Of sailboats and surfboards

by Brett Filby on 5 Jul 2006 American born, Berkley University trained, naval architect Andy Dovell was head hunted by America’s cup winner Alan Bond to come to Australia in the late 80’s to inject international designing experience. Luckily for Australia, he never left!

Before relocating 'down under' his talents featured with his first America’s Cup involvement with the Tom Blackaller’s USA syndicate, followed by Australian Cup involvement with the Spirit campaign in San Diego.

Next he worked with the very strong team of One Australia, again in Southern California. The team looked to really have the goods, with what seemed to be one of the fastest challengers, until the unthinkable occurred. The A boat was sent to the ocean floor after a spectacular mid race sinking and the One Australia team was forced to switch to the ‘not as optimised’ B boat.

In the 2000 series Dovell’s extensive experience was utilised by the American Aloha Racing team based in Hawaii.

With America’s Cup often seen as the Formula 1 in terms of its professionalism in the design industry, it is no surprise that Andy has achieved ongoing success with his designs, which cover all areas including custom, production and powerboats.

Teaming with Iain Murray and Ian Burns was logical. The trio have combined their talents - yacht design, engineering and vast practical knowledge – to form Murray Burns and Dovell.

The company produces amazing innovative boat designs. Dovell is the chief designer of MBD, which lists Sydney Yachts as one of its closest and most successful associations.

These days try venturing onto the Harbour in Sydney and not seeing an Andy Dovell designed boat? Almost impossible!

Sydney Yachts has had remarkable response to its Sydney 32 and 38 One Design range, without doubt two of the most popular production boats of their type, ever sold in Australia. Both of these strong classes are still growing throughout Australia and overseas, with a Sydney 32 actually starting this week in the 2,200 mile Pacific Cup Race from San Francisco to Hawaii.

Dovell has continued the development with the Sydney 39CR, which uses the Sydney 38 hull form. This model has been followed by the 47CR and both of these are producing great results on the race track.

The latest in this model line is the Sydney 36CR.

‘Having learned what we have with the Sydney 39CR and 47CR cruiser racers, we can do it more efficiently on the 36 and bring it into the same family.’

‘The Sydney 36 program is a real little peach. It has got the benefit of what we learned from the first two cruising racers; it has history, good performance and good balance, which is something you always strive for. And we’ve done a lot of homework; a lot of development has gone into the boat over the years. With a lot of people saying 'let’s do that, let’s do this' so you see a lot of different forms.

‘It started with a masthead rig and then a carbon swept back rig, and then there was a bow pole for the next couple. There has been a whole lot of development along the way and all of that has gone into the boat.’

The custom boat design area has provided Dovell opportunities to display his talents. Given this experience it’s no surprise to see his custom 50 foot design Atomic blasting around the harbour, somewhat America’s Cup looking in both the hull and rig. [Sorry, this content could not be displayed]


Atomic is described by Andy as a, ‘narrow flush deck racer featuring a unique canting keel configuration that incorporates carefully positioned slender wings on the bulb of the canting keel.

‘As the keel cants and the yacht heels, these wings automatically develop into lateral areas, thus eliminating the need for daggerboards, or complicated canards’ (like those used in the CBTF systems).

Another well known continuing design project and a display of Andy’s talents is the ongoing modification of AAPT with the forward thinking owner Sean Langman.

His original open 60 yacht rewarded both skipper and designer, with what is now most probably, the fastest 66 footer in the world. The radically modified 66 footer beat many larger boats and finished dangerously close (many times including a second in 2002) to the line honours winner in Hobart.

One of MBD’s earlier, larger, custom designs was Bumblebee 5 Custom 62, built for the experienced yachtsman John Kahlbetzer. With Ian Murray onboard it went to win the tough 2001 Hobart race on corrected time.

In recent times Murray Burns Dovell designs have moved from the open ocean to the coastal surf breaks.

Dovell explained that the fluid dynamic principles associated with yacht design are equally important with surfboard design.

‘Research and development is really about the pilot/helmsman/driver/surfer and his need for control, he is not going to get the most out of a high performance fin unless it is controllable and has nice handling characteristics and is something that he trusts.

'And this is the same in yachting; just more of the equation goes towards performance. But if the interaction is simple and straightforward and better balanced and is a better interaction, you can get more out of the boat.'

Fin Control Systems (FCS) has won international acclaim for Andy Dovell and is now used by many of the world’s professional surfers and the company now states, 'they have between 75 and 80 percent of the surfboard fin market worldwide.'

‘We’ve been doing the research and development for them (FCS), the H2 won the Australian design award and that fin is selling all around the world very well.

'There are four or five other fins on the market that we designed. We have a water tunnel, equivalent to a wind tunnel, down in Tasmania. We go down there, take the fins down and test them. That is where we find our performance and efficiency gains. And then we find out about the handling characteristics in the surf.'

He continues. ‘There are six components of measurement that come out of the tunnel. So we change the angle and do it again. That is the primary output. But we also do flow visualization with bubbles; you inject bubbles into the stream. It is not necessary but it does help in seeing what is going on. The bubbles are useful. We also use something very akin to zinc oxide; you put it on the fin and then blast water past it and then the way the zinc smears tells you what is going on with the flow.'

Dovell explains that the personal interaction between yacht designer and surfboard fin designer and the users is fundamental.

‘I mean sure I can surf and sure I can sail but to be a good designer I need to listen to the users.

‘The surfers have been very good at understanding that I don’t need to be a good surfer, I just need to be able to talk and listen and watch and learn. I’ve been doing that with yachtsman since I started.

'It is the same challenge of trying to listen to the person and figure out what it is he is saying about how this thing is performing. What you are looking for from the driver is just how it is performing, how it is interacting with him.'

Murray Burns & Dovell Pty Ltd
Naval Architecture & Performance Engineering
Suite 8, RPAYC
Mitala Street
NEWPORT NSW 2106

PO Box 729
NEWPORT NSW 2106

Ph: +61 2 9979 6202
Fx: +61 2 9979 6215
Email: info@murrayburnsdovell.com.au
www.murrayburnsdovell.com.au