A BLUE WATER CRUISING YACHTS
About us
Robert B Harris Naval Architect and Designer
Synonymous with the VANCOUVER range of yachts Robert B Harris is a Canadian naval architect based in Vancouver BC. He is now retired but in 1972 he produced the design for the Vancouver 27 having been commissioned to design a yacht for a couple to sail from Seattle to New Zealand. He is well know for his multihull designs but the Vancouver design brought his name to much acclaim in the yachting fraternity. MORE
The success of the Vancouver range of yachts is legendary and the design is respected the world over with yachts ranging from 25 feet to 50 plus feet all from the board of Robert B Harris.
The legend started with the Vancouver 27 built by Pheon Yachts Ltd in Newhaven.
Andrew Dandridge Designer
Son of John Dandridge, the founder of Pheon Yachts Ltd, Andrew Dandridge was design and production director of the company. He qualified as a designer 1976 joining Pheon Yachts Ltd straight from college where he qualified with a BA(Hons) in 3D and Interior Design.
Working alongside his father he developed and refined the design and build of both the Vancouver 27 and 32 into the yachts they are today. Andrew was also the designer of the Vancouver 32 Pilot variation. These yacht designs are now built by Northshore at Itchenor being the Vancouver 28 and 34. The Vancouver 28 was first built at Pheon Yachts Ltd and is still being built today to the same design developed by Andrew Dandridge. The Vancouver 34 is the extended Vancouver 32 but it has changed only a little from the initial design also developed by Andrew Dandridge. MORE
Brian Dandridge Sales & Marketing
Brian
Dandridge joins his brother in the Pheon Yacht Company as Sales Director after
forty years of sales and marketing in the IT
industry. During the nineteen seventies and eighties Brian worked for the
Olivetti organisation specialising in the sales of scientific and technical
computer systems before moving into the then emerging PC market. He left
Olivetti in .... and joined a company dealing in CAD (Computer Aided Design),
3D modelling and visualisation solutions.
A keen yachtsman Brian has always enjoyed being near or on the water and
started rowing and sailing before he was six. However, it was in 1981, with a
young son on the scene, that he decided it was time to get into
family sailing cruisers. With a
limited budget and a desire to race as well as cruise Brian’s first boat was
the very successful 22’ Hunter Sonata. He raced this for several years before
progressing up to larger family cruisers. He has maintained a desire to mix
competitive cruiser racing with family cruising and has taken part in many
regattas including Cowes Week, Dartmouth Week, The Little Britain Challenge
Cup and the Swan European Championship as well as thirty years of club racing.
For two years he was Commodore of the Chichester Cruiser Racing Club. Brian
enjoys family cruising and regularly takes his boat to Brittany, The Channel
Islands and the West Country from his base in Chichester Harbour.
Rupert Smith Associate Marine Surveyor and Technical Adviser
Rupert Smith has been involved with boat building and repair since 1981. During this time he has helped build, repair and fit out a wide variety of vessels from dinghies to sail training vessels and river cruisers to RNLI lifeboats. Indeed he was employed for five years by Pheon Yachts Ltd fitting out Vancouver yachts during the 1980s.
Initially he trained at the IBTC in Lowestoft, where practical boat building skills were learnt and a distinction gained. After ten years "on the tools", time was taken out to study. He graduated with a B.Eng(Hons) in Yacht & Powercraft Design and has achieved membership of The Royal Institution of Naval Architects.
Rupert has sailed extensively, from the age of 4, beginning with the family Mirror dinghy in the late sixties, at Newhaven & Seaford Sailing Club. Since then a wide variety of dinghies have been raced to various standards as well as local yacht racing. He currently races a Fireball, with some moderate success, winning the 2005, 2006 and 2011 National and 2005 European "Classic" Fireball championships.
In his spare time he has introduced his young family to narrow boating, and he is currently Commodore of Newhaven & Seaford Sailing Club.
