Grahame Shannon, Managing Director

In 1980 I started Coast Yacht Design Inc. which produced many fine cruising and successful racing designs.  They included the Amazon series of steel yachts which today has a cult following among cruising sailors.   As Autoship Systems Inc. we developed the software we and many other designers use. That company went on to become the dominant software developer in the field of yacht and ship design, and is still going strong today. We sold Autoship in 1993.

Following that slight detour to build the tools needed, I resumed my design career. In 1995 I was part of the America3 design team working on the America's Cup yacht Mighty Mary.

Recent design clients have included Oviatt Marine, Walker Bay Boats, Classico Boats, and Motorcat.


Company Philosophy

Beauty sells boats. Beauty is essentially free, since it costs no more to build a well designed, lovely boat than to build an ugly, ill designed one. Moreover, good production design can actually reduce the cost of construction.

We are very selective about projects we undertake.

We are mainly interested in projects which are ecologically friendly, fuel efficient, and fun.  Small, simple boats are more fun, and don't make a huge dent in the planet's dwindling resources.  If this fits your philosophy email us.

If you are looking for cheap plans, go elsewhere. We do high quality, considered designs, and charge fairly for our services.  If you want a guarantee of performance, we can arrange tank and model testing. Otherwise, performance predictions are "best effort" and not guaranteed.

Sex, Status and Yacht Ownership

Copyright © 1999-2007 [Avia Design Group]. All rights reserved.
Revised: June 15, 2009.