Between tradition and modernity: A portrait of yacht designer Jarkko Jämsén
Sören Gehlhaus
· 17.02.2024
Remembering the most beautiful moments in life is not difficult for most people. People who are fond of yachting are quick to reminisce on or in the water. Jarkko Jämsén has to think of a formula. "I remember my first scale model very clearly," says the Finn in his studio in Monaco, stretching his arms apart to visualise the size. He asked his father how heavy his wooden model should be so that it would hit the design waterline. After calculating the assumed displacement on the same scale as the model length to the original length, he realised: "It can't possibly be that heavy!" It took him quite a while to work out that he had to divide the original displacement by the scale factor to the power of three. "That was one of the best moments of my life," enthuses the 47-year-old. Jämsén wears a Rasputin-style long beard, a black cap, horn-rimmed glasses and a fisherman's shirt. On the table are copies of "Sail and Power" by Uffa Fox, Jacques Devaulx's "Nautical Works" and a book on organic forms in Finnish glass and ceramic art.
Before the meeting, Jämsén described his office location as: "At the Formula 1 starting grid, starting position 18", as if this were a normally understandable address. Not realising that the starting grid positions remain on the tarmac of the Principality, an additional request was made for the house number. On the fifth floor, visitors can expect a white-panelled conference room with a marble table in the centre and one of those terraces that are rented out for horrendous sums on the big race day. The Port Hercule is almost within a line's throw.
The path to boat building
The Monaco native opens the interview with: "I'm a wooden boat builder, naval architect and industrial designer." How did this come about? He left school and home behind at the age of 15 to play ice hockey semi-professionally. "I trained on the ice from morning to afternoon, then I learnt how to build wooden boats." The all-rounder comes from the lake-rich inland region. "A very beautiful area. My grandfather had a cabin on the lake and as we weren't particularly wealthy, we built our own boats. They were up to eight metres long, made of wood and were always being repaired. They were semi-customised," laughs Jämsén.
The Finnish designer built his first boat at the age of 16, a modified Sea Bright skiff. In the end, however, it was "designed and built by me", with a small electric outboard motor, free-standing mast and swivelling keel. "I only used hand-operated tools," he says, imitating the sound of a plane going up and down. Jämsén grew up in an environment far removed from sailing clubs and shipyards. But there was a library in the neighbouring village where he read all about old American boats. "Up until sixth grade, there were 21 pupils and two teachers in the entire school. Total chaos. I learnt nothing at all in the first few years, but boatbuilding grabbed me straight away." Jämsén last played in a small town as a goalkeeper for a second division team. "From an early age, I was part of this masculine, perhaps even a little toxic world." At 20, he turned his back on it and studied shipbuilding. His first choice would have been industrial design, but the school's career guidance centre advised him against it. Jämsén is severely colour-blind.
"I had to do a lot of maths to pass the entrance exam in Turku." As he had already built his own boat, he understood the basic dynamics and mechanics. "I was still a poor sod. I also worked nights at Wärtsilä putting together the big 46 engines. I was lucky and had a very good professor from whom I learnt a lot and gained self-confidence." During this time, he learnt English, which had previously played no role at school. During his studies, he also worked in a design office, sometimes on cruise ships or special tasks. His boss became a supporter and entrusted him with custom projects, which he drew and rendered using 3Ds Max.
Where Jarkko Jämsén got his inspiration from
Another moment of happiness followed at the age of 25. He stocked up on pirated copies of software such as AutoCAD or Rhino on black markets in Estonia and was "in seventh heaven". He was inspired by international yacht magazines that he bought at the railway station. After successfully completing his shipbuilding studies, Jämsén thought of the tutor who talked him out of studying industrial design. Now he tried it, was accepted in Lahti, but still lived in Helsinki and worked in Turku. "I did everything at the same time and I think that's how I still work." Due to his previous knowledge, he was offered a shortened study period, but the young engineer opted for the full four years and went to Genoa for two semesters abroad, where he first came into contact with yacht design at an academic level. After returning to the north, he took jobs in industrial design offices before deciding on his 30th birthday that he would only work on his own account.
"I never thought I would be able to keep my head above water with yachts alone," says Jämsén. And adds dryly: "My first project was the Finnish president's yacht." He won a tender for the construction and design of the 20 metre long state yacht, which was the second project with four IPS units and brought him a lot of attention. Nowadays, shipyards take on the construction work for his large yacht projects, but Navia, the office he co-founded, can also do this and still does it for pleasure craft. "In the beginning, we were three people, now with Aivan we are around 100 and look after twelve different boat brands." These include non-Finnish shipyards such as Zodiac, Technohull and Candela, for which Navia even developed the foil control system.
Axopar is a brand that grew quickly, not least thanks to Navia. "There was no company yet, just a few people with good ideas," recalls Jämsén, who had already worked with Axopar founders Sakari Mattila and Jan-Erik Viitala on Paragon and XO. The name is derived from parts of Aquador, Mattila's first boat brand, as well as XO and Paragon. Jämsén holds numerous patents for design details, including the flat stepped hull. He developed the concept of a RIB without hoses for Paragon in the mid-2000s. He always favoured outboards to keep weight and fuel consumption low and seaworthiness high. In addition, Jämsén's angular design helped to visually reinforce the hulls.
"Our level of expertise has become very high. 40 per cent of the business is related to water, of which superyachts make up a very small part." The sister company Aivan - an anagram of "Navia" - covers industrial, communication and shop design. Both companies are based in Helsinki's harbour in an old Henry Ford production hall. In terms of customers, the transitions are sometimes fluid, such as with Brabus, for whom Navia designed and constructed the boats and Aivan developed a complex configurator for the Bottrop-based refiner's car division.
On board the Brabus Shadow 900 with Jarkko Jämsén
After the studio visit, we go for a drive in a Brabus Shadow 900. On board, Jämsén is clearly in his element, helping to cast off and later taking the wheel. Privately, he drives the same model, which is moored outside the Monaco Yacht Show at the foot of his office in Port Hercule. "It couldn't be more efficient," says Jämsén about the combination of the stepped hull and the two eight-cylinder Mercury engines. As he looks out over the floating exhibits in the harbour basin, he says "no comment" on the aesthetics, but "no comment" on the propulsion efficiency: "I can tell quite quickly from the hull whether a yacht consumes little fuel. And I can calculate that in detail." With all this hydrodynamic optimisation thinking, it is not surprising that he was still sailing until recently. He maintained the first-rule 8 "Folly" with a friend until the work on the boat became too much and trumped the fun on the water.
Jämsén organises his superyacht commissions from Monaco, where he also lives: "It's a bit like a hobby for me." Instead of taking part in pitches or chasing clients with concepts, he favours hand-picked projects: "That may sound arrogant, but I don't see superyachts as a tough business. It should be fun, with customers who are looking for something exciting and are pleasant people. When someone hires me, I put all my energy into the project and give five years of my life. And it's not about me, it's about the owners. I know what it demands of them. In most cases, it's the biggest investment." With his division, he operates independently of the Helsinki site, buying in individual services from Aivan and Navia and doing the majority himself: "I can oversee all areas of the build, be it hull design or construction. I like to push the boundaries."
Put into practice
This is exactly what he did with his large yacht debut, the 77-metre-long "Pi" (ex-"Syzygy 818"). BOOTE EXCLUSIV became aware of the designer with the unusual name in 2018 during a shipyard visit to Feadship. The enclosure prevented views of Project 818, but a lateral view hung next to the temporary gangway. That was all that was needed to convey the impact of the design. The notes at the time read: "Narrow, negative stem, glass superstructure, no sundeck. From an industrial designer." When the editorial team received photos of the sea trials on the North Sea after the launch, everything came together to form an extremely coherent picture: a concave, almost funnel-shaped bow, contrasted by a convex stern that ends in a tumblehome. The teak deck is laid athwartships and the stern is closed.
Feadship brought the new build with interior from Sinot 2019 to the trade fair in Monaco, whereupon the client probably received an offer for "Syzygy 818" that he could not refuse. The new owner renamed the ship and the old owner placed an order for the 13 metre longer successor with the same shipyard address. A model of Feadship 824 stands on the conference table in Jämsén's office. It is a workpiece from the 3D printer that does without an underwater hull and is merely intended to illustrate the proportions. It shows the same sharp, rounded lines, again with a longitudinal pool aft and a square basin on the foredeck that reveals a lifting roof. This time there is a dramatically open stern with wide steps and an integrated stern hatch that appears to form an even longer walkway.
Comeback of the concave
After "Pi", Jämsén was celebrated for bringing seemingly outdated shapes such as the concave back into yachting; an extremely efficient design feature in the bow, but also a wasteful design element that, in contrast to convex sides, constricts the hull and robs it of interior volume. Jämsén subsequently played with similar freeboard shapes for Nautor Swan, for whom he made his sailing debut with the styling of the Juan K design ClubSwan 50. Its "vase stern" was found in the Italo-Finnish brand's first motorised model, the Swan Shadow, in a much more pronounced form. The 23 metre long SwanArrow, which is currently under construction, also relies on the concave-arched sides.
Jarkko Jämsén's multidisciplinary approach recently culminated in "Raven". He designed the 34-metre-long super-foiler from Baltic Yachts based on Nat Herreshoff's almost 150-year-old Kat Tarantella and Gordon Baker's mono-foiler from the 1950s. The all-in-one motto applied: sailing above the surface of the water, old ideas, new technology and avant-garde design both inside and out. The jack-of-all-trades also devised the lightweight interior made of carbon and rattan elements for the supersailer built in Finland. The deck features functional design in the form of an orange anti-slip coating around the deck, blocks, winches, eyelets and hatch closures. The graphics are intended to resemble those that adorn the hulls of helicopters.
Jämsén thinks openly, often further ahead than many others, and he does so in the knowledge that he can back up his visions with formulae. The Finn is not the only one in his profession to combine creativity and construction. But he does it with a pleasant mixture of enthusiasm for technology and aesthetic curiosity, while at the same time respecting existing arts. The colour-blind former ice hockey player now gives pro bono lectures in industrial design at the university in Lahti: "So many people have helped me that I want to give something back. If I can reach one person who is in the same position as I was, I'm happy."
