Ron Holland

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Ron Holland (1947) is a yacht designer, who came to prominence in the 1970s with his successful racing designs, and is now best known for his superyachts such as Mirabella V, Ethereal. He is based in Kinsale, Ireland.

Born in New Zealand, Holland was apprenticed as a boatbuilder in Auckland, where he built his first design, the 26' sloop White Rabbit. While working in Florida, he designed the 24' Eygthene, which won the 1973 Quarter Ton Cup. (The name was a pun on the New Zealand pronunciation of the word 'eighteen': quarter-ton yachts rated at 18-feet under the IOR rating rule).

The success of Eygthene led to a commission to design a One Ton class yacht for Irish businessman Hugh Coveney. Golden Apple enabled Holland to set up as independent designer, and he relocated to County Cork in Ireland. Golden Shamrock, his 30' design in the half-ton class, went into production in Cork. One these boats Silver Shamrock won the 1976 Half-Ton Cup in Trieste, Italy.[1]A Holland 30 "Screw Loose" won the Sydney Hobart in 1979.

Meanwhile, Holland's Nicholson 33 design for the English boatbuilder Camper & Nicholson had begun production, and the Nicholson 33 Golden Delicious won the 1975 Fastnet race. Further commissions followed, including a new Morning Cloud for the former British Prime Minister Edward Heath, and Holland's designs featured prominently in the 1977 and 1979 Admiral's Cup series of races in Cowes. The Holland-designed 40-footer Imp won the 1977 Fastnet Race, leading to commissions for the 80-foot maxi-class yachts Kialoa and Condor and for a series of designs for Finnish yachtbuilder Nautor's series of Swan yachts between 1979 and 1990. Condor, the Maxi Class yacht built in 1981, still sails as a passenger boat in Australia's Whitsunday Islands.

The 103-foot Whirlwind, launched in 1986, was Holland's largest design to date and one the first of a new breed of superyacht - large yachts which used new technologies to provide strong sailing performance without requiring a large crew[2].

The 247-foot Mirabella V, launched in 2003, was not only Holland's largest design, but also the largest ever single-masted sailing yacht. CCYD : Stalca, Naos