Best Yacht Designer in the GRP Era

[LONG_KEELER]

Any thoughts ?

 

[Habebty]

Stephen Jones.

 

[Wansworth]

For showing the way the new material could be used it has to be one of the French designers who got into curved surfaces and did away with sharpe corners, which just imitated wooden boat construction

 

[NUTMEG]

Laurent Giles

 

[sailorman]

EG Van der Stad was one of the first & the design office is still in business as are S & S. Holman & Pye designed some very nice yachts too

 

[Ludd]

Olle enderlein,till1989 designer for Hallberg Rassy.

 

[dom]

Reichel/Pugh, Bruce Farr?

 

[Tradewinds]

Ray Wall

http://sailboatdata.com/view_designer.asp?designer_id=264

 

[sarabande]

Sparkmann and Stephens, especially Olin.


They made the transition form wood and steel to GRP and aluminum in a range of wonderfully fast and safe racing and cruising yachts, which are now classics.

 

[horatio_nelson]

If we're making a list Ed Dubois should be on it. Plus whoever designed my boat

 

[Orion Jim]

Any thoughts ?

Carl Alberg....a "long keel" devotee. He is responsible for hundreds of glass fiber yachts. A cutaway forefoot and a graceful long keel were prominent features.

 

[Malo37]

Any thoughts ?

Impossible to answer unless you can define 'Best' in this context.

 

[dunedin]

Carl Alberg....a "long keel" devotee. He is responsible for hundreds of glass fiber yachts. A cutaway forefoot and a graceful long keel were prominent features.

But isn't that simply building a GRP boat using a design created to suit wooden building ? Not really thinking about the opportunities arising from the new material

Dufour was an example of somebody who thought things anew - with his transformational and trend setting Arpege for example
http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=1088

 

[Poecheng]

Stephen Jones.

+1

 

[bbg]

Reichel/Pugh, Bruce Farr?

They would be right up there.

 

[Koeketiene]

Gary Mull

http://sailboatdata.com/view_designer.asp?designer_id=19

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Mull

 

[Seajet]

Oliver Lee

should be on the list; his designs are best viewed from below in the hoist, to see what lovely shapes he created.

' Willing Griffin ', a slightly modified Hunter 19, took David Blagden across to 10th place in the 1972 OSTAR and into the record books as smallest entrant ever allowed, let alone to finish !

D.B's book about her, ' Very Willing Griffin ' is now an expensive, sought after classic.

Oliver Lee is the only designer to merit an ' The Genius Of ' section on the committee groups on these forums ( see the dark band above the forum headings ) - his Squibs still form large ( largest ? ) fleets at Cowes and several well known posters here have Hunter 490's as second, fun boats simply because they are such a delight to sail.

 

[Wansworth]

Now that would be a subject for a series in a magazine....yachtdesigners.......or has it already been done......

 

[Seajet]

Now that would be a subject for a series in a magazine....yachtdesigners.......or has it already been done......

Wansworth,

good idea ! No I don't think a book comparing designers has been done, maybe Arthur Billers' ' The Proper Yacht ' was the closest but that covers large classic 1960's boats.

I can see legal problems unless every current designer is rated ' best ever '...

 

[jwilson]

Sparkman & Stephens
Holman & Pye