Naval Architect
F3. Seafaring Life, Education, Professions and InstitutionsDefinition
Engineer specializing in ship design, often RINA-qualified.
A naval architect designs ships and marine structures, working across hull form, hydrostatics, stability, structural strength, and resistance and propulsion. The profession is regulated through chartered status with bodies such as RINA in the UK and represented by SNAME in the US. Naval architects translate the owner’s requirements and the class and SOLAS rules into a design, and many move into classification surveying, casualty investigation, or research.