A Fiberglass First.
Tangent recently partnered with Veranda Marine, a market leader in pontoon manufacturing, to design and develop the 2021 Veranda V-One, Veranda’s first foray into the fiberglass pontoon market. Starting from the ground up, Tangent set about designing a fiberglass pontoon that would reflect the needs of a contemporary pontoon boat customer, incorporating aggressive details, custom accent lights and plentiful amounts of storage space and utility into the boat’s bespoke fiberglass body. Tangent’s responsibilities included designing and developing everything from the boat’s exterior fiberglass styling, interior seating and storage, as well as its aggressive, sports car inspired helm.
Beginning with blue sky 2D ideation sketches, Tangent worked with packaging constraints and design feedback provided by Veranda to create a fiberglass pontoon that would be a market leader in design and experience. Inspired by the forms and styling of Italian sportscar manufacturer Lamborghini, Tangent created a pontoon design that would stand out from the pack. Prominently featured on the aft end of the craft, are the V-One’s defining design feature, a set of abstract faceted forms that incorporate the boat’s rear speakers, as well as its key character line that reaches from the aft end all the way to the boats custom thermoformed headlamps.
After selecting a 2D design direction, Tangent went to work developing the boat’s fiberglass body and helm in Autodesk Alias. Tangent was careful to ensure the fidelity and fit and finish of every part by considering fastening techniques and assembly constraints from the very beginning of the process. Using our in-house VRED based virtual reality set-up, Tangent was able to utilize a full-scale virtual experience to evaluate the V-One’s exterior design development, giving Tangent unique insights into the boat’s form, and the scale of its many design features.
After modeling the boat’s fiberglass and thermoform panels in CAD, Tangent made sure to work with all of the part suppliers, ensuring that each trim piece would meet the manufacture’s exact specifications.