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Yacht design

Arnold Freidling explores mono-foiler with eXplorius

Young designer wins the Pininfarina Design Award in 2006 with his project

mardi 6 mars 2007Christophe Guigueno

We all know offshore racing multihulls with foils such as french ORMA trimarans (18 meters long), offshore speed multihulls such as the Hydroptère, and inshore foilers such as the TriFoiler of new flying Mothes. Here is a new concept for… a cruising monohull. The eXplorius.

This mono-foiler is a « design concept » from a young designer named Arnold Freidling. Stutend in Master’s Thesis in Braunschweig University of Art in Germany, Arnold has worked on a concept which ads foils under a 25 meters long cruising monohull. Off course it is a concept and Arnold’s work presents better a possible future for foils in cruising and, most of all, it is a very beautifull concept. This made the eXplorius awarded 1st Prize of the Pininfarina Design Award in 2006.

Arnold Freidling, now living in California, aswered to few questions by mail to make us discover his interesting vue of sailing for “Maritime Jet-setters“.

1° Arnold, is-it a designer project or a true sailing project ?

- Arnold Freidling : The eXplorius Sailing Yacht is so far more a design concept than a fully developed sailing project. Still, I am open to take this design concept to the next step if I can find interested investors and manufacturers.

2° Do you follow projects such as Hydroptere, Foil Foil #foil mothes, 60’ trimarans with foils…

- AF : Yes, of course ! During my research I have looked at these and other hydro-foil Foil #foil boats. They are very fascinating and were definitely a reason why I chose to design a sailing yacht with hydro-foil technology.

3° In which industry will you work ?

- AF : Currently I work in the product design field for the design consultancy LifeStyleDesign in Santa Barbara, California. Here I develop a wide range of designs such as high-end home audio speaker systems, outdoor camping tents, binoculars, PS3 game controller, surf Surf #Surf board accessories, medical products etc.

4° Do you have already contacts with the yachting industry ?

- AF : So far, I have not had the time to contact specific people in the yachting industry, but I am very open to meet companies and to potentially produce the eXplorius.

5° Which is your point of view of the design in the yachting industry ?

- AF :I think the design has always played a large role in the yachting industry and it will always continue to do so. Also, there will be always a close connection between the engineering and the aesthetic part. I believe that they have to go hand-in-hand to achieve well performing at beautiful yachts.


Voir en ligne : More information about the eXplorius : www.freidling.com/explorius



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