THIS 50-foot sport fisherman, des
a concept. it may neverz be built.

Dream b
: matter

- North Van naval archit
Michael Becker |

"News Editor
michael@nsnews.com

NORTH. Vancouver naval archi-

.- tect Grahame Shannon wanted to

_.7 be a car designer when he grew
Ups

.> As a young lad in Montreal during the
1950s he spent a great deal of time at home
with’ a. drafting board. He would draw all
“» sorts of futuristic cars.
“But Shannon’s family moved west when
he was 10 years old. He found no car indus-
here, just plenty of lakes and a whole lot
of ocean. As a young adult Shannon took an
_ interest in sailing and began to study what
goes into ‘the design of a boat. He also
~-, worked for a computer company, repairing
*main-frame. computers.
: Shannon studied yacht design and naval
architecture at night and during the week-
ends on his own time.

‘By 1976-77 he began sending some of
his drawings to yachting magazines. They
“were published. People liked them and he
started getting customers. In 1978 he quit
his computer job and turned to designing
~ yachts full-time.
:S$hannon ‘took an “enormous” cut in

ings to do something he really liked
‘the. mid-1980s, when PCs came
along, he realized that a computer couid be
avery useful tool for the design work he
- was doing. Shannon did some research and
“found that the cheapest hardware and soft-
“", ware system he could find would cost him
~ . $500,000.
“It was pretty primitive stuff too,” he
said.

-He instead bought a PC, a Radio Shack
TRS- 80, and wrote his own software to
design yachts.

.. “it began to work. By about 1986 or so,
it was pretty useful.”

- "In 1986 an associate from Seattle heard
“about what he was doing and asked to buy
the. software. Shannon converted the pro-
‘to run on.an IBM-PC and created a
manual to go with it. Shannon sold his first
A copy for $4,000. He was in business.

Wednesday, July 29, 1998 — North Shore News - 17

north shore news

IGH TECH

‘Graphic Mlostations courtesy Grehame Shanon
igned by Grahame Shannon, is just

ect pioneered software

Within the year, software was his main busi-
ness. His program provided the kernel of
what would eventually became Autoship
Systems Corporation.

The company has since supplied more
than 1,500 installations of naval architec-
ture programs in over 40 countrics.

Autoship was the official supplier of
yacht design software for America3, the
1992 defending America’s Cup winner.

Shannon eventually sold out of the com-
pany in 1993.

“I became ill, probably from over-work
and stress,” he said.

As president of the company he had
worked 70-to-80-hour weeks. He suffered

_ neurological troubles. They’ve mostly
cleared up since. The company continues to
do well. Meanwhile Shannon concentrates
on design and works from home.

“I'm back where I started off, really,
except now Pve got the tools I always want-
ed because Autoship has become a very:
powerful and useful program.”

Shannon was on the 1995 America3
Cup design team.

: Current projects on the go include the
design of a new 45-foot harbor patrol boat
for the Port of Vancouver.The design has
teen accepred in principle. The boat will be
put out to tender and built locally.

He has also designed the world’s first
injection-molded plastic dinghy.

Since February, Walker Bay Boats in
Woodinville, Washington, has produced
approximately 20,000 of them. The compa-
ny had come to him with a well-developed
idea.

Said Shannon, “It was comparatively
easy, but it’s very precise. We were dealing
with fractions of a millimetre in terms of
dimensions and also we had to meet a
bunch of safety and stability requirements
for the United States, for Europe and for
Japan because it’s being sold ail over the
world. That's not easy because they vary.”

The 70-pound boat can be rowed, sailed
or powered by a small outboard.

For fun Shannon sails a Catalina 34-foot
sailboat.

“It’s not one of my own designs. My
own cost too much.”

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THIS 14-foot jet boat is being built by Kazulin Boats as a
joint venture with Avia Design Group.

NEWS photo Terry Peters

NORTH

Vancouver

naval architect

Grahame

Shannon, the

founding president

of Autoship Systeme

Corp., shows a scale

model of the Walker Bay

8, the world’s first tnieation-motded dinghy.
Shannon's design expertise has been —
applied to racing yachts and jet boats too.

\

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