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The success of my racing designs was the springboard of my organisation's move into creating the new breed of big sailing yachts.

Competing against the world's best racing yacht designers calls for an accurate and well organised development programme and an intuitive ability to assess the balance of design parameters which can win races under variable conditions.

Many of the cruising yachts afloat today show little regard for the efficiency of their hull form. The disciplined approach to producing a race winning design, involving tradeoffs between speed and the necessary compromises for practicality and control, will also influence the best hull shape for a cruising yacht. Such a yacht will not have speed as its top design priority but it is still important to have a shape of low resistance which is easy to steer, has high stability and an easy motion in a seaway. Freed from the artificial constraints of the rating rule and class limits of raceboats, I can aim for beauty, pure speed and efficiency, compromised only by the requirements of seaworthiness and safety.

Racing yachts push the designer into the world of materials science and the marine application of technology developed in other disciplines such as aerospace and motor racing. However, the displacement and centre of gravity of a racing boat have to hit predefined targets, usually only obtainable by adding internal lead ballast. Apart from its positive influence on the pitching moment of inertia, this tends to mock the engineering sophistication needed to shave a few pounds off the structural weight.

While the modern cruising yacht is not looking for the last kilo of weight-saving, there are real benefits in being conscious of weight and its distribution. Structural sophistication can give high factors of safety and provide improved strength with no