Maritime Engineering Science: Yacht and High-performance Craft

On this Yacht and High-performance Craft engineering MSc degree you'll specialise in the analysis, design and performance of yachts, small craft and high-performance vessels. You'll also gain an understanding of the fixed and offshore structures that help them to function. You'll graduate with the specialist skills in maritime engineering science to design and analyse marine craft and structures.

This Maritime Engineering Science: Yacht and High-performance Craft MSc is one of 5 maritime engineering science specialisms you can study at the University of Southampton.

This master's degree covers the core subjects and in-depth knowledge of maritime engineering science for both design and analysis of marine craft and structures within the marine environment.

If you have a first degree in engineering, science or maths and are looking for a career in the maritime sector and yacht design degree to study, this could be the course for you. We'll also consider you if you have relevant experience.  You don't need specialist knowledge of the subject, as we'll teach you the fundamentals of ship science.

Specialist yacht engineering modules on this MSc programme, will give you a chance to explore the performance and design of a variety of high-performance small craft including: 

• planing craft 
• sailing yachts 
• hydrofoils 
• hovercraft 

You'll discover how to calculate a vessel's performance as you learn about common types of full-scale trials. You'll gain key skills in areas like force balance, drag breakdowns, resistance approximations and stability. 

Through design-oriented work, you'll find out how the basic mechanics in each case are applied â€“ first through simplified scenarios and then through more complex engineering design. 

Course lead

Your course leader is Dr Gabriel Weymouth, an associate professor for the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute at the University of Southampton. His main areas of interest are mechanics and maths. He is currently working on unsteady fluid dynamics and nonlinear fluid/structure interaction. Read Dr Weymouth's staff profile to find out more about his work. 

Related pathways

If you'd prefer to study a different specialism, you can apply for one of our other MSc Maritime Engineering Science pathways:

• Advanced Computational Engineering 
• Marine Engineering and Autonomy
• Naval Architecture 
• Ocean Energy and Offshore Engineering

Postgraduate entry requirements

The maritime sector provides varied career opportunities in engineering and project management related roles. Maritime engineering science graduates are in strong demand with good starting salaries and excellent career progression opportunities. 
 
Our graduates work across many different organisations. The Solent region around Southampton is the main UK hub for the maritime sector with organisations such as: 

• Lloyd's Register 
• Carnival 
• BMT 
• Nigel Gee 
• the Maritime and Coastguard Agency 

Organisations such BAE Systems, QinetiQ and Babcock support the defence sector and employ a number of our graduates. The offshore and marine renewable developments are offering excellent prospects both to work in the UK (locally, London or Aberdeen) or worldwide in places such as Singapore, Houston or Perth.