A
ll the Oceans, a recently released memoir from
yacht designer Ron Holland, is sure to be-
come a classic on the bookshelves of anyone
interested in the world of yacht design from
the 1970s to the present. At the age of 16,
Holland began to immerse himself in the world of offshore
sailing and yacht racing, and he went on to design and sail
some of the world’s fastest speedsters in some of the most
challenging races. This fi rst-person account of his epic career
introduces the reader to his contemporaries including Olin
Stevens, Doug Peterson, Laurie Davidson, Bruce Farr, Gary
Mull, and Charlie Morgan.
And it’s not just other legendary designers that we get
to meet through the pages of this book. Over his career,
Holland became friends with such notable fi gures as former
British Prime Minister Ted Heath, newspaper mogul Rupert
Murdoch, and Prince Rainier of Monaco.
The primary focus is on Holland’s designs, though, which
have won many of the world’s toughest races, including the
Sydney to Hobart and Fastnet races, and taken second and
third place at the Whitbread Round the World Race (now
the Volvo Ocean Race). Holland also designed a number of
production yachts for Nautor’s Swan, Camper & Nicholsons,
and Jeanneau. He also collaborated with Laurie Davidson
and Bruce Farr for New Zealand’s fi rst entry in the America’s
Cup in 1987 (which lost out in the fi nals to Dennis Conner’s
Stars and Stripes).
In the 1980s, Holland became the fi rst person to design
100-foot-plus sailboats. He has designed 30 of these “supery-
achts” to date, with his most celebrated design, the 247-foot
Mirabella V, launched in 2005. Mirabella V was, and still is,
the largest single-masted sailing boat ever built. Until then,
the technology to manufacture the massive masts, winches,
rigging, sails, and hydraulics for such large vessels didn’t
exist. Though many skeptics said these structural challenges
were insurmountable, Holland proved them wrong. He said
he never worried about asking for help, but help came in
diverse ways, including from the aviation and oil and gas
industries. What makes this feat all the more impressive is
that Holland was never schooled in yacht design; he learned
the basics while working and taking classes as an apprentice
boat builder.
A pioneer in the yachting industry, Holland helped write
history. All the Oceans takes us on an amazing insider’s voyage
through it all, from the high-seas drama of being arrested by
the Cuban military when he got too close to shore, to his
near-death experience during the notorious 1979 Fastnet Race
where 24 yachts were abandoned and 15 people died. QAll the Oceans: Designing by the Seat of My Pants
BY RON HOLLAND
Captain’s Bookshelf BY PETER A. ROBSON
REST@
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