I'm not a doyen definitely
Marek Slodownik made a conversation with Andrzej Skrzat for "H2O" magazine:

Andrzej, in the middle of February, you would be almost 65 years old. Do you feel as if you were a doyen?
Definitely not, I am still working normally and I don?t think about jubilees or celebrating me.
I am usually quite embarrassed with that.

But years ago, you were creating this market?
Well, you can say that. There were some designers in that times and we were competing on constructions, everyone wanted to be the best, on the design of our yachts of course.
It was a fair competition and now we are all just friends. Henryk Jaszczewski, Jurek Piesniewski, Jacek Centkowski, Adam Orych and a few others. That is how it all began?
In that days, we were only selling our thoughts and papers, but nowadays, it is something totally different. However, the culture of thinking and creating was established, interest was aroused. People were tinkering with their yachts, learning, and it paid off. I remember how a few years ago Sportina 21 was being created in Ostróda. And it was not an ordinary fee-for-task agreement but a sort of activity based on an improvement scheme. Yachts were transported to Germany on many trucks.

Why, then, in other so-called Soviet block countries similar markets have not emerged?
No, the market exists there, but was not created by an atmosphere among the sailors.
Our sailors wanted to work, learn, create, this all contributed to what we have today.

You observe young Polish designers. Are they of any help?
There are many talented young people who follow news and design very interesting yachts.

Is it now for young designers easier to be noticed or not?
Definitely, it is more difficult. Now the market is everything. Just designing a boat is not enough, the thing is that it must be put into production, and it is usually very expensive . Times of amateur constructions have passed, as a result, yachts were uneven, inaccurate, simply imperfect. Now everything must be buttoned up, it is just technologically more advanced level. I am lucky that the company with which I cooperate implementation takes upon itself, young designers do not have such a comfort. It's because of several coincidences and a few dozen projects.

This few dozen projects achieved large commercial success, years of experience weigh in favour of you.
Therefore, I think that at present it is hard for young designers to fight their way through this market.

Have you noticed in their projects some of your solutions or some references to your projects?
Sometimes, there are some details that resemble some of my solutions.

Do you watch how others design?
Of course, I watch yachts very carefully, examine tendencies, try to notice whether yachts have more round shapes or more edges. I would even risk a conclusion that the car market is shaped by yacht market. Cars are omnipresent and they, so to speak, impose their style.

There was, once, however, a reverse attempt, one of Korean vehicles was similar in style to a motor boat, but is was not a particularly successful attempt... It was recognized as one of the ugliest vehicles on the market.
Yes, I remember that, but it is one of rare examples of a reverse borrowing.

How many realized projects you have on your scorecard?
When I was organizing my notes I counted them all. I counted up 98 projects. Someone once said that there are three hundred thousand yachts built in accordance with my projects.
It seems possible to me, but it is hard to count, because many yachts were not registered, they were built illegally, with no respect of copyrights. I sold around 4000 licenses.

Would organizing your notes lead to creation of a cohesive work of art?
I do not think about it now. Maybe after I collect more, maybe 150, I would give it a serious thought. Now I collect tests of my yachts and articles published in foreign newspapers, I have collected one hundred of them right now.

I've heard that the least successful project according to you is Kaktus? Is it true?
No, it's a yacht which creation was somewhat accidental. One of sailors was trying to convince me that within five meters and a piece of hull I would not fit this and that. I got to work and I drew a yacht, which had all those elements which should not fit there. Until now, more than a dozen yachts are sailing, and their owners do not get rid of them, what is a good recommendation for them.

I remember that Roza Wiatrow stirred up lot of controversy. Yacht of a bit archaic style.
It was not quite so. I designed the yacht of a style that looked to the past. Several of these units were created, but only one truly in exact accordance with my project. Remaining were modified by their future users, some cabins, bowsprits, mizzens were added. Not all of them understood that each of such steps was a step backwards.

And Aster 700? Cabin yacht without a cabin, of 1981 I think. Yacht with characteristic elevated sides and a flat deck. It looked as if it was a sea yacht on inland waters.
Today, such boat would not get off the ground. On a unit of this size, however, a full standing height, shower cabinet, toilet and all such facilities we couldn't even dream about at that times.

On Narcyz 02 of your design Stanislaw Cisek sailed from Swinoujscie to Venezuela.
Is this a reason for you to be proud of?
This was my yacht? Are you sure?

Yes, Narcyz in a ballast version, boat with a length of slightly more than 5 meters.
In my opinion the smaller yacht, paradoxically, the safer it is. Therefore I am not surprised at all that someone sailed the Atlantic Ocean with it. I admire such a feat, but as I said, it does not surprise me.

Which period of your work you remember as most pleasurable?
Frankly, most pleasurable was time up to the day I designed Tango... I call this period work of imagination, soul, fantasy, it was free designing. Later, it was worse, due to professional designing with all its limitations, market research and omnipresent marketing.

To what extent are you able to yield to defend your project? Where is the limit, beyond which you no longer go.
To be precise, I am able to yield if the project doesn't besmirch my good name.

Your works are famous because they are simply good, and besides they are nice to look at, so to speak, kind of beauty and harmony are added values.
You expressed it well, I am trying to design yachts in such a way.

You're perceived as a visual artist who designs yachts. And what is in reality?
I have graduated Technical Secondary School of Water Engineering, I have studied water engineering also at Warsaw Polytechnics. I became an artist by accident, because at that time the profession of a yacht designer did not exist, therefore I was treated as a blue bird who dodges his responsibilities, and this was then punishable. I decided to take exam without being enrolled as a student, before the Ministry of Culture and Art Commission. I prepared my projects, presentation and I think that members of the Commission appreciated my style, they probably recognized me as as skilled artist .

How many yachts you design annually?
Two, three, in current situation there are no orders, practically only one company in Poland regularly commissions work. I used to refuse a number of contractors, but today there are far less orders because of the crisis.

What determines the success of the boat on the market?
Yacht which enters the market must be slightly different from that of competitors. It must have certain something, maybe, grandiloquently, I'll call it a soul, something that makes a sailor feel it. I travel to various exhibitions and observe people who watch yachts. People sometimes make a round of and nothing results of it. Often, they stop, look at them closely, sit in cockpits trying to empathize with them. Often they just sit there without looking under tabletops, into cabinets or lockers. Yacht must have some difference in itself, it must precede other units but can not be too modern at the same time, because then it would be considered too avant-garde. I think, however, that boats are not sold on exhibitions, yachts are just being watched there and valuated in comparison with competitive products. They are sold from water, as a result of a whispering advertisement. Each yacht creates a group of friends who stick to it. Very often they are future users.

Are your projects always a bit avant-garde?
They must precede their time for let's say two years, not more. Furthermore, they must have some interest, leave a trace in the memory of the recipient. I try also to invent some sort of surprises, distinctive features, as compared to other units.

Was it similar in case of now legendary Sportina 595, which in the early eighties made a revolution in thinking about yachts?
Yes, it was. The prototype of this yacht, white hull painted white and black zebra stripes and named Mustang, was a little bit shocking. It was accused of a strange rudder blade, cut bow, too oval shape and sliding keel difficult to use on Mazury lakes. However, when it took part in yacht racing, and almost one hundred yachts were competing each other, only one was clearly visible, and it was Mustang. It was spoken a lot about this yacht, and that was the aim before starting the design work.

When your Delphia 40 was shown at the fair in Lodz, many willing people joined queue to see it. Everyone wanted to see a round table in cabin located in a way they were not used to.
Exactly, they remembered this boat because of its innovations.

What are you working on now?
It's Delphia 46, but in another, completely altered version, with a deck saloon, it is a yacht for senior citizens I think.

What is the difference between Polish and foreign customer?
Practically, there is no Polish customer. Usually in Poland people buy yachts for show, for a neighbour, to show him. Abroad, a customer knows exactly what he wants, and he chooses yacht paying special attention to things he requires. And a Polish customer who wants to buy a smaller yacht just considers the price of it. And therefore he chooses a mass product, it is similar to buying in a supermarket. You have to remember that we are around five years in Poland which operates in world business in this field, and I must stress that it is almost five years.

Do you start your work if you have a specific idea or you compose a bigger project of small elements during you daily work?
- I start to design when I have some idea, but then there is a stage of making calculations, working on details, and various detailed solutions. It is less effective stage of my work but it is unavoidable.

How long does it take to design a yacht?
To calculate everything precisely and to get results of my research is, in the case of more than 40 feet long yacht, around three or four months of hard work, day by day.

Have you ever designed a multi-hull yacht?
No, because I think, that there is no ready market for such boats. In free time, which I do not have, I make sketches of various yachts, also multi-hull, but I think that they can only be used on specific basins. They are comfortable boats to anchor grounds, that's the way it goes. On the Mediterranean Sea their advantages do not convince me.

Do you have some dreams connected with yacht designing? Some luxurious cruisers or high-speed race machines?
Of course I do, but I'm a realist. Such project would be of no chances for implementation, therefore I do not work on it.

Modern yachts become more and more similar in shapes and solutions. Similar is the case automotive industry. However, there are companies that are able to design something that at first glance differ from others. Here I think about Wally yachts or Swan yachts.
Accurate observation. The craftsmanship of designing is based on the ability to draw people's attention on it.

Which yacht you use for sailing privately? Through years you have been sailing on the prototype of Tango 730.
This yacht still exists, it stands on a trestle in Wierzba and waits for me. And I'll go sailing when I start to miss it, but such sailing when you can go to a hotel for a night. This was the last one of my yachts, which I did not only design but also worked on the design of hoof and shell. I feel a deep kinship with it. For now I am sailing on Delphia 26, It is a yacht similar to Tango but almost twice as heavy. And, definitely more comfortable.

Andrew, on the occasion of your anniversary again all the best and thank you for this conversation.
Thank you.