 After leaving university, Collins became a yacht designer and invented and patented the tandem keel, which was conceived to create high performance at low draft, but which also remains one of the radical keels in the America's Cup.He continued his interest in yacht design with an innovation in hull design called the Universal Hull.This fused together two classic hull types (the long, thin, easily driven hull and the beamy commodious hull) in a form which yielded the chief virtues of both types of hull.