FG: Many renowned projects in yachting are signed Tony Castro, in both sailing and power, superyacht and series production boats. Names like Justine or Sunshine for Jeanneau, but also more recent award-winning projects. How did your signature evolve over time, are there any common traits?
TC: I guess things have evolved spectacularly over my lifetime, if you consider that my first business card as designer was made 50 years ago this year. I must admit that in those days I was more interested in sailing yacht racing than I was in designing superyachts. I think the passion for other forms of yacht design came a little bit later. At that time, I was at university, studying naval architecture, which means I was dealing with a lot of theory, mainly regarding big ships, not yachts anyway. I used to go sailing on my spare time and the first thing I did, was to help people sail their boats better. I believe this was also because I always had a particular interest for aerodynamics. In those days, it was the very beginning of having telltales on the sails and I wrote a paper on that, with pictures to better explain the concept: so simple as a little piece of wool, but so useful to make visible an invisible element like wind. When I finished my degree in Glasgow, Scotland, going back to my country was complicated due to the revolution, so I stayed in UK and applied for a PhD, which allowed me to go racing for 6 months, study the other 6 and become a bit of an early day’s professional navigator. That was in the 1970s, we had no electronics on board, the navigation was old-fashioned: crisscrossing data on chart table. The racing milieu was a small community, and I got to know people like Doug Peterson, Ron Holland, German Freres and, of course the legendary Sparkman Stevens. All those people were interested in designing the boats that we were racing, looking for the best performances. I realize that was exactly the job I wanted to do, and I clearly remember the day Ron Holland called me to ask if I wanted to work for him: it was 8 o’clock in the morning and on the same day I was on the plane to go join him. At that time, I was a sort of numerical minded, analytical guy, while he was more a traditional sailor designer, so our profiles were complementary, and, obviously, we were both sailors who liked to win races. Back in those days projects implied a lot of drawing, calculation, but also freehand and tridimensional sketches, and required a lot of time, but some of those drawings were like pieces of art. Only few years after, the computer world exploded, Apple came along and we also got one of the very first set of fully programmable HP calculators, which was like a little calculator with magnetic strips, but you still had to do the drawing part by hand. If you had the skills and the abilities and if you won, which we did regularly, the phone never stopped ringing. I was lucky enough to design 5 world champions in different classes, so I was given a chance to have a career designing boats! Computers changed the rules of the game and added designers’ ability to find ways to beat the rule makers. Winning was now done both on the water and in the office…..I’d say more stress and less adrenaline.
FG: Is everything so bad about computers?
TC: Not at all, luckily a lot is still down to people: if you were a good designer with paper and pencil, you’re probably still one of the best 3D modelers. Today we have computers with trillions of gigabytes, not saving you a lot of time but allowing many more computations of optional designs. In fact, thanks to computers we can do calculations that we didn’t do before as it would have taken too long, but you’re wrong if you think we’re working less hours. The thing is that if in the past we studied 2 variants, thanks to computers, we now do 20. Technology gives us the possibility to explore more, and the ability to test more variants and be more secure about the outcome. The same will happen with AI.
FG: What about AI? Do you rather see it as an assistant or as a potential future competitor?
TC: To replace people, AI would need to think as an individual, and it can't yet do that. What it can do is to draw through a huge database and based on that and the frequency of some answers, opinions, or data, it can understand and predict potential results. The real resource here is data and computer power that allow access and elaboration of a huge volume of data. I have been trying already to challenge AI with design tasks; I gave the machine different versions of the same elements that I developed during the years and ask what the next design should be: it didn’t work well enough. It depends how you use it and for what. I believe it can be a threat for the industry if people start to believe that AI can design a yacht. It is a threat to copyright for sure and it adds to the competition, because inexperienced would-be designers can produce reports and imagery created by AI they would not have a clue how to do it themselves. Nevertheless, it is a significant technology advancement and we are all learning as fast as possible.
FG: Your generation of designers, among the most influential signatures in yacht design still active today, was born professionally out of competitive sailing, out of an obsessive pursuit of performance. Yet something has shifted profoundly: the industry is now driven by power yachts, and those same names are today recognized, often primarily, in this segment as well. At the same time, racing seems to have evolved into a world of its own, with its own dynamics and players, no longer producing the designers who once fed the entire industry. How does one read this transformation? What has changed in the professional and educational path of those approaching yacht design today?
TC: Soon after 1992 there were several years of a gap in competitive sailing, for various reasons: bad racing and rules management, lack of resources, or sailors interest amongst others. At the same time, demand from the powerboat world was growing steadily, so we began to structure ourselves to respond to what the market was asking for. When racing regained popularity, class rules and regulations had changed enormously, with a strong push toward onedesign formats. If you want to enter the most prestigious circuits today (the America's Cup, for instance) you have to drop everything else and put all your energy into that. As far as I'm concerned, now that I have a flourishing design business, it wouldn't make sense to me . On top of that, the current racing yacht environment is now dominated by professional scientists, data analysts, computer programmers, algorithm experts, not to mention professional sailors. It is all very interesting, if that is all you want to do, limiting the scope. In fact, it is essentially a different job from pure yacht design as we are discussing it here.
FG: Your name is a brand now. This is quite common today, in yachting but not only. How did that come about? Is it a matter of stylistic signature recognition, marketing, or technical competence?
TC: Most of what helped my brand to develop is stay in power: meaning staying relevant all this time. Yacht design is not just a pretty picture, I’m a naval architect, a sailor, a racer and an entrepreneur, as Tony Castro Yacht Design is made of about 20 people today. It might seem banal, but the brand management is a delicate thing, it is not a coincidence that, for the first time in my life, I now have a full-time marketing person. Perception on the signature’s value might change a lot: in Italy for example, you enhance the name behind the project, as it adds value, but it is not the same in every country.
FG: What is the one boat that you haven’t designed yet?
TC: A motorboat with sails. Sailing holds great interest from both an environmental and an economic standpoint, yet most owners have no interest in becoming sailors. Captains and crew members, on the other hand, often do, and many would be perfectly capable of, or even enthusiastic about, sailing during deliveries, saving the owner a considerable amount of fuel and money. I’m working on a sail assisted system that could “disappear” inside the boat when not needed, a sort of telescopic rig that won’t alter the image of the yacht. It's not beyond our technical ability to create something like that, but the additional cost is a major challenge. Still interest is growing and we all want to help save the planet.
FG: You just mentioned sustainability issues. I know you’re not a big fan of hydrogen. Are there other technologies that you see promising to reduce yachting’s impact? What about nuclear power, what do you know about it? Could that be a feasible alternative?
TC: I’m negative about hydrogen in pleasure boating because it is difficult to store and also because of safety and the lack of infrastructure on yachting routes. On the other end, for commercial ferries for example, with defined routes and slower speed, hydrogen becomes more justifiable.
Nuclear power might be an option. There are already small units up to one megawatt which might go on yachts quite soon. I don't know all the details, but it seems that this new technology can be safe enough to go on boats. Moreover, recent geopolitical events showed that on power sourcing we need to look after ourselves instead of relying on others, which is going to bring the nuclear question on top of discussions.
