you didn't bruise yourself too easily.

However in the last couple of years the trend has been for "simple, straight line" interiors. Much like flat pack Ikea furniture in fact.

So why is that? Well I think it is simply because most production boatyards now use CNC machines to cut out their interior furniture, which are then bonded with fast setting epoxy glues in an oven. The traditional boatbuilder fitted the furniture as he went along, but these days its all made off the boat.

So it seems that it is speed of production that is, more than ever, controlling the design of boats these days. It also means that many boats look bland and souless and it's hard to tell one from another.

Fortunately the home builder and small production yards can be more imaginative with their designs. Whatever the sailing/motoring performance of your boat might be, many people still want to have a cabin more like a "country cottage" than a "Hilton hotel lobby"