Scarlett Harris was 18 years old and out sailing when she realised that boating, at its core, is about engineering things to work better. That insight eventually led her from a job as a rigger to a product design degree at Bournemouth University in the UK, and then to a role at Dutch marine electronics and hardware firm IO Developments + Engineering (IODE). Along the way, she served as a guest student jury member at last year's DAME Design Awards, and is also a member of the Metstrade Young Professionals Club.
Harris started her working life in the marine industry at Rigging Projects, around the time the company launched its headboard car. Watching the research, design and manufacturing effort that went into high-performance yacht hardware sparked an ambition to be part of that process.
She enrolled at Bournemouth aged 25, graduating with a First Class Honours degree in product design. Her final-year project was the Aloft device, designed to improve safety for people working at height on yachts.
IODE, where she now works alongside founder Alex Runciman, operates primarily in marine electronics, building sensor networks, load sensors and proximity sensors for large rigs. The company's first hardware launch is the EASYfeed, a curved track entry system designed to make loading mainsail cars easier. A safety winch prototype is also in development, with a target to have it ready for Metstrade this year.
Serving on the DAME jury gave Harris a close look at how the industry approaches sustainability in product development, and she was not always impressed. "The environmental statements on the entries were often disappointing – there was a lot of debate in the jury room over that," she says. "In some cases, it was because product creators didn't explain their sustainability efforts well enough or made what seemed to be inauthentic claims and in others because sustainability appears not to be a priority when setting development goals."
She would like to see more movement towards circular business models, including buy-back schemes and component recycling. At IODE's scale, the focus is on building repairable, high-quality products and making smarter material choices, such as using aluminium rather than carbon, or recycled aluminium instead of titanium. Consumer pressure and the collective buying power of the yachting industry, she believes, could help drive broader change.
For anyone considering a career in marine equipment design, her advice is direct. "Go sailing. If you want to create marine equipment, you need to get out on the water regularly and experience as many different types of boats everywhere in the world that you can. Those perspectives will inform you how people interact with their machines. The more that you know about what you're designing for, the better."
