One of the aspects that PMW follow with interest is the design of custom parts for rig modifications or deck hardware use.
Our philosophy is not to made in house Finite Element analysis for complicated geometries or for entire boats as we are sure that the FEM analysis has to be done by professional FEM experts; in fact many Naval Architecture office claim to do their in house FEM analysis, but the results are only beautiful and coloured images to present into websites but without any structural value. So, when we need accurate and complex Finite Element works, we have an active cooperation with professional FEM experts.
Apart that, for custom parts design we use our in house FEM calculation, as we are confident about the geometries, the loads and the results. We use it for keel design, rudder stock design, bowsprit, chainplates design and other interesting parts. The first step is to visit the boat and test the problem that has to be solved with our work; when the problem is clear we start the brainstorm around it and arrive at a number of geometries that will be checked both with FEM to obtain the structural response to the theoretical loads, and to the manufacturer in order to value the costs-reliability ratio. When we're sure of the optimal geometry we start the construction drawings and we follow the fitting out of the part on the boat, to be sure that any eventual mounting problem can be solved easily.