With over 30 years of yacht design experience, Rob Humphreys has been involved in a huge variety of projects. Whilst initially making his reputation as a racing yacht designer, he has become more and more involved in cruising yacht work – in the one-off and semi-custom sector with boats such as the award winning 128ft ketch Cyrano de Bergerac and the 77ft Ocean Phoenix, and in the production field with the renowned Oyster fleet and the dual-purpose Elan range.

Recent high profile projects that the design studio has been involved with include continued design work for Oyster, Elan and Southerly, and for Ellen McArthur's Open 60 Kingfisher and the GBR America's Cup Challenge.

As one might expect from a design studio that made its name on the racing circuit, all the latest R&D methods are regularly used at HYD. Tank testing is often carried out, usually in conjunction with the Wolfson Unit, one of the world’s most experienced and respected marine research establishments (all Humphreys’ round-the-world race projects, for example, were tested in this way, as were large yachts like Cyrano de Bergerac and a 37 metre high performance motor yacht currently in design). Similarly, Wind Tunnel testing has been used for rig and sail development (for example for Dolphin and Youth and Kingfisher) and for keel development (used to develop the advanced keel form for Rothmans, for example, a tip configuration that has since been replicated by the majority of designers). Finally, Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD, normally the preserve of the America’s Cup, is used increasingly to help optimise appendage design, for example Kingfisher’s appendages benefited from CFD work carried out by WS Atkins.

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