We are one of the world's leading yacht design, naval architecture and engineering companies. Owen Clarke Design (OC) are specialists in the design and engineering of racing yacht, blue water performance cruising yacht, high latitude explorer yachts and sailing superyachts. We are a UK LLP with designers based in the USA, New Zealand and our main office is in Dartmouth, UK. The founding partners are naval architect Merfyn Owen and yacht designer Allen Clarke, who first met in 1987 and together with a small team built an 11m racing trimaran. Owen and Clarke built on their working relationship by forming a working partnership in 1993, which became the current LLP in 2002. Our design portfolio now spans yachts from the 6.5m Mini Transat class to a 75m aluminium three masted schooner and includes eighteen Class 40s in addition to eight Vendee Globe IMOCA Open 60s. While we're specialists in composite yacht design and engineering, in 2018 our 20m high latitude lifting keel explorer yacht Qilak was launched in Holland, the latest example of our ability to adapt, design and manage complex projects from first principles as well as experience. In parallel to creating our own designs, recent consultancy projects have included rudders and steering system for the Nautor Swan 115, and a 47' Grand Prix ORC racing yacht along with a bespoke 5m carbon table, the centrepiece of the main saloon of a 50m superyacht. Merfyn Owen is a graduate of UCL, Fellow of the University of Glamorgan, Fellow of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects, and chartered engineer. He is a founding partner of Owen Clarke Design where his roles have historically been racing yacht design and development of new projects such as the high latitude cruising yacht, Qilak. Merfyn served on the committee that created the Volvo 70 rule and sat on the IMOCA 60 technical committee for 5 years. He is a double Cape Horner and former round the world race skipper himself on the 96/97 BT Global Challenge, as well as co-skipper in the 2005 and 2011 Transat Jacques Vabres double-handed trans-Atlantic races and numerous other Class 40 events. With over 250,000 miles of offshore sailing experience including three voyages to the Arctic, his input is also very much as ‘hands on sailor-designer’. In 2024, Merfyn and his wife Ashley were awarded the Cruising Club of America’s, 2024 Royal Cruising Club Trophy for their voyage to Newfoundland, Greenland, and Labrador on their 30' racer/cruiser Santana. Credit: Billy Black  Allen Clarke, as well as overseeing the office and acting as the company's first point of contact in the world of Class 40's, is charged with the development of OC’s range of cruising yacht designs. He trained at Falmouth Boat Building College and Southampton Institute, studying boat building and yacht design respectively. A boat owner and keen cruising sailor his whole adult life, with a number of transatlantic crossings behind him, he has also competed in a number of significant races including two AZAB's. Allen pursued a successful career as an interior designer before returning to yacht design and brings his considerable flair and talent to his work, with a keen eye for detail and aesthetics in a project. Credit: Paul Todd/Outside Images  Working within a wider design team is standard practice for OC on grand prix projects. For example, our eighth IMOCA 60 was designed in collaboration, with Team New Zealand and British Americas Cup designer Clay Oliver. A 1/7th scale tank testing program was completed at Southampton University as well as a three-week program at 1/3rd scale, both in parallel with CFD modelling. Without compromise, Acciona was is an ‘all out’ Vendee Globe IMOCA 60, but also a zero emissions offshore racing yacht that circumnavigated the globe without a fossil fuel engine onboard. A world first in green energy, a design of the future, developing power entirely by solar panels and hydro-generators. Credit: J.Renedo/sailingstock.com  Our philosophy is to be the key to success in all projects, offering forward creative thinking, providing design excellence and promoting use of new technology such as the green eco-friendly hybrid main propulsion in our new 25m explorer design. Our managed, logical and high-tech approach to yacht design and engineering includes all the necessary tools that a project might need, from research and development, to old-fashioned flair and talent for the job. We thrive on being involved in the whole concept, design, construction and delivery of the completed product, be that to the end of builder’s trials for a cruising boat or to the start of a major international regatta. We’re very well-versed working as a team feeding from our individual skills both in-house and with other designers and project teams – "whatever the program calls for" is our attitude.   info@owenclarkedesign.com Registered Office: Lowin House, Tregolls Rd, Truro TR1 2NA, UK
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