About
Company Profile
Southerly Designs has been at the forefront of high speed Aluminium and FRP composite vessel designs for over three decades.
Drawing on decades of experience designing, constructing and operating fast commercial vessels, our professional and dedicated team has forged an enviable reputation for producing robust vessels that are practical, handle well even in extreme conditions, are fuel efficient and offer comfort without sacrificing performance.
We have shipbuilding partners in Australia, Singapore, Mexico, Vietnam, Malaysia, Kenya, Canada, Indonesia.
Our designs operate globally
Over 500 Southerly Designs from 5m to 52m are operating in diverse roles globally today.
From the early years designing the renowned Geraldton Boat Builders lobster fishing boats that dominated the 1980s and 90s Western Australia fleet, Southerly Designs have expanded and diversified our designs to suit a wide variety of applications and clients.
Southerly Designs are highly valued world wide.
Our boats are designed to work.
500+
Designs in production
Established
1997
38+ years
Of Experience
Our
History
Southerly Designs is an innovative naval architecture and marine design consultancy based in Port Denison, Western Australia. Established in 1997, we have many years experience designing boats that work.
The origins of Southerly Designs date back to 1962 when founding partner John Fitzhardinge began designing, building, operating and maintaining his own vessels in Australia’s Western Rock Lobster fishery. Function and comfort were paramount but always with due regard to being safe, robust, maintainable and aesthetically pleasing.
Over the years John began producing more designs for others but never lost the focus on the operator first. The clientele always consisted of owner-operators for whom their own day to day comfort and safety was of prime concern. In addition, these owner operators often worked in close proximity to each other and to John.
This environment ensured that any success or shortcoming in a design was immediately observed by the fleet and feedback both positive and negative would be instantly and emphatically delivered to everyone within earshot by these hard nosed fishing boat captains.
Southerly Designs have built upon this, and are now recognised as one of the world’s best designers of a wide variety of commercial & leisure vessels.
Southerly Designs retains close ties with our clientele, both past and present, and are able to tap this vast resource of experience across the decades and across many sectors of marine operations.