Ed Dubois was born in London in 1952. He grew up near London – in the landlocked county of Surrey. But an innate love of the sea, boats and sailing meant that the career choice of yacht design was set from his early teens.
Ed began Dubois Naval Architects Ltd in 1977. Malcolm McKeon, Ed’s co-Director in the Company, joined in 1981 and became a Director and shareholder in 1989. International recognition came with the Admiral’s Cup and the 1979 winner, Australia’s Police Car. This was followed by the 1981 winning yachts Victory of Burnham and Dragon, racing for the British Team. Racing successes continued in such events as the Southern Cross Cup and the Sardinia Cup, together with victories in the Sydney to Hobart Race, Fastnet Race, Newport to Bermuda Race and the China Sea Races.
Dubois Naval Architects moved into Superyacht design in the late 80’s and has now designed over 40 yachts between 106 ft (32 metres) and 216 ft (66 metres). This relatively new market began in the 1980s and amongst other design companies Dubois saw the possibilities of combining good sailing performance with great comfort and ultimate seaworthiness.
The philosophy at Dubois, therefore, is to combine ultimate seaworthiness and excellent performance with imaginative space planning and well-proportioned and elegant outboard lines.
Ed Dubois on S/Y Twizzle:
S/Y Twizzle is the first Dubois-designed sailing superyacht to be built at the Royal Huisman Shipyard and at 57.5m, she is the largest Dubois-designed ketch built to date.
S/Y Twizzle is a shallow draft centreboard yacht; a concept which has been well proven with one of our earlier designs, and was developed to allow for a single engine by incorporating a stub keel. A large and powerful ketch rig together with sleek flowing hull lines and a super-efficient centreboard give S/Y Twizzle great performance under sail.
The sail area to weight ratio has been boosted with a large mizzen sail and we expect this yacht, which has capacious accommodation, to sail well in all conditions.
In close collaboration with Redman Whiteley Dixon, who were the interior designers and exterior stylists, we developed the hull and deck layout, sail plan, naval architecture, aluminium structure and propulsion layout into a perfectly integrated package.
S/Y Twizzle is the very successful result of the owners’ vision for a high performance, high-tech and modern sailing yacht with all the comfort of a motor yacht. The owners have been central to this talented team, bringing their own ideas and significant experience to the process, adding challenge and momentum.
The quality of her design and construction and the beauty of her interior styling make this yacht truly unique.
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