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Eric Henseval is a graduate yacht designer, with a diploma from the WESTLAWN INSTITUTE OF MARINE TECHNOLOGY, Stamford, Connecticut, USA.Whilst at school and then at University studying law, he learned naval architecture by self-education before entering the Westlawn Institute, where he thoroughly consolidated his skills. He discovered motor boat design and the true signification of the profession of yacht designer.

Spending his early years sailing on the family boat, he was immediately attracted to boats as an entity and learned very early through this passion of observing anything floating on water. At the same time, this bond with the sea was reinforced with a passion for sailing. Countless trips around Brittany, Spain, Great Britain and Ireland naturally led him (at 17) to take early responsibilities in the preparation of the family yacht (Rush) for off-shore racing, and he took part several times in the Nantes-Lisbon race, achieving good results.

Therefore, he was already involved in the convoying and preparing of all kinds of different boats. Regardless what type of boat, the difficulty of the route or the season, all were good to test a sailor’s aptitude according to each boat’s strong and weak points, and Eric soon grew fond of solo navigation. Transatlantics, discovery of the Azores, Madeira, the United States, Scotland, while conveying sailing boats. From the Muscadet to the Formule 40 and to the Figaro, fashion does not matter as long as you learn more about boats and that you experience something real. Eric builds his experience on next to 30 000 nautical miles on next to one hundred different boats, both cruising and racing yachts, encountering difficult misadventures such as a terrible shipwreck while navigating solo in 1996, a fall in the water, or more recent difficulties with a dangerous leak in the hull.

Although apparently only passionately fond of sailing boats, he was contacted by Jérôme Croyère (from the dynamic Ruban Bleu shipyards in Nantes) who ordered the design of the AS, a small electric driven passenger boat , and produced a range of nearly 200 copies. Eric’s taste for communication for the creation of a boat was confirmed through this order of an unusual boat.

Keeping going, he entered the yacht design office Subrero near Nice and took part in the creation of support vessels, steel barges, and an ultra powered aluminium skiff for fishing with seine net.

Later, within the design office VAN PETEGHEM-LAURIOT-PREVOST (MVP-VLP) he took part in the creation of famous leaders in racing and cruising multihulls, working on big luxury unit. After that he entered the Arradon team (Morbihan, Brittany) where he devoted his energy during 3 years to the conception of fantastic ORMA 60 feet multihulls, such as Alain Gautier’s FONCIA 2, or Groupama, Belgacom...

"In a relationship with an individual, the yacht designer’s role is to synthesize the client’s ideas and enrich them with his own skills, in order to be able to apply these ideas to the creation of the boat. Basically, it is first of all a matter of identifying a dream. The drawing up of the specifications by the future owner of the boat is essential in order to delimit the program. As an enclosure, it helps for the client to compile a list of what he wishes, what he definitely does not want, and the elements on which he is unsure. The basis is thus set up to compose a collaboration between the client, the shipyards and the yacht designer.

It is essential for the client to be aware that a fix date is required, the date corresponding to the end of preliminary studies of the boat, period during which nearly everything is predefined and made consistent. From there on, the boat already exists and the setting up of fabrication plans can begin. The less there is interventions to modify fabrication plans, the more it will allow for the boat’s construction to be of high quality, meeting deadlines and being consistent with the specifications . Non observance of this date leads to extra fees that could have been easily avoided . Unfortunately, a boat is never completely finished... you can chose to give it a thought for as long as you wish, but you’ll still have to pre-establish it! However, it has to be said, certain changes of mind are naturally applicable during the fabrication, as long as they don’t require any major modification. A golden rule for a proper carrying out of the process is that the project must remain centralised on the designer at all times : the initiative of a modification, whether it stems from the client or from the shipyards must imperatively go through the designer in order to avoid any inconsistences. These rules being respected allow more particularly to respect the builder’s estimates."

" Regarding great production, the yacht designer’s role is to adapt and respond with flexibility to ideas from the shipyards, where the project is already entirely consistent. It is then up to him to adapt himself, to work towards production methods and to observe the imposed scheduling, while meeting all the requirements from the different persons making the decisions, in order to produce a positive and winning outcome."