Celebrating 90 Years of Yacht Design
Laurent Giles is celebrating its 90th anniversary and 1,400th yacht project in 2017. Based in Lymington, Hampshire, Laurent Giles was founded by Jack Laurent Giles in 1927, quickly establishing himself as a pioneer in new design and construction techniques. Laurent Giles was the first to design the all-aluminium offshore racing yacht, Gulvain, and one of the first to adopt GRP construction in the early 1960’s.
Whilst many of Jack’s early designs were ‘gentleman’s’ sailing yachts the pursuit of performance was always paramount and honed in racing yacht design, this included the America’s Cup yacht Flica II.The last 90 years have seen Laurent Giles work with many world leading shipyards and builders including, Lurssen, Abeking & Rasmussen, Nobiskrug, Fincantieri, Benetti, DML, Pendennis and Viareggio Superyachts to name but a few.
Today, Laurent Giles is pursuing the latest developments in new construction materials and methods, hybrid diesel, electric pod drive propulsion systems, advances in communications and navigation. Other areas of expertise are refined hull design and optimisation, hydrofoil advances and fully eco motor and sailing yachts.
“With concepts like the 110m motor sailor, Atlas, we can say with confidence that Laurent Giles will continue in the vein of Jack Laurent Giles,” comments Stephen Wallis, Director and Senior Naval Architect.