Tag: Designers

Britt Ward Charts the Future of Farr Yacht Design

Britt Ward, the newly appointed owner, president, and principal designer of Farr Yacht Design, has been with the iconic Annapolis-based firm since 1996. Inspired by Australia II’s historic 1983 America’s Cup win, Ward pursued naval architecture from a young age, studying at Webb Institute and later earning a master’s degree focused on hydrodynamics at MIT. Over nearly 30 years at Farr, he has worked on everything from paddleboards to 140-foot superyachts, America’s Cup programs, production cruiser-racers, and advanced military and commercial vessels.…

Inside the Mind of Bill Dixon: Four Decades of Innovation

In this interview, Bill Dixon, Chairman of Dixon Yacht Design, reflects on his four decades in yacht design—from early work with Angus Primrose to leading one of the industry’s most respected studios. Dixon discusses the shift toward lifestyle-focused cruising boats, easier handling, and the influence of high-performance sailing on modern production yachts. His team works with global builders including Moody, Hylas, Xquisite, Heysea, Beneteau, and Pearl Yachts, with standout projects like the Moody Deck Saloon series, Hylas 57, and Xquisite 60.…

Robert Perry: A Life in Yacht Design

We sat down with the legendary yacht designer Bob Perry – the Mick Jagger of yacht design. They spoke about how he got into yacht design, his success in the music world, and what thinks of cruising boats these days. He has a number of ways you can follow and connect with him. Club on Facebook Book on Amazon Magazine column in Latitudes and Attitudes Offers boat buying consulting ($750) Please enjoy the video and transcript below. Interview Transcript River Braun: Hey everyone, I’m River Braun with Yacht Site, and I am here today with Robert Perry.…

Interview with Hanneke Boon of Wharram Catamarans

Diane interviews Hanneke Boon who is a long time partner of James Wharram and designer of Wharram. She gives a historical recount since the 1938’s of catamaran design and sailing! She talks about her opinion of modern cruising catamarans and how Wharrams are different and really better for cruising. She and the team at Wharram are still busy selling plans to people all over the world! Personal: hanneke@wharram.com Office: wharram@wharram.com Website: www.wharram.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/JamesWharramDesigns Websites on canoe project for Tikopia and Anuta: www.lapitavoyage.org Wharram’s book of memoirs ‘People of the Sea’: www.wharram.com/shop/books/people-of-the-sea…

Interview with Erik Berzins of Morrelli & Melvin / HH Catamarans

Diane interview Erik Berzins, the lead designer of HH Catamarans. He works for Morrelli & Melvin in California, USA. He touches on his personal story to becoming a designer, some basics about M&M, and a lot about performance cruising catamarans. He covers the current state of innovation in performance as well as near future developments. He talks about eco-friendly designs too and how that constrains design and performance. Please read on or sit back and watch this excellent interview with our second M&M designer.…

Interview with Ferdinand Van West of Morrelli & Melvin / Rapido

Diane interviews lead designer of Rapido trimarans at Morrelli & Melvin. Morreli & Melvin is a famous design studio out of California which has designed America Cup winners, Gunboats, H&H catamarans, and Leopard catamarans. Please go to www.MorelliMelvin.com for more information about M&M and inquire about their design services. The Rapido 60 trimaran is well known as the choice of YouTube superstars, Sailing La Vagabonde. Trimarans like catamarans are becoming more popular, and Ferdinand covers how they compare in terms of performance and accommodations as well as what he sees as the future in multihull design.…

Interview with Naval Architect Mathias Maurios of VPLP Design

Diane interviews Mathias Maurios, Naval Architect and parnter at VPLP Design in France, about designing catamarans and in particular the Lagoon series. VPLP has designed all the over 6,000 Lagoons ever built. He has very interesting comments on the future of catamaran design. You can find out more about VPLP Design on their website and email Mathias at ( m.maurios@vplp.fr ). We’re here again with another CatamaranSite interview. This time with Mathias Maurios. Can you tell tell us about yourself and how you became involved with VPLP?…

Interview with Kurt Hughes of Multihull Designs

Diane interviews legendary multihull designer Kurt Hughes. It is a huge honor to talk to him. This discussion is quite technical, and everyone will enjoy and learn from Kurt’s knowledge. He gives an excellent history of his experiences in design and how Hughes designs are special. Read more from Kurt and get in touch via www.multihulldesigns.com and www.multihullblog.com. This is Diane we’re at CatamaranSite doing another interview. This time we have designer Kurt Hughes with us. Kurt can you give us a little bit of background about yourself?…

David de Villiers Interview – Aluminum Catamaran Design

We spoke with David de Villiers about catamaran design. David is especially interesting because he is at the forefront of a number of design trends including aluminum construction and the push away from condomarans and towards a focus on lightweight, efficient designs. We talk to him about his famous 62 foot ketch catamaran and his DVD 525 version which is being built all over the world currently. He discuses his time in South Africa under Dudley Dix, his transition to designing in New Zealand, and what he sees as the future for himself and the catamaran design world in general.…

Derek Kelsall Interview

We spoke with legendary catamaran designer Derek Kelsall. We cover his history and innovations in catamarans design and construction such as the foam coring, KSS. We ask him why his designs and build techniques are so heavily criticized. He talks about what size of a catamaran that a couple or family should purchase and where catamaran design is likely to go in the next decade. Please find out more about Derek Kelsall on his website. You can email him to ask questions and purchase plans or built kit.…

Schionning Design Interview with Robert Quinn

We talk to Robert Quinn of Schionning Design about how their company is navigating Covid-19, their most popular models, and the future of catamaran design. We discuss the Arrow series, G Force, and Waterline / Wilderness designs. Robert tells us why their Arrow series is their most popular and why the Arrow 1200 is the most popular model. He talks about their most common build locations in Australia, Thailand, and South Africa, and their growth plans for the USA market. A big thank you to Robert and Schionning Design for participating in our series of interviews with catamaran designers, builders, and owners.…

Dudley Dix Interview on Catamaran Design

Below is our interview with Dudley Dix about his DH550 catamaran, 43 and 47 foot sisterships, and a future 38 foot version. He talks about catamaran design, why he is popular in Russia, the problems with reverse bows, and why, for most people, the ideal catamaran length is 38 to 40 feet. World renown for his beautiful and surprisingly fast designs, it was a great pleasure hearing directly from this naval architect. It’s bad to design a boat that looks fast and isn’t, but it’s great to design one that looks slow and is actually fast.Dudley…

Introduction of Catamaran Designer Richard Woods – Interview # 1

Diane spoke with Richard Woods, a long time catamaran designer. Richard designed the catamaran that Diane circumnavigated on with her family, a modified Woods 40 Meander. Richard has been designing for a very long time all the way back to the 1970’s when working with Derek Kelsall and James Wharram. He has designed more boats than he can recall mostly in the 8 to 40 foot range. You can find out much more about him on his website SailingCatamarans.com. You can purchase designs to build your own Woods catamaran from his website here as well.…

Catamaran Design Formulas

Part 2: With permission from Terho Halme – Naval Architect While Part 1 showcased design comments from Richard Woods, this second webpage on catamaran design is from a paper on “How to dimension a sailing catamaran”, written by the Finnish boat designer, Terho Halme. I found his paper easy to follow and all the Catamaran hull design equations were in one place. Terho was kind enough to grant permission to reproduce his work here. Below are basic equations and parameters of catamaran design, courtesy of Terho Halme.…

Catamaran Hull Design

Part 1: Notes from Richard Woods Since the America’s Cup experimented with going multihull, there’s been a lot of interest in catamaran performance and the catamaran hull designs that define performance. Many guys are investigating whether to buy a catamaran or design and build their dream boat. Let it be said here that building a large catamaran is not for the faint of heart. People begin building 100s of boats a year, yet few are ever completed, as life always seems to have a way of interfering with a good boat build. …