Leadership

Growing up in Fremantle, Western Australia, Britt spent his weekends racing on the Swan River, building boats, and watching the 1987 America’s Cup and Whitbread Round the World Race stopovers from the dock. Those early years set the course.

They led him to Webb Institute in New York — where he studied naval architecture and marine engineering while interning at Sparkman & Stephens and working with America’s Cup Measurer Ken McAlpine back in Australia. At Webb, Britt developed a deep appreciation for how artistry and engineering combine to create truly well-balanced, high-performance designs. That appetite for the technical side took him further still — to MIT, where he completed a Master’s in Ocean Engineering before joining Farr Yacht Design in Annapolis in 1996.

For more than a decade, Britt worked directly alongside founders Bruce Farr and Russell Bowler — contributing to Oracle Racing’s 2003 and 2007 America’s Cup campaigns, multiple Volvo Ocean Race programs, and the Vendée Globe–winning IMOCA 60 designs that cemented Farr’s offshore reputation. He managed hull research programs and designed across the full spectrum, from grand prix racing yachts to production cruisers and an expanding powerboat portfolio across recreational, commercial, and military applications.

When Bruce and Russell retired in 2012, Britt stepped into the role of Senior Designer and shareholder — ensuring continuity of the design philosophy while bringing fresh thinking and new technology to the work. He had been part of the Farr story since 1996. In 2025, after nearly thirty years with the firm, he took full ownership — becoming Principal Designer and the steward of one of sailing’s most celebrated design legacies.

Most recently, Britt served as Hull Platform Lead for American Magic’s AC75 Patriot at the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona — his fifth America’s Cup campaign. From March through the Cup finals, he was on-site six days a week, part of a team of more than 100 designers, sailors, engineers, and performance analysts working to make Patriot race-ready.

Of the six AC75s competing, Patriot took perhaps the most distinctive design approach — a unique inboard cockpit layout that allowed a deck profile nearly a foot lower than any competitor, prioritizing aerodynamic efficiency in the tight, high-speed racing conditions of Barcelona.

His America’s Cup journey spans an era of remarkable transformation — from displacement boats racing at 10 knots in 2007 to hydro foiling machines match-racing at 50 knots. Through it all, the core challenge has remained the same: harness the forces of wind and water as efficiently as the rules allow.

He was also lead designer of the Volvo Ocean 65 — one of the most successful one-design offshore platforms of the modern era — and has been a core part of the team behind Farr’s award-winning superyacht designs and many of the firm’s most celebrated production cruising programs.

“There aren’t many design opportunities where you get to apply the latest technologies and work with some of the best and brightest in so many different disciplines. That’s the most exciting part for me — to work with great people and see ideas and concepts develop from a conversation or a simple sketch to this amazing piece of hardware.”

With thirty years of experience across naval architecture, hydrodynamics, and computational design, Britt brings something few designers can offer — the full picture. He has raced the boats he designs, managed programs under real-world budget and schedule pressure, and built the technical depth to push performance boundaries that others can’t reach. That breadth of experience — from a Swan River dinghy to the America’s Cup — is what Farr Yacht Design brings to every project that comes through the door.