Cyrano de Bergerac
37 metre High Speed Motor Yacht

Humphreys Yacht Design
Lower Seaforth House
Bath Road
Lymington
Hampshire
SO41 3RW
UK
Tel. +44 (0)1590 679344
Fax. +44 (0)1590 671651
info@humphreysdesign.com
100 metre Motor Yacht
60 metre Explorer Yacht
The Superyacht or Megayacht world is of immense interest to Rob Humphreys. His track record as an innovative designer with front-line performance experience, tested in rigorous circumstances such as numerous round-the-world races, give his office an excellent platform for this invigorating work.

His studio is currently gearing up to become a more active practitioner in this sector, and one of the current projects is a 37 metre high performance motor yacht which has started building in New Zealand. The boat is a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a boat capable of speeds in the upper 50 knot range but which has a deliberately understated look, drawing more parallels with the working boat environment than the ‘go-faster’ look that usually accompanies this sort of performance. This project has been fascinating from a technical point of view, and Humphreys has relished the opportunity to carry out a great deal of extremely meaningful tank testing work, much of it in a wave tank where the seakeeping qualities of the boat could be optimised.

An early Humphreys superyacht was the 38 metre Cyrano de Bergerac, built by Camper and Nicholsons with interiors by John Munford. Intended as something of a motor-sailer Cyrano nevertheless enjoyed a significant turn of speed, and now has thousands of miles under her keel, including a very successful circumnavigation. She won ‘The Most Innovative Yacht of the Year’ award in 1994, receiving this accolade in Monaco at an event organised by the American magazine Showboats International.

A Humphreys superyacht in development is the Oyster 100, a yacht that stretches the Oyster ethos to a new dimension. Because of her scale the Oyster 100 is designed for high quality aluminium construction, but the resulting product will be very much a part of the new generation Oyster family.

Also on the go is a ‘Spirit of Tradition’ 90ft schooner, with unavoidable Humphreys performance characteristics but evocative of quite another age.

An interesting aspect of this project is that the yacht is required for the charter market, and as such it is likely that more than one of the design will be built. The commercial logic behind the project is hard to refute, and great effort is being expended to make sure it can create a healthy return.