Nigel Irens

Nigel Irens’ designs have been at the forefront of multihull oceanic racing since the mid-eighties. Nigel Irens was educated at Clifton College in Bristol, England. He entered the sailing world professionally after receiving a diploma in Boatyard Management at Southampton College of Technology. A prolific career of designing and building numerous highly successful racing multihull sailboats has led to Nigel being recognized as the worlds leading designer of multihulled sail and power vessels.

You can read more about his projects on his site.

Covey Island

Experienced mariner wants seaworthy boat with personality!

Frank Blair was looking for a boat to sail around the world with his son after his graduation from college. Several factors steered him to Covey Island, including his awareness of the 70ft. (LOD) gaff schooner Tree of Life, launched in 1991, and largely crewed by Outward Bounders on her first circumnavigation. Another factor was a visit to the yard with a friend (during construction of the friend’s 47ft. shoal draft motoryacht Nancy Lakin) when he saw the frames for Bristol Channel design prototype PaPa going up in yard president John Steele’s shed. He also had a correspondence on the project with Nigel Irens, whose long list of design credits includes the Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter-inspired Westernman designs built by Covey Island.

After considering and visiting a number of yards, Frank chose Covey Island as best able to build a seaworthy boat with personality. Covey Island Boatworks builds hand-crafted yachts, power and sail, ranging from 30-80 feet in length.