Probably the most influential yacht designer of the late 20th century, it’s been said there are more sailboats cruising the worlds oceans designed by Bob Perry than any other designer. He remains best known for the his Valiant 40 design which went on to influence cruising sailboats by adding performance to a genre that had previously meant slow and heavy. Through his career he has designed boats for many well recognized names in the industry, such as Tayana, Cheoy Lee, Valiant, Baba, Ta Shing, Passport and Saga.
As a young boy he had a burning passion for yacht design. His first break came in 1970 working as an assistant Jay Benford’s offices who specialized in ferro-cement yachts that were becoming popular at the time. He went on to work in the offices of Dick Carter which gave Perry a taste of designing racing yachts to the IOR rule. Many of his subsequent cruising boat designs have been influenced by his days at the Carter office, Perry seems to bring a performance dimension to most of his designs.
His first design to make it to factory production was the Taiwanese built CT54 for John Edwards, founder Hans Christian Yachts. This connection lead on to a whole family of full keeled double enders for practically every Taiwanese yard exporting cruising yachts to the US during the 1970s and 80s including the Tayana 37, the most popular semi-custom boat built in that era. During those years Perry has evolved the full keel design to very much the state of the art to this present day.
Links & References
» Perry Yacht Designers Inc, Robert Perry Bio\ » Yacht Design According to Perry, My Boats and What Shaped Them, by Robert Perry, ISBN 978-0071465571
{% comment %} Robert Perry 11530 Tulare Way West Tulalip WA 98271 Phone: 360-652-7771 E-mail: info@perryboat.com Bob Perry: RHP@perryboat.com {% endcomment %}
