Ron Holland

Ronald John Holland (born 1947 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a yacht designer, who came to prominence in the 1970s with his successful racing designs, and is now best known for his superyachts such as Mirabella V and Ethereal. He is now based in Vancouver, Canada.

Holland started competitive sailing at the age of eight and was apprenticed as a boatbuilder in Auckland, where he built his first design, the 26' sloop White Rabbit in 1966.

While working in Florida, he designed the 24' Eygthene, which won the 1973 Quarter Ton Cup. (The name of the boat was a pun on the New Zealand pronunciation of the word 'eighteen': quarter-ton yachts are rated at 18-feet under the IOR rating rule). The success of Eygthene led to a commission to design a One-ton class yacht for Irish businessman Hugh Coveney. Golden Apple enabled Holland to set up as independent designer, and he relocated to County Cork in Ireland.

In 1974 he designed, and Killian Bushe built Golden Shamrock, his 30' design for the Half Ton Cup in la Rochelle. This was followed in 1975 By Golden Leprechain another variation of the Half-ton Class. The Shamrocks went into production in Cork. One of these boats, Silver Shamrock, built lightly by Killian Bushe at South Coast Boatyard and steered by Harold Cudmore won the 1976 Half-ton Cup in Trieste, Italy.

This was followed by Silver Shamrcok III in 1977 which was built in cold moulded spruce for the Half Ton Cup in Sydney Australia. The boat should have won the Half Ton Cup, but lost her mast in the last race. The production version of Silver Shamock III was called the Shamrock Silver Jubilee or Nicholson Half Tonner. Probably the best known of these yachts is Grimalkin, which took part in the Fastnet Race of 1979, and became the subject of a book entitled "Left for Dead: The Untold Story of the Tragic 1979 Fastnet Disaster". It should be noted that although Grimalkin was abandoned at sea, she was later salvaged afloat and still sails.

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