HDS expands

Leading French firm of engineers set up shop in Lorient

The Brest-based company HDS, founded by Hervé Devaux in 1994 that specialises in design, calculation and structural engineering for sailing boats, is expanding its activities to Lorient. Denis Glehen, former No.2 at HDS Brest is taking charge of GSea Design, that aims to develop within Lorient's offshore racing hub in partnership with HDS.

HDS assists sailors, their teams, as well as architects and shipyards in the design of increasingly high performance boats. Michel Desjoyeaux, Franck Cammas, Pascal Bidégorry, Vincent Riou, Bernard Stamm, Roland Jourdain and Alain Thébault, the list of sailors who put their trust in this design office is a reflection of its skills.

Initiated by the town of Lorient, the conversion of the submarine base into what is effectively the French version of 'Sailing Valley', as been a great success. An impressive number of companies that are not only specialised in competitive sailing but in yachting in general, have set themselves up here over the past few years making Lorient the place to be for professionals in this sector.

Engineers from HDS Brest and now GSea Design work with many sailing teams and suppliers based in Lorient (Groupama, Banque Populaire, Hydroptère, Lorima) and the nearby Port-La Forêt (Foncia, PRB Team, CDK), Concarneau (Veolia Environnement, Britair) and Vannes (naval architects VPLP, Multiplast). As such, for the company's two associates, Hervé Devaux and Denis Glehen, the strategic decision to set up in Lorient was obvious!

Within this new structure, Denis Glehen will be supported by two colleagues: Tanguy Redon, is a composite specialist and a naval architect (notably having worked for PRB Team) and Armand De Jacquelot, a graduate from the Centrale Nantes engineering school, who previously worked with the naval architect Guillaume Verdier. Over the past few weeks, the team has also benefitted from the support of two future graduates of the same French engineering school: Yuri Baretto Kaminski and Zhaozi Zu.

Next, Denis Glehen wishes to reinforce the presence of the design office on an international level. The latter is a justifiable ambition for these experts who recently with the America's Cup winners BMW Oracle Racing and with many skippers in the IMOCA 60’ monohull class. It should also be noted that Glehen is currently a member of the Groupama Design Team involved in the design of the new VOR 70 monohull for the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012, whose participation will signal France’s return to one of the major international sailing events.

GSEA Design's current projects: 

VOR 70’ Groupama 4, new boat of Franck Cammas’ Team for the 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean Race
60’ IMOCA Foncia, the new VPLP-Verdier design for Michel Desjoyeaux
60’ IMOCA Rivages, the news Juan Kouyoumdjian design for Bernard Stamm
60’ IMOCA Movistar (ex-Foncia), Farr-Mer Agitée design of the 2007 generatio