By Frank O'Neil, Chief Commercial Officer
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Adriel Rollins spent the first half of his childhood on a sailboat. His young father estimated that spending the summers on their small, wind-powered vessel cost about as much as living at home, so the family would spend 40-plus days at a time exploring the Salish Sea and Inside Passage in the late 1970s.
That first decade formed vivid early memories and an undying affinity for watercraft. His first real job at 17 was as a stern-drive mechanic in Everett—a log-rich marine environment if there ever was one.
Following the tragic loss of his father soon after, a neighbor dared Adriel to see if he could go to college.
“I heard about industrial design from a friend. He says, ‘Look, man, you’re always making parts for cars and trucks and boats. And you seem to start by drawing a picture,” Adriel said. “‘There’s actually a degree in that.”
Adriel didn’t consider himself exactly “college track” material at the time—“I found out the hard way because of a birth defect that I couldn’t go into the Navy”—but decided it would likely be cleaner and less seasonal than repairing mangled sterndrives. He started studies first at community college then at Western Washington’s competitive industrial design school while still working five days a week.
“Coming from my background in Everett and getting a community college degree first and kind of being, a bit more provincial, rural, not really big city guy, I moved up there and went to college and learned about the culture of design—while continuing to maintain my mindset that none of this matters if we can’t build it,” he said.
That led to an internship with Nordic Tug—coincidentally within walking distance of Lindell Yacht’s new facility. Roles as a technical writer and photographer evolved into drafting and new opportunities and before long he graduated, and was working as a junior designer for a superyacht design firm, and drawing the interior design for a submarine that would ride aboard Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s superyacht.
“A lot of people get into design and then gravitate towards the boats as a form of design,” Adriel said. “They’ve gone into transportation design or they’ve worked in interior design and then they get into boats somehow and they find out that they’re good at it and it works for them. I started with boats and then worked towards the different professions to get to design. I started out being obsessed with boats as a kid.”
That ascent continued as Adriel went to work as a contractor for Delta Marine, one of the most regarded superyacht builders in the country. He served as Exterior Stylist and Interior Designer of the Triton, Happy Days, and Mr. Terrible, boats now well-known because of the numerous magazine covers and awards they earned.
“I am happy to have won Motor Yacht of the Year for the first three large yachts in a row for Delta Marine” Adriel said. “I don’t usually like to talk about awards because it is my belief that the planets have to align for this award to be given. The builder, owner, management team, and hundreds of craftsmen and artisans make it possible. No one man.”
Nonetheless, those accolades opened doors around the world. He helped design the exterior of the 280-foot Sunrays for the Dutch builder Oceanco; a massive project with tons of deck space. After receiving a graduate degree from the University of Washington, he taught design courses at several colleges and universities while maintaining his focus on envisioning large-scale watercraft.
“I always happened to gravitate towards boats. I did other stuff, but it’s now to the point where it’s always boats. It’s exclusively, ‘How can I bring to bear design solutions for the wider idea of what a boat needs to do as a functional piece on the water?’ Lindells are a perfect fit because having the boat’s main purpose be to provide pleasure as in a pleasure craft is kind of a tough thing to put boundaries on. A Lindell boat has a very strong purpose of something that it needs to do on the performance side that's related to the client’s needs and wants of why they chose the boat in the first place.”
Astonishing resume aside, Adriel is simply a great guy to work with. We meet for lunch about once a week to talk about our lives, our daughters, and our work. He’s humble, funny, thoughtful, and smart. He comes to our meetings with clients extremely prepared and carrying the confidence to help them make sometimes-difficult decisions on interior and exterior designs, materials, and appointments. Adriel’s experience as a mechanic, drafter, photographer, 13-time superyacht design award winner, professor, and—most importantly, mariner—brings a great deal of sophistication to our already talented team.
We’re so excited to show you all what we’ve been drawing and building together.
