One of the greatest difficulties in any volume design work is that there is no one specific client, so a given model has to be able to spread across a reasonable catchment area of the market. Humphreys' formula of fast, efficient boats that are easy to handle has proved extremely popular, and many of his older production boats still command high resale values. The evergreen Contessa 33, for example, is still highly sought after, even after fifteen years.

It seems that there is similar following among the newer boats. The Oyster 56, the first Oyster by Humphreys, had ten firm orders in place before the first 56 was launched, an Oyster record, and this was followed by almost identical advance orders for the Oyster 53. Even the bigger Oyster 66 had nine firm orders taken before the prototype of the class was launched. And down the scale, advance orders can be even more considerable: Elan had almost thirty orders for the Elan 333 before the prototype was launched.