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discovered a loophole in the IOR formula that gave credit for lightweight centerboards in boats with combination keel/centerboard configurations. The resulting design had more draft for the same stability as other boats at the same rating and was very fast upwind. After four years, Jim felt he’d maximized his return with Chance and headed west. The only other designer he wanted to work with was Oakland’s Gary Mull. In 1976, Jim joined the locus of Bay Area, if not West Coast, yacht design. For the next three years, he drew the hull lines for most of the 30 designs created by Mull’s office. He was also responsible for construction drawings, deck layouts and accommodation plans. He even wrote a computer program on performance and rating analysis called, in the puckish humor that characterized Mull’s style, “The Secret of Yacht Design.” Temperamentally on the opposite side of the room from the tempestuous Mull, Antrim’s quiet wit nevertheless made an impression. Carl Schumacher, the Alameda designer who was also working with Mull at the time, recalls an early morning staff meeting on the way to taking Mull to the airport. Coming down Berkeley’s University Avenue to the freeway onramp, the team saw a hitchhiker standing with a sign that read simply ‘Santa Barbara.’ “It was Jim’s second day on the job,” Schumacher recalls, “and no one really knew him. From his corner of the back seat we heard him say: ‘Santa Barbara. Hmmm. Must be the long lost cousin of Santa Claus.’”
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In
1979, Jim Antrim, Naval Architect, finally hung out his own shingle. The vagaries of yacht design have been such that his career has ventured into many diverse areas. Jim’s design credits include an IOR Half Tonner that nor races in Osaka Bay, Japan, a 55-foot cruising powerboat, a 22-foot rigid inflatable, the high-performance racer/cruiser Antrim 20 sloop and a 260foot open water rowing shell. He’s also helped finish, redesign and alter other craft, including Clive King’s Roberts 53 steel cruiser, Ron Moore’s Ultimate 20, Carl Schumacher’s 44-foot Eclipse (Now Full Nelson), even San Francisco’s historic paddle-wheel ferry Eureka. On the latter, Jim consulted on the engineering of the ship’s recent refurbishment. “I’m the guy who figured out how many miles of caulking they’d need and how many nail holes were in the hull,” he says. “I’ve learned that to make it as a naval architect, sometimes you just have to hang on, “ he adds. “Which is fine with me because I’ve never wanted to do anything else.” “Jim’s willing to take on a challenge,” notes Schumacher, “and he’s not put off by an oddball project.” All naval architects have stories of odd projects, but Antrim can lay claim |
to perhaps the oddest of all: the Water Walker, a collapsible, portable, inflatable catamaran. The brainchild of a San Francisco general contractor, the craft (see photos) was intended for casual sailing and camping on inland waterways. Designing it proved to be quite a task, according to Jim, but to his credit he did get at least one fully functional boat finished before the contractor pulled the plug for financial reasons. Jim doesn’t regret such experiences. Quite the opposite, in fact, since he always figures he learns something. But with the Water Walker, he also received credit for two patents used in the design of the craft, one for the way it folded up and the other for using the wheels as keels. The patent examiner gave them a rough time on the latter though, pointing to the other craft that had retractable trailer wheels that were vaguely similar. Jim argues that his version was unique. Finally, the examiner gave him a tip. “He told me that if I put a pint in the wheel so that it wouldn’t spin, then he could give me the patent,” says Jim. “So one of my claims to fame is rights to the first wheel that doesn’t rotate!” In addition to boat design, Jim has developed a specialty in composite engineering. In 1984, he began a five-year consulting contract with Orcon Corporation, a Union City high tech materials company. Much of the work involved developing hull laminates for a wide range of craft, including ultralight sleds, IOR One Tonners, Formula 40 catamarans, rowing shells and racing |