Tony Castro (full name Antonio Maria de Lancastre de Mello e Castro), Conde das Antas, Conde da Lousa, Visconde de Pernes, born 1952, is a British yacht designer, known for numerous winning designs. Born in Lisbon, Portugal, he has been designing sailing and motor
yachts
A yacht () is a sail- or marine propulsion, motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a ...
since about 1980, with more than 10,000 boats launched, ranging from custom boats and
one-design
One-design racing is a racing method which may be adopted in sports using complex equipment, whereby all vehicles have identical or very similar designs or models, avoiding the need for a Handicapping, handicap system.
Motorsport
One-make racing ...
production models to
superyacht
A superyacht or megayacht is a large and luxurious pleasure vessel. There are no official or agreed upon definitions for such yachts, but these terms are regularly used to describe professionally crewed motor or sailing yachts, ranging from to ...
s. His design firm is based in
Hamble-le-Rice
Hamble-le-Rice, commonly known as Hamble, is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Eastleigh (borough), Borough of Eastleigh in Hampshire, England. It is best known for being a flying training centre during the Second Wor ...
, England.
Career
As a
Chartered Engineer
Regulation and licensure in engineering is established by various jurisdictions of the world to encourage life, public welfare, safety, well-being, then environment and other interests of the general public and to define the licensure process thr ...
, his first job came about when it was discovered that Denis Doyle's yacht ''Moonduster'' was floating above her 'marks', having been built less heavily than had been intended her designer,
Germán Frers
Germán Frers Sr. (born July 4, 1941) is an Argentinian naval architect known for designing racing yachts. He designed his first yacht in 1958 and has been involved in the design of more than 1000 yachts, including '' Kialoa V'' and '' Hyperion' ...
. Castro advised that lead be attached to the underside of the coachroof and had a hole drilled in the keel to reduce her stability, which gave the vessel an exceptionally good handicap for a boat of her size. ''Moonduster'' held the Round Ireland monohull record from Wicklow to Wicklow for nearly 15 years until the record was broken by a Whitbread around the World yacht. Her fastest elapsed time for the race came in 1984, when she took only 88h, 15m and 43s to complete the course.
After leaving
’s design team in 1980, Castro's first significant racing yacht design was ''Justine III'', for Frank Woods of the National Yacht Club in Ireland. She was the first and only yacht to win the
One Ton Cup
The One Ton Cup is a trophy presented to the winner of a sailing competition created in 1899 in sports, 1899 by the Cercle de la voile de Paris (CVP).
Synopsis
The One Ton Cup regattas were at the beginning of races between one-tonner sailing ...
with five straight first place victories. The same owner then built ''Justine IV'', which was crowned best Offshore Admiral's Cupper in 1983.
Then followed ''Iztanother Purla'', a 43 footer which missed being chosen for the British Admiral's Cup Team, but then went on to win all 7 races in Cowes Week, beating all the Admiral's Cuppers, helmed by the late Sir
Peter Blake and his NZ crew from ''Steinlager''. A boat full of innovative ideas, including praddle steering, a method of steering using a vertical arm rising from below the cockpit floor.
Later successes included the two-time Quarter-Ton Cup winner ''McDonald's'', the
Half Ton Cup winner ''Balthazar'', and the 6mR World Championship and Coupe de France winner ''Thisbe''.
He was appointed by a member of Royal Cork Yacht Club to redesign the J24, with the aim of producing an exciting sports boat. The client expected a bigger mainsail, a new deck moulding and an effective keel to give greater stability. The result was the 1720 sportsboat. A new era in Sportsboat racing had started: the boats were built in County Kerry, and about 100 were built starting with sail number 1720.
Castro's designers work with many boatyards internationally, including the
Royal Huisman
Royal Huisman is a Dutch shipbuilding company that specializes in the newbuild construction and refit, rebuild and renewal of sailing and motor yachts.
History
The shipyard was established in 1884 in Ronduite as a builder of wooden workboats ...
,
Jongert,
Palmer Johnson,
Neptunus,
CS Yachts,
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...
, and
Jeanneau
Jeanneau is a French boatyard in Les Herbiers, in the Vendée département, which has produced yachts since 1957. It was founded by Henri Jeanneau, a hardware store owner, who began by producing power boats.
Jeanneau specializes in monohulls, ...
,
Beneteau
Beneteau or Bénéteau () is a French sail and motorboat manufacturer, with production facilities in France and in the United States. The company is a large and recognized boat builder, with its holding company (Groupe Beneteau) now also holdin ...
,
Galeon
Galeon is a discontinued Gecko-based web browser that was created by Marco Pesenti Gritti with the goal of delivering a consistent browsing experience to GNOME desktop environment. It gained some popularity in the early 2000s due to its speed ...
,
Focus
Focus (: foci or focuses) may refer to:
Arts
* Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in East Australia Film
*Focus (2001 film), ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based on the Arthur Miller novel
*Focus (2015 ...
,
Williams, etc.
Achievements
Major achievements
His designs have won Yacht of the Year awards, a Superyacht Design award and several World championships. He has also designed yachts for use in television drama productions by the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
.
* 4 International Offshore Racing (IOR) World Championships
* Designer of the only IOR boat ever to win all its races in a World Championship
* International 6m World Champion
* Designer of 4 "Boat of Year" awards in the UK, France and US
*
Admirals Cup Winner 1989 with "Juno IV"
* Co-Designer for "BLUE ARROW", a British
America's Cup challenger
Designs
Castro's boat designs are:
*
Arcadia 30 (Jeanneau)
*
Barracuda 45
*
Clipper 70
*
CORK 1720
*
CS 30
*
CS 34
*
CS 36 Merlin
*
CS 40
*
CS 44
*
Jaguar 24
*
Jaguar 265
*
Laser SB3
*
MG 26 (Castro)
*
MG 335
*
MG Spring 25
*
Parker 31
*
Parker 325
*
Regatta 39 (Jeanneau)
*
Saga 409
*
SB3
*
Sun Dream 28 (Jeanneau)
*
Sun Fast 1/2 Ton (Jeanneau)
*
Sun Odyssey 28.1 (Jeanneau)
*
Sun Shine 36 (Jeanneau)
*
Sun Shine 38 (Jeanneau)
*
Sun Way 28 (Jeanneau)
*
Sun Way 28 CB (Jeanneau)
Other achievements by dateYacht Design Awards we have won
''www.tonycastroyachts.com'', accessed 7 November 2019
Memberships
* Member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects ( UK - RINA)
* Member of the Society of Naval Architects ( USA - SNAME)
* Member of
FEANI
* Member of the Royal Cork Yacht Club
* Member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club
* Member of the Royal Southern Yacht Club
* Member of the Associacao Naval de Lisboa
* Member of the Clube Naval de Cascais
References
Yachts designed by Tony Castro
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castro, Tony
America's Cup yacht designers
British yacht designers
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
1952 births