Owen Clarke are the most current design office to cross the divide from the racing world to designing and providing consultancy services to the superyacht industry. As UK’s main offshore race-boat designers, OCD’s portfolio includes Ellen MacArthur’s sailing yacht Kingfisher and Acciona yacht 100% Eco-Powered, their eighth and latest yacht IMOCA Open 60. In performance terms a ground breaking yacht but also the first to be run entirely without fossil fuels. She will be racing in the 2012 Vendee Globe non-stop round the world race.
Wally 130 Yacht Angels Share
The company has been working quietly as naval architects and designers behind the scenes in the superyacht world for six years. First brought in as consultants on modifications to the record breaking sailing yacht Mari Cha 4, their latest project in 2010 has been the Wally 130 Angels Share. OCD were contracted as naval architects pre-purchase, undertook design and provided consultancy services during the yacht’s extensive refit. Super yacht Angels Share subsequently won the best refitted sailing yacht both at the 2011 Superyacht Awards and the Superyacht Society Awards.
Owen Clarke Design Day Sailer Yacht
Owen Clarke Design provides a full range of design, engineering, project and consultancy services for both new commissions and the refit of large sailing yachts. Owners, project managers shipyards, legal and professional bodies are supported locally by offices in the UK, New Zealand and through their associates in the United States.
Their own designs have been styled by Allen Clarke, who having completed three years studying yacht design at the world famous Southampton Institute worked for the largest interior design company in the West of England before forming Owen Clarke Design with Merfyn Owen in 1991. Allen designed OCD’s first large cruising yacht Spirit of Adventure, a 65’ performance blue water cruiser built by Marten Yachts in New Zealand.
Owen Clarke Design (OCD) 130 sailing yacht
Merfyn Owen is a graduate of University College London and a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. He is OCD’s principal naval architect and to date his responsibilities have been mainly focused on the office’s race yacht designs, including running the research and development programs associated with grand prix projects. In 2009 he was the lead designer of Owen Clarke’s first superyacht, a high performance 45m schooner, which is an on-going project, the details of which remain confidential as they are subject to contract.
Owen Clarke Design (OCD) 65 Spirit of Adventure Sailing Yacht
Clay Oliver, co-designer of OCD’s last three Open 60 yachts is an American naval architect based in Annapolis who also brings to the group his experience of having been principal designer for Team New Zealand, and co-designer of Mari Cha 4, and the 100’ maxis Genuine Risk and Maximus yachts. The fourth designer and lynch-pin of the superyacht team is Tim Sadler who runs the office in New Zealand. Before he joined Owen Clarke in 2001 he spent the previous decade working at Marten Yachts and Sensation Yachts, where he was the design and project engineer on new builds including the 147′, ketch Mari Cha 3.
