NISSAN has conquered battery transport – now the firm is exploring sail power.
A Nissan-built Catamaran will soon be sailing high in the Danish ocean, the latest non-automotive design and development project by Nissan Design America (NDA), based in San Diego, California.
Matt Struble, who led the design and modeling team at NDA, will be racing in the 2011 Class A Catamaran (‘A-Cat’) World Championship from August 13 to 20 in Skødstrup, Denmark.
Originally from Michigan, Struble was the 2009 ice boating world champion, and after moving to San Diego, Struble turned his passion to ocean sailing and won the title of A-Cat U.S. champion.
As a Model Realization Lead, Struble is engaged daily in creating 3D realisations of designers’ ideas for future Nissan and Infiniti products. Earlier this year, Matt was presented with a unique opportunity to design a race boat for the upcoming championship race himself and build it while training his relatively new team of modeling specialists at the same time.
The boat’s composite structure was designed and built entirely in-house, with the team working hard to make the boat as competitive as possible.
‘We weren’t trying to create something that already exists, but something groundbreaking,’ Struble said. ‘This has truly been a great experience and great project for us. This one in particular was quite unique because you have to create it in your mind, but also physically manufacture it and follow through. It was great for our team to see the project from start to finish.’
In creating the boat, the modeling team was able to gain valuable experience and knowledge with new materials, spraying techniques and model finish applications and learned how to achieve more accurate models, as well as new techniques and processes.
‘This has been a great opportunity and experience for the team, whose core business is model building, data development and digitising. The goal for the team is to timely achieve accurate models to enhance the overall business of design,’ said Rich Plavetich, General Manager, Design Business, NDA.
‘The knowledge and skills acquired from this experience will be incorporated into the future Nissan and Infiniti vehicle design development process,’ Plavetich said.