What Does it Take to Be a Naval Architect?

Naval Architect as a profession Naval Miami architects is an art and a science apart from being an Engineering discipline. Naval Architecture encompasses a whole gamut of engineering disciplines and covers Mechanical Engineering, Marine Engineering, Structural Engineering, Hydrodynamics, to name only a few.

The building of a ship especially a Warship is the most complex engineering feat ever to be undertaken by man. And the man behind the machine, the Naval Architect, is the man responsible for the final and successful launch of the ship. Hence his mental faculties and physical stamina should be more than a match for the task he is entrusted with.

This seems to be the most important question put forward by wannabe Naval Architects. “How much will I get being a Naval Architect?” is the most common query that I frequently encounter. The answer varies from around US $5000 to anywhere between a million dollars for the top management executives. Most of the salary data is confidential and companies rarely delve these information to the general public. However being in the Industry for the past fifteen years I can make a reasonable guess:

Definitely yes. All he has to do is to enroll as a trainee marine engineer apprentice in any of the Shipyards /Institutions for a duration of 18 months( usually varies from 12-18 months) and after the apprenticeship he will be ready to carry out his assignments as a Engineering Officer.

Naval Architects are employed in shipyards as production managers to oversee the construction of new ships. He will be either involved with the Design Bureau or in the production floor. In the Design Bureau, he will be undertaking the detailed workshop/production level drawings of ships after the concept design has been carried., He will be involved with structural calculations using the latest sophisticated structural software like Ansys, NISA, Pro-Engineer, etc. He might also be involved with system integration of the various ship systems. Detailed level drawings for use in the production floor will be carried out by him using latest Ship design Packages like TRIBON or General Engineering Packages like CATIA. Being a complex undertaking, there will be a lot of overlap between systems and he might have to resolve the conflicts arising from the conflicting requirements of different ship systems.

As a Production level Engineer/Manager, he will be in the process of the actual building of the Ship. Usually the Naval Architect is involved with Hull Fabrication and Outfitting aspects of Shipbuilding.

Naval Architects in Ship Repair Yards Naval Architects are employed in Ship repair yards in the Fabrication, Dry docking and Outfitting Centers. He should be a good man manager and should have excellent project management skills. Though detailed technical knowledge is not called for, he should have a good understanding of the follwing aspects:

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