Guillaume Verdier

Guillaume Verdier is a French naval architect noted for his designs of high performance sailboats.

Life

Verdier was born 28 September 1970.^[1] From 1990 to 1993 he studied at MSc in Yacht and Powercraft Design at what is now Southampton Solent University before moving to do a post graduate master at the University of Southampton in Naval Architecture from 1994 to 1995.^[2] On completing his degree and then became a member f Naval Architecture Research Department of the University of Copenhagen developing design tools.

Awards

In 2016, the Solent University, his alma mater, awarded him with an honorary doctorate of engineering degree.^[3]

Career

Verdier was recruited in 1997 by the company Finot-Conq, Which is known for its designs of 60-foot sailboats. He worked notably on the development of Christophe Auguin's Geodis, Yves Parlier's Aquitaine Innovations and on the conception of Sodebo, Somewhere and on PRB 3 as well, the winner of the Vendée Globe in 2000–2001 with Michel Desjoyeaux.

In 2001, he founded his own company, whose first design was the Yves Parlier's Hydraplaneur.^[4]

In 2004, he was part of the design team for the Areva Challenge, which participated in 2007 America's Cup.

From 2006, he began working with naval architects Marc Van Peteghem et Vincent Lauriot-Prévost of VPLP design. Together, they created numerous 60-foot boats:

• Safran^[5]
• Groupe Bel for the Vendée Globe 2006–2007,
• PRB 5,^[6]
• Virbac Paprec 3,
• Banque populaire and
• Macif^[7]

In 2010, he joined the Emirates Team New Zealand to design the AC72 with the team of Grant Dalton for the America's Cup in 2013.^[8] He contributed to the development of foils that permitted the sailboat to leave the surface of the water and to attain speeds in excess of 40 knots.^[9]

In 2014, he designed the monohull Comanche with the intention of creating the fastest monohull in the world.^[10][11]

Following his experience with ETNZ, Verdier worked on Banque populaire VIII of Armel Le Cléac'h, a 60-foot monohull launched in 2015.^[12]

In 2017 the trimaran Maxi, designed for Edmond de Rothschild, was launched.^[13][14][15]