Yacht design studio Vripack has announced that since the introduction of virtual Prototyping (VP) it has entered a new phase in its effort to reduce construction time. The company says with the use of virtual reality to review both design and engineering it has manage to bring back fail cost by 75%.

Creative director Bart Bouwhuis of Vripack explains: “After years and years of very low incremental growth the recent developments in virtual reality are exponential now and allow us to use this tool for our reviews instead of making mock ups, prototypes and pre-fabrication. So the cost related to that as well as the time consumption is now fully eliminated. It’s part of history.”

Bouwhuis adds that the initial use of VR has allowed for checks of spaces, volumes, heights, sight lines, stairs and more.

“After nearly twelve months of R&D we’re at a stage where we’re reviewing complete installation sequences, maintainability, accessibility and so on and so forth. We’re basically evaluating the assembly process and the future maintenance of the whole yacht, let aside the training and instructions possibilities for the workers, all this before any hour is wasted on building something that could be done better and in less time,” he confirms.

In addition, Vripack claims that its innovations in construction processes already led to the development of Smart Kit resulting in a 15% hull building time reduction.

This innovation is followed by Boat Blocks, a system that the studio currently uses in production and through which it sees double-digit savings, Vripack says in a statement.