Ker Yacht Design
"An innovative team of problem solvers with a passion for creating insightful design solutions for discerning customers, delivering the highest quality."
Ker Yacht Design has built a formidable international reputation from the accomplishments of its designs on the racecourse. This success stems from a rigorous, technical approach that takes full advantage of the most innovative and current technologies. The Ker Design team applies the results to a diverse range of projects from America's Cup race projects to luxury cruising yachts. A fundamental philosophy of the office is that all members of the Ker Design team are passionate and capable sailors and it is that spirit and enthusiasm that flows through all our design work. Ker Yacht Design seeks to leverage its technology with over 20 years of design experience to provide clients with the best designed yachts possible and it strongly believes that it represents the future of advanced yacht design.
History
Jason Ker started designing performance yachts over 20 years, ago with his first private race boat commission ‘Shakermaker’ in 1997. Ker Yacht Design was soon established and stepped up onto the international stage during the Admiral’s Cup of 2003, when the Ker 55’ Aera (renamed Bribon for the event), won all seven inshore races. Since then the Ker Design office racing yachts have continued to dominate under the IRC rule, winning many important regattas and offshore races throughout the world (see Racing Results ).
Ker Yacht Design has continued to have substantial success in the Fastnet Race, Sydney Hobart Race, Quantum Key West Week, Middle sea Race, RORC Caribbean 600, the China Cup, Rolex Commodores Cup, Cowes Week, Fast40 Class and the IRC Nationals to name a few
Following ‘Aera’s’ success Jason was asked to assemble and lead a design team for the South African America's Cup team which punched spectacularly above its weight.
The Ker Design office has amassed a technical arsenal second to none over the course of a further three AC campaigns. The Computational Fluid Dynamics, Finite Element Analysis and neural network tools developed out of Jason’s Americas Cup experience have provided the foundation for a new generation of lighter and faster production race boats as well as numerous custom commissions.
Jason and his proficient design team have pioneered the move towards lighter displacement, high performance IRC designs as demonstrated by the Ker 40 and Ker 46. These have been further developed into the contemporary race winning (Fast)40+ and 46+ designs.
Jason’s passion for performance has always been evident in his cruising yachts including his most recent project where he and his team have made advances in developing a series of luxury, lightweight, hybrid, composite, revolutionary catamaran designs from 50-115’ which combine cruising luxury with performance.
Consultancy
As a member of both the International Technical Committee and the advisory council of the "Sailing Yacht Research Council", Jason Ker actively contributes to the sport of yacht racing through development of improved rating technology for the ORC rule.