Scorpion

US, New York. Scorpion is the latest to come from the drawing board of Scott Henderson. The 9.7m tender is the first boat under 10m to come from the industrial designer, and was presented as a speculative concept to Florida-based Chris Craft after having been inspired by the brand. Here the designer describes what makes this design different from others in the market.

Chris Craft’s mahogany runabouts from the 1940s, 50s and 60s, with their deep-V hulls that twist dramatically from an extreme negative slope at the bow, reversing along the way towards the ‘barrel-back’ at the stern, are iconic, timeless and sought-after features of design, even today. The design challenge behind Scorpion was to figure out what a ‘next generation’ launch/tender boat should express in order to honour the tradition of those fantastic wooden powerboats while using fibreglass and only minimal wood in its construction.


I started off by making the top surface and windscreen frame into one continuous surface. The glass from the windscreen transitions seamlessly into long side windows on either side of the foredeck, communicating speed and power. The central stripe that starts at the bow and extends to the stern frames the central window on the foredeck and ties the tender’s composition together across the body of the boat. All three windows forward of the vessel (the Scorpion’s ‘claw’) provide 180 degrees of natural light to the cabin below.


Traditionally, no matter how well a tender is designed, the windshield component is typically ‘stuck on’, but what makes this design unique is that it forms part of the structure. In automotive design, forms that are required for function are holistically integrated and considered to make up the vehicle’s overall statement. This detail on Scorpion propels boat design forward and makes the boat instantly memorable and iconic.

The boat would feature a twin Mercury 8.2 MAG HO engine producing 430hp, achieving a top speed of 53 knots and a range of 243nm at a cruising speed of 30 knots.

Related Links:
Scott Henderson - company profile

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