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Antonio Dias and Arey's Pond boatyard in Cape Cod teamed up to produce a sophisticated new 18’ daysailer, the first of its kind to be offered by Arey's Pond.
Together with G. Anthony Davis, Tony Dias, a small boat and yacht designer out of Narragansett, RI, designed this kicked up, 18’ sloop for shallow water sailing. Dias blended aesthetic beauty and new technology in the design of this fast, light-weight and comfortable boat. Dias stated that the inspiration for the boat's design was the Jaguar Sedan, “elegant and comfortable, but with good performance.”
In the boat design industry, many still cling to the old pencil and paper design methods. Dias credits his success, in part, to an early adoption of CAD design software. In doing so, he joined the fast growing number of deisgners who have moved into high tech and never looked back. To Dias the inherently slow process of pencil and paper drawing was akin to "watching a tree grow." To illustrate, he points out that the old way adds an extra month to the design process just in outputting numbers, creating full-scale grids and building models.
By switching to CAD Dias advanced his level of experience because he got a comparatively enormous amount of feedback in very little time. however, Dias, however, became frustrated with the typical CAD program’s inability to handle complex solids and his own lack of engineering background. Then he discovered Ashlar-Vellum Cobalt design software. Cobalt freed him to focus purely on the art and precision design (to 1/1000 of an inch) of his boats. For Dias, Cobalt ended his daily battle to maneuver the rough waters of the typical CAD program. Today, Antonio Dias and Cobalt are a team to keep an eye on.
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