Gilles Ollier Design Team, genesis and evolution

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When he created Multiplast in 1981, Gilles Ollier became one of the first French naval architects to integrate design and production. Since then, boatyard and design team have grown side by side. The latter now includes two other architects and a network of scientific consultants.
In 1981, Gilles Ollier started the Multiplast boatyard in South Brittany (Atlantic seaboard, France). He was at the time one of the first French naval architects to integrate design and production within a same structure. Combining these two activities on one site increases interaction between the design office and the boatyard itself, allowing both

of them to rationalise methods and thereby reach maximum quality. In almost 20 years, Multiplast has built close nearly 30 one-off prototypes. As the yard developed, so did the team of in-house architects. It has just given birth to the Gilles Ollier Design Team. This new name expresses the multiplication and diversification of its competence.

Today the GODT comprises three naval architects: Gilles Ollier, of course, Yann Penfornis and Frank Martin. A network of outside consultants are on call around this nucleus. Their complementary technical specialities are indispensable for carrying out projects. These privileged assistants of the GODT are Jean-Yves Bernot (meteorologist and router of the current monohull and multihull transatlantic records), Gérard Delhommeau and Bernard Peseux (hydrodynamics, research engineers at the Ecole Centrale in Nantes), Hervé Devaux (structural and finite element analysis), Mick Kermareck (aerodynamics and sails) and Phillipe Pallu de la Barrière (director and founder of the Research Centre for Naval Architecture and the Marine Industry / CRAIN).

This association of expertise allows each choice to be double-checked. The catamarans Code Zero (a 33-m / 108-ft thoroughbred for The Race) and Magic Cat (a 25-m / 82-ft cruising yacht) are among the most recent boats to benefit from this system. These two yachts are designed by the GODT and built by Multiplast. The yard also builds boats designed by other architects. Its association with the GODT is no obstacle to this. Quite the contrary: the Yaka Team, designers of the French challenger for the America's Cup, valued the capacity of the GODT to take responsibility for producing the working drawings for Sixième Sens, built by Multiplast.

Conversely, the Gilles Ollier Design Team also works for other builders as an independent design office..