A shipwright is a person in the trade of yacht and/or shipbuilding.

The highly skilled trade of a shipwright has been around for hundreds of years and demands an in-depth knowledge of the construction of yachts and ships.

An experienced shipwright will have knowledge of the construction of steel or wooden vessels.

Before modern yacht design practices, a shipwright would have built a vessel with the skills handed down to him and would mostly have been done by skill and by eye.

As the design process of yachts developed, a process of drawing out the lines of the vessel was introduced called lofting. A master shipwright would have used the process of lofting to draw out the vessel before construction to be sure the designer’s lines where correct and fair. From the loft drawings the shipwright could then lay the keel, erect frames, build the bow and stern posts, Hull planking, beam shelf, deck beams, and finally the deck.

A shipwright would build a yacht from the keel right up to and including the Masts and spars. As design progressed, other works completed by shipwrights would have been Rudder alignments, engine bearer install and propeller shaft alignment.