Rob Humphreys to design Volvo boat

British designer Rob Humphreys, well-known among cruising sailors for his Southerly lifting keel designs, has been asked to draw the lines of the Russian entry in the 2008-09 Volvo crewed round-the-world-race – 14 years after one of his boats last graced a Whitbread/Volvo race.

Humphreys1 designs have clocked up over one million sea miles racing around the planet. His last involvement with the Whitbread, in 1993, was a commission to design Dolphin & Youth, a British Whitbread 60 entry. In 2008-09, it1s Oleg Zherebtsov1s Russian boat which is on the drawing board at his Lymington office.

Though glad to be back, Humphreys says the pressures are all too familiar. Particularly the time constraints.