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When I fi rst met Rob Humphreys in the mid 70s, he was a budding journalist at Yachts and Yachting and I was an aspiring boat builder with Hunter Boats. But even though he enjoyed journalism, Rob only intended this to be a ‘gap job’ between fi nishing his design course and winning the fi rst commissions to turn his paper qualifi cations into seagoing yachts. And he did not have to wait long – soon making his name at the cutting edge of the racing scene. One of his earliest commissions was a Quarter Tonner (‘The Midnight Special’), and many other ‘Ton Cup’ yachts soon followed. ‘Quest’ came second in the Quarter Ton worlds, and ‘Harmony’, ‘Scorpio’, ‘Roller Coaster’ and ‘Flash’ (to name just four) excelled in larger ‘Ton Cup’ divisions successful model, winning Humphreys his fi rst European Yacht of the Year award in 1994. By now Humphreys was on a roll, picking up commissions to design one of the last Sigmas (the 400) and – in the 2000s – a run of Oysters and Southerlys (for Northshore Yachts). It is an indication of Humphreys’ versatility that he was equally successful with the lifting keel, twin ruddered Southerly ‘formula’ as he was with the very different ocean voyaging requirements of the big Oysters. And at much the same time, he co-designed Ellen MacArthur’s ‘Kingfi sher’ Rob Humphreys The Elan range designed by: