Specializing in the custom design of luxury yachts for high-end clients, Langan Design Partners LLC continues under the ownership of three partners who took over the business after founder Bill Langan died on the last day of 2010 after a two-year battle with leukemia.
“It is an honor for our team to carry on in Bill’s name, continuing with our collective commitment to delivering exceptional designs,” said Samuel Howell, who along with Tom Degrémont and Antonio Ferrer are equal partners of the newly reorganized firm, previously known as Langan Design Associates Inc.
Degrémont says Langan had worked as a boat designer for the New York company of Sparkman & Stephens, leaving to establish his business in 1997 in Newport because it is “one of the foremost yachting centers in the Northeast.” His wife’s yacht interior-design business, Candace Langan Interior Decoration, will continue to operate out of the partners’ office.
What sets Langan Design apart from others, Degrémont and Howell said, is its commitment to work as closely as possible with its customers.
“We are a small company and we spend a lot of time and energy on a small number of clients,” Degrémont said. “Each of our designs,” Howell said, “is a true reflection of the owner’s vision, a product of an in-depth and meaningful collaboration.” Degrémont estimated that as much as 90 percent of the firm’s business comes from clientele of the luxury market; the rest are production boats, which comprise boat designs made for another company to build and sell.
Working closely with the owner of each custom-designed vessel means that Langan Design seldom has two jobs alike.
“We specialize in high-end yachts, but we design anything from 25-foot tender boats up to 300-foot sailing vessels,” Degrémont said. “There is not a year in this business that looks like any other year.” This year, he explained, the firm is working on three powerboat projects; last year, it was three sailboats. Customers hail from all over the world, but mostly from North America and western Europe.
“We really are driven by what the client wants,” Howell said.
While other boat designers will have a “signature look” that characterizes their creations, Howell said Langan Design does not because “we get excited about working at different projects.”
Degrémont explained that, “We have the responsibility of making sure the boat is safe, that it floats, that its structure is correct. We have to ensure that the boat is seaworthy.”
Designers are responsible for more than the way the boat looks, he added, but also must make sure the vessel conforms to an assortment of regulations, some international. They work closely with interior designers and structural engineers, Degrémont said, on projects “that often are much more expensive than [designing] a high-end home. It takes a lot of cooperation.”
Howell compares the boat designer to the conductor of an orchestra, who must make sure all elements function together smoothly to form a cohesive, compelling whole.
A recent success study is the firm’s design of the Calliope, a 145-foot, private motor yacht built in Holland for a New England owner. The vessel was well-received at a Monaco boat show recently, Degrémont said, and is a finalist for a World Super Yacht Award for best three-deck semi-displacement or planing motor yacht. Sponsored by Boat International Media, the sixth- annual awards will be presented May 7 in London’s Guildhall.
Both Degrémont and Howell remarked upon the national and state economy and how difficult it can be for members of the marine industry to remain solvent right now. “It’s been a tough time for this industry in this state,” Degrémont said. He suggested that boat manufacturers have it even tougher than designers, mentioning a few shipyards that have closed in recent years.
“The marine industry is strong, but it has been stressed heavily with the economic downturn,” Howell said. “It’s been tough on boat builders, not just in Rhode Island, but up and down the coast.”
Langan Design, however, is “fortunate,” he added, “that we’ve gravitated to the higher end of the market and carved a spot there.” •
COMPANY PROFILE
Langan Design Partners LLC
OWNERS: Tom Degrémont, Antonio Ferrer and Samuel Howell
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Full-service naval architecture and yacht-design firm.
LOCATION: 105 Spring St., Newport
EMPLOYEES: 3
YEAR FOUNDED: 1997
ANNUAL SALES: WND
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