The National Martime Museum Cornwall opened in December 2002 to house the National Small Boat collection.  Over 120 vessels are featured in a regularly changing display. Powerful audio-visual experiences and interactives explore navigation, tides, boat construction and stories of boat communities.

‘‘The integration between moving images and objects in the NMMCs Set Sail is arguably the most innovative in the UK” - Jane Morris, Museums Practice Spring 2003

Set Sail is a powerful, immersive, multiscreen introduction to the museum, with twelve video projection screens and a 32 channel soundtrack accompanying the display of nine of the most important boats in the collection. Purpose shot and archive film footage, sound tracks and still images, interviews with famous sailors and designers all vividly bring to life the stories of the boats and the people that use them.

The visitor enters the gallery at ground level and gradually moves along a ramp, rising along one side of the gallery to the 2nd floor level.  The video wall is approximately 25 feet wide and 10 feet high consisting of 3 large front projections and 9 rear projections.

Part documentary, part visual abstraction, Set Sail is a powerful cinematic experience that introduces the themes explored in the rest of the museum.

The Boat-building gallery contains four animated interactive programmes, creating virtual environments in which the principles of boat construction can be demonstrated and tested by the visitors. 

Visitors find out about the many ways that people have adapted boats to suit various purposes, how they are used for work, leisure, exploration, communication, hunting, fishing and sport.

Design Week Permanent Exhibition Design award 2004