Where handmade meets high tech

Having worked on a traditional sailing ship (it was one of my more adventurous outings), I feel I’ve probably had enough sailing to not want to fill all my free time with it. Nonetheless, owning a handmade, bespoke Italian yacht is still an idea I cannot help but romanticise. The handmade label is something I certainly appreciate, though I always have to remind myself that the image of a wooden workshop with no power tools is terribly outdated. Still, I never would have expected to find 3D scanners being used in this field.

Orlando Stabile, owner of Stocks and Precision, is a craftsman who set himself the mission of using his custom work to compete with mass-manufactured yacht decks. Mostly focusing on restoration and installation of teak decks, Stabile wanted to reduce the time it normally took to measure the decks of the boats he works on. Naturally, for the complex shapes that often lack straight edges, an automated 3D scanning system would be beneficial. Converting the scan to a CAD model means Stabile is able to digitally plan the position of the teak slats that will form the deck, contouring complex curves and edges.

Teak, being naturally water- and rot-resistant as well as durable and aesthetically pleasing, is perfect for the decks of yachts, but also comes with a price tag. Up to three hundred euros (£250GBP) per square metre. Therefore, careful planning of the slats can save a lot of material and money.

Stabile selected the Artec Eva handheld 3D scanner to try out his new work method. Scanning four to five square metres at a time, Stabile was able to fuse the scans together for a full image of the deck, using just the scanner and his laptop. As larger surfaces present challenges with geometric tolerance, working in sections this way has allowed Stabile to scan the decks of boats up to 50 metres long, down to 0.2mm accuracy. Curtains were used to combat the bright Italian sun and create ideal lighting situations for scanning.

Stabile’s former methods involved him making wooden templates and although the teak slats could still be pre-processed in his workshop, they could only be completed and mounted directly on the deck. With the new approach, the CAD profiles acquired from the scans allow the craftsman to fix the strips onto CNC-machined plywood sheets in his workshop, reducing a great deal of the production time. According to Stabile, he saves 70-80% of time, meaning he can finish four or five boat projects in the time that it previously took him to finish one. “Taking less time to complete a job”, Stabile said, “leads to higher profits and allows us to secure more orders, but this is not the only advantage. The reduction in time also allows us to be more competitive in terms of prices, while the improved quality allows us to approach more demanding customers.”  

The success of streamlining his work process has brought Stabile to aspire to bigger projects. Specifically, he dreams of restoring the Astra, a beautiful 1928 sailing yacht that he says “still represents poignant elegance in the design of sailing boats.”