The art of sailing

Audi’s number one designing mind, Marc Lichte,
draws great inspiration from his passion for sailing.

Marc Lichte, Head of Design at AUDI AG, is every bit the sailor. His boat is his refuge, the place where he goes to replenish his inner reserves so he can keep thinking ahead.

4 May, 2018

It’s often the little things that reveal the most about a person. Take, for instance, the wind sensor at the top of the mast on Marc Lichte’s yacht:

“See how on all the other boats the wind sensor comes directly off the mast or points straight ahead? I wanted mine to instead follow the upward line of the mast, aerodynamically bend and only then to extend forwards. That way, it is angled perfectly to the wind and measures it precisely. I designed the device myself. It’s one of a kind and it’s perfect.”

“Then there’s the bow thruster – that’s also unique to this boat. I often sail alone and it helps with docking and putting out to sea.”

Keeping pace with 48-year-old Marc Lichte is no easy task. With his jam-packed schedule, the head of design at Audi AG only has time to meet us here at his hideaway – a marina in a small town on the German Baltic coast where his yacht is berthed. Lichte welcomes us on board his Xp 38 X-Yacht, described by European magazine Yacht as, “sleek and fast – a performance cruiser that will strike fear into the heart of anyone pitted against it in a regatta.”

But Lichte’s yacht is unlike any other Xp 38. Except for the hull, most of the important components are made of carbon. So are the cage, keel, mast, the full complement of appendages, rudder and retrofitted Doyle sails. “The thing is so rigid, nothing budges,” Lichte raves. “Every tiny gust of wind is converted into speed. It makes for incredible sailing.”

"Except for the hull, most of the important components are made of carbon. So are the cage, keel, mast, the full complement of appendages, rudder and retrofitted Doyle sails. "

"It sails like a dream and has almost timeless lines, which matters a lot to me. That’s the parallel with car design. The lines are the most important thing on a yacht, the length and proportions – just like with an Audi."

Performance is a key priority for the passionate yachtsman who was already sailing an Optimist dinghy at the age of six. From there, he followed the regatta  career, progressing through the Laser, cruising dinghy and quarter tonner classes.

Lichte notched up three wins in his class at Kiel Week and two second-place finishes in the German championships. Even with the demands of leading a 440-strong design department, Marc Lichte tries to sail whenever he can find the time.

What Lichte expects of his boat is quite simple: “Its performance has to be flawless – and so do its looks. The Xp 38 fits the bill. It sails like a dream and has almost timeless lines, which matters a lot to me. That’s the parallel with car design. The lines are the most important thing on a yacht, the length and proportions – just like with an Audi.”

Marc Lichte is an obsessive, a mad genius who won’t settle for anything less than absolute perfection. In both performance and aesthetics, he aspires to what in the Audi idiom might translate as a never-ending quest for Vorsprung in technology and design.

Sailing and automotive design are his two great passions in life. As a schoolboy, the native of Germany’s Sauerland region was already spending every free minute of his time in a boat on Lake Möhne. Drawing was his way of whiling away the time during boring classes: “I sketched cars on the left-hand pages of books and yachts on the right.”

His fervent desire for a yacht of his own accidentally helped him to land his first job as an automotive designer. He had just started his degree program in transportation design at Pforzheim University when a design competition was announced. The prize money: 25,000 German marks. “I first had to win the internal selection process in order to represent Pforzheim, and then go on to compete against design schools from California, Switzerland and London. But a shot at getting so much money all in one go presented an incredible opportunity.”

So Lichte hunkered down for a whole year to work on his design concept and model. “I wanted that money, and I only wanted it so I could buy myself a boat.”

"Drawing was his way of whiling away the time during boring classes: “I sketched cars on the left-hand pages of books and yachts on the right."

"I’m the type of person who’s a permanent live wire. Everything inspires me: whatever I see or eat, whoever I talk to, wherever I travel. What’s most important for my creativity is freeing my mind. And I can do that here on the boat. It’s quiet, just the wind."

Lichte won the competition and used the prize money to buy his first yacht, which measured a good seven metres in length. But there was another unforeseen result that came from the experience – the jury for the competition was made up of designers from all the top car brands and having caught their attention, it wasn’t long before Lichte had his first serious job. 

Today he grins over it: “I really didn’t think about how big an impact it could have on my future career.” A source of equal present-day amusement for the designer is how he then went on to finance the rest of his studies by selling drawings of the manufacturers’ disguised prototypes to car magazines.

But for now it’s time to pull up anchors and with a good breeze, as is the case today, the protected Kiel Fjord provides the perfect playground. What is truly striking is how the man has undergone a complete transformation on board his boat – where he turns in on himself and appears to be all alone in savouring that ultimate freedom. Later, when we’re moored again in the harbour and enjoying a traditional post-outing beer, Marc Lichte says:

“I’m the type of person who’s a permanent live wire. Everything inspires me: whatever I see or eat, whoever I talk to, wherever I travel. What’s most important for my creativity is freeing my mind. And I can do that here on the boat. It’s quiet, just the wind. The exact opposite of my everyday life.”

His boat’s stern bears the name Heima, which is Icelandic for ‘home’.

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