John Laurent Giles (1901–1969) was an English naval architect who was particularly famous for his sailing yachts. He and his company, Laurent Giles & Partners Ltd, designed more than 1000 boats from cruisers and racing yachts to

megayacht A superyacht or megayacht is a large and luxurious pleasure vessel. There are no official or agreed upon definitions for such yachts, but these terms are regularly used to describe professionally crewed motor or sailing yachts, ranging from to ...

Examples

Notable examples of Laurent Giles' work include the famous Vertue (sail numbers suggest that some 230 of these have been made), Wanderer III, the 30'

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

in which Eric and Susan Hiscock circumnavigated, and the race-winning

Gulvain ''Gulvain'' is a ocean-racing sloop named after the mountain Gaor Bheinn (or "Gulvain"). Designed by Jack Laurent Giles for Jack Rawlings, she was based on the earlier boats '' Maid of Malham'' and '' Myth of Malham''. She was built in Shoreh ...

, the first ocean racing yacht to be made from an aluminium alloy. His famous ''Myth of Malham'', a revolutionary small displacement yacht for John Illingworth, was inspired by developments in aeronautics; the novel design helped win the Fastnet race in 1947 and 1949. The updated Miranda IV of 1951 had a rudder mounted separately from the aft of the keel (a 'spade rudder') which heralded the arrival of the modern period of yacht design. Laurent Giles described as part of his design philosophy that a yacht should have "the utmost docility and sureness of manoeuvring at sea, in good or bad weather" - his boats were designed to maintain a steady course with minimal action by the helmsman but respond instantly to the helm if the need arose. He was awarded the honour of Royal Designer for Industry in 1951.

Select List of Designs by Laurent Giles

* First Yacht Lutine (C&N 60') *

* Jolly Boat (Laurent Giles) * Vive Sailboat 33', 1950 (Woodnutts-Laurent Giles) * Lymington-L-Class (1933) and the later modified/ revised L-Class design of 1955 * Maid of Malin * Peter Duck (yacht) * R.N.S.A. 24 (32'), 1947 *

Robert C. Seamans (ship) SSV ''Robert C. Seamans'' is a 134-foot steel sailing brigantine operated by the Sea Education Association (SEA) for oceanographic research and sail training; designed by Laurent Giles, she is named for former Secretary of the Air Force and NASA De ...

* Sails Of Dawn, Mc Gruer 57', 1969, the final yacht before Giles' death * Seamaster Sailer 19 * Seamaster Sailer 23 * Vertue (yacht) * Vertue II- a beamier version of the original Vertue design, mostly made in GRP * Wanderer Class, 29’9”, 9 tons * Westerly Yachts ( Westerly Marine Construction Ltd) - a number of designs, including their Centaur 26, Pageant 24, Chieftain 26, GK24, Longbow 31, Westerly 33, Discus 33 and Konsort 29.

External links

Laurent Giles Naval Architects

Sailboat designs of Jack Laurent Giles at Sailboatdata.com

The Laurent Giles Archive
includes a full register of yachts; original construction and outfit drawings for many of projects produced by Laurent Giles & partners Ltd (1927 - 1979), Laurent Giles Ltd (1979 - 1987)and Laurent Giles Naval Architects Ltd (1987–present) are available.

including GK 24.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laurent Giles, John 1901 births 1969 deaths British yacht designers

Examples

Select List of Designs by Laurent Giles

See also

External links

References