Philippe Briand unveils full details of 30m carbon sloop concept Egoist

Yacht

Philippe Briand unveils full details of 30m carbon sloop concept Egoist

Sand People Communication

09/01/2017 11:00

A new 100ft/30m carbon sloop concept, Egoist, has been developed by the Philippe Briand Studio specifically to indulge the owner who wants to simplify their experience on board by having the exclusive use of their yacht.

A focus on the owner

At a time when many yachts are designed to equally satisfy a variety of different programmes - from the charter guest to the potential buyer - the artistic direction can become compromised to the extent that the originality of the design is diluted. The outcome: the essence of why the yacht is being built is in danger of getting lost. Egoist is the antidote to this; she has been designed purely to satisfy the needs and enjoyment of the owner.

S/Y Egoist embodies a fresh take on a classic Eastern Seaboard sailing yacht, but can also be used to race with an expert, though reduced, crew. The yacht has a very roomy interior salon with a superb master cabin and comfortable accommodation for two crew members. She is the ideal day sailor or a cruising yacht for an owner who wants to enjoy the sailing experience of a superyacht without the need for numerous crew.

Your yacht, your programme

Calling on his extensive yacht racing background, Philippe Briand developed the naval architecture of Egoist to be fast and very responsive. The design uses the timeless lines of a classic sailing yacht, for which the studio is famed, but with a contemporary twist. As with all of Philippe’s designs, the thinking behind this project is one of a expert sailor with actual racing competence and experience.

Egoist has been conceived as fully customizable, as Philippe elaborates, to “be a pure pleasure for the owner, not bowing to the demands or tastes of anyone else. The concept of Egoist is to become an owner’s self-indulgent fantasy; it should be the yacht that they have always dreamed of owning.”

The designer

Philippe Briand has accumulated 31 international awards so far, but remains driven by his passion of developing new ideas. The team is currently working on a 28m series yacht, as well as three bespoke yachts ranging from 55m to 90m in length. Such a variety of work is keeping the office on their toes, but as always, all projects are being executed with great attention to detail and following heavy investment in the research and development stages.

ABOUT PHILIPPE BRIAND

London-based Philippe Briand has been conceiving high-performance yachts since his La Rochelle childhood, and his technical excellence and precision - accompanied by a strong artistic flair - have continued to evolve over what is arguably the most prolific career of any yacht designer today.

Early insights into naval architecture, advanced hydrodynamics and production engineering during an internship with Swedish designer Pelle Petterson armed Briand with the skills to create dozens of successful production yacht models, of which over 12,000 vessels have been built.

His portfolio spans four decades, starting with his first IOR Quarter Ton design at the age of 16. His designs for competition have included eight yachts for six America’s Cup campaigns; two of the vessels for the French team that won the Admiral’s Cup in 1991; and countless high-performance offshore racing yachts. An accomplished sailor himself, Briand has won the Half-Ton Cup in 1993 and the One-Ton Cup in 1994, in yachts of his own designs.

Briand’s first foray into superyachts came in 1995, with a winning submission for the design of the groundbreaking, award-winning 44.7m S/Y Mari Cha III, and then Mari Cha IV. The success of these lightweight, high-performance cruising racers propelled him into the world of superyachts, where he has enjoyed considerable success.

Briand and his team of designers have won over 30 international yacht design awards (to date year 2015) for their work, and have collaborated with some of the most highly respected sailing yacht builders in the world, including Alloy Yachts (New Zealand), CNB (France), Groupe Beneteau (France), Perini Navi (Italy), Royal Huisman (Netherlands) and Vitters (Netherlands). They currently produce yacht designs and naval architecture always oriented on use of new technologies - ranging from 6 to over 100 metres, both for sailing yachts and motor yacht. The team puts a strong emphasis on performance and is continually employing new technologies to enhance designs, in a quest for perfection.

He is one of the few - if not the only - yacht designers with the technical capabilities and experience to design high performance yachts of both the motor and sailing variety. In recent years, his collaboration with Vitruvius Yachts has seen three of his motor yacht designs launched (50m, 55m and 73m), bringing an evolved, high-performance and long-range style to the sphere.