Nissan Catamaran for World Championship Race
A Nissan-built Catamaran soon will be sailing high in the Danish ocean, the latest non-automotive design and development project by Nissan Design America (NDA), based in San Diego, California.
Matt Struble, who led the design and modeling team at NDA, will be racing in the 2011 Class A Catamaran (“A-Cat”) World Championship from August 13 through 20 in Skodstrup, Denmark.
Originally from Michigan, Matt was the 2009 ice boating world champion. After moving to San Diego, Struble turned his passion to ocean sailing. His athletic achievements quickly translated into the new sport, as he holds the current title of A-Cat U.S. Champion.
The Class A Catamaran is controlled by a single sailor and is the smallest in size in all Catamaran race boats, says Nissan.
As a Model Realization Lead, Matt is engaged daily in creating three-dimensional realizations of designers’ ideas for future Nissan and Infiniti products. Earlier this year, Matt was presented with a unique opportunity to design a race boat for the upcoming championship race himself and build it while training his relatively new team of modeling specialists based at NDA’s Mexicali, Mexico facility at the same time.
The boat’s composite structure was designed and built in-house. Improving all aspects of aero- and hydro-dynamics, the team looked at every piece, leaving no stone unturned, achieving cleaner, smoother form and surface that are efficient to add competitive edge, according to Matt.
Nissan made the announcement Thursday, August 11.
Nissan Design America (NDA), a division of Nissan North America, Inc., designs vehicles with emphasis on the Americas region.
