G.Verdier makes the most of each one’s skills for his own office’s projects
Guillaume Verdier met Benjamin Muyl, Hervé Penfornis and Romaric Neyhousser within the Aquitaine Design Team in 2001, when they were working on the design of the Hydraplaneur Médiatis Région Aquitaine, initiated by Yves Parlier. From this technological adventure, a fruitful and prolific friendship ensued.
Today, this trio is joined by an extended team of loyal collaborators: Romaric Neyhousser who designs the boats, Loïc Goepfert, Véronique Soulé and Romain Garo who work on performance. Robert Kleinschmit on analysis. One team focuses on fluid calculations, another on structural calculations (PURE design), based in New Zealand. Hervé Penfornis, Erwan Tymen and Jérémie Palmer are in charge of methods and project follow-up. Morgane Schlumberger is also in charge of boat stability and plans.
Today, whenever the opportunity arises, Guillaume Verdier makes the most of each one’s skills for his own office’s projects.
Benjamin Muyl
Arts et Métiers engineer
Graduate engineer, Benjamin Muyl worked for the VPLP architecture office for five years, before joining Aquitaine Design Team, at the same time as Guillaume Verdier in 2001. Their collaboration continued within the Areva Challenge Design Team, where they were asked to take part in the architectural development of the FRA 93 Class America, challenger of the America’s Cup 2007.
Training : ENSAM. Masters degree specialised in quality management / ENSAM engineer’s degree / Mathématiques supérieures et specialité technologiques.
Major professional references : VPLP / Aquitaine Design Team / Areva-Challenge Design Team
Hervé Penfornis
Designer and composite material technician
In 2003, Hervé Penfornis joined the Aquitaine Design Team in order to conceive Yves Parlier’s Hydraplaneur. One year later, he worked for the Team Banque Populaire, ensuring the follow-up of the transformations of Pascal Bidegorry’s Banque Populaire IV trimaran.
In 2005, Areva-Challenge’s Design Team contacted him to prepare the 32nd America’s Cup in Valencia. His missions were the integration of mechanical systems on the deck plan, developing the boat’s construction plans and construction follow-up. In 2008, Hervé Penfornis was contacted by United Internet Team Germany to prepare the 33rd America’s Cup.
Training : Engineering and design department technician specialised in CAO / University Degree on the implementation of plastic and composite materials / Materials DEUST (University degree).
Major professional references : Banque Populaire IV trimaran project / Aquitaine Design Team / Areva-Challenge Design Team
Romaric Neyhousser
Engineer, technician and sailor
After in depth mechanics studies, Romaric Neyhousser worked nearly ten years in close collaboration with Yves Parlier, first on the preparation of his Open 60’ Aquitaine Innovations, then on the design of the Hydraplaneur Médiatis Région Aquitaine.
He continued to collaborate with Guillaume Verdier on various projects.
Training : Master of advanced studies in mechanics, specialised in fluids / Masters in mechanics, materials and structures option / mechanics degree / Physical Mathematics university degree.
Major professional references : Aquitaine Design Team / Narros shipyard (Arcachon, France).
Pierre Louis Pillot
Designer and supervision work
Manager of Sailing Boost a Port-La-Forêt based company, Pierre Louis offers services for offshore racing professionals, but also for individuals (site monitoring, new construction or refit, customization and development of existing boats, from the plans to the production of the parts, their locations and the sea trial).
At the same time, Sailing Boost is also involved in designing deck plans, fabrication of composite parts and structures as well as 3D drawing of systems. Involved offshore racing for more than 15 years, Pierre Louis first worked on composite for the America’s Cup or on the trimaran Géant. He then pursued his studies, alternating studies and work with Guillaume Verdier to improve his skills in the design office. Project manager within Vincent Riou’s team for 7 years, he created his company in 2014 to devote himself to what he likes the most, design and its implementation, which allows him to take part in other major projects with Comanche, Gitana 17, the Volvo super 60, and IMOCA latest generation.
Major professional references : America’s Cup / Trimaran Project Géant / Gitana 17 / Volvo super 60/ Imoca.
Loic Goepfert
Performance, architecture, analysis
Morgane Schlumberger
Design, structure, stability
Morgane Schlumberger, originally from New Caledonia, has a master’s degree in Oceanography (with IFREMER). She has a special eye for detail: she often brings us to order. Very meticulous, she plays a major role in the formatting of construction plans, but also in the stability calculations of the ships.
Véronique Soulé
Performance analysis, appendice design, fluid dynamics
Véronique Soule, a graduate of ENSTA Paris, is a specialist in Computer Fluid Dynamics. She is mainly working in performance analysis. Recently, we have been working together on a project she was supervising, in order to design the foils of a 100 tons ship carrying passengers.
Robert Kleinschmit
Performance analysis, naval architect, simulator
Jeremy Palmer
Structure and Design
Jérémie Plamer recently joined us. We’ve known each other for a while as he often works with Illy Brummer, a mast designer and one of my mentors, that I met in 1993 during my first architectural experiences.
Jeremie is very complete: he likes to follow up projects, to learn and progress at great speed. He helps us a lot in the structural design of the appendages. More recently, he supervised the entire rehabilitation of Primonial for Seb Rogues.
Romain Garo
Mechanics of fluids
Romain Garo, after studying at Central Nantes, completed a PhD supervised by Len Imas. Between 2010 and 2013, he worked with ETNZ and then did two campaigns with Oracle. He has a lot to do at the moment with us, as we are currently spending a lot of energy on performance analysis and performance calculations.
Ray Davis
Sailor, simulator, deck design, sail design
PURE Design and Engineering (Auckland, NZ)
PURE has collaborated with Guillaume Verdier Architecture Navale on a number of recent projects (Gitana 15/17, Comanche, Team New-Zealand AC75, Volvo Super 60).
PURE has worked closely with the team to finalize the structural arrangements and the laminates suitable for the higher speeds and the pressure generated on these foiling yachts. FEA tools were used to optimize the laminates and the layouts and to execute numerous load cases. PURE also provided the construction plans for the primary structure of the yachts. PURE is currently working with Guillaume Verdier’s team on the 11th Hour project for the Ocean Race 60.
Giovanni Belgrano / Andy Kensington /Adam Greenwood/Martin Bivoit/Minkyo Seho/Arran Bird/Blair McLay/Andrew Corkery/John Little/Daryl Senn/Kye Woo Lee/Tom Allen
MATRIX – Engineers of Innovation
Advanced technical analysis
Matrix is a New Zealand company specializing in FEA/FCD. James Hamilton, who works with us, has a PhD from the University of Southampton and is specialized in advanced FEA.