Product success from being creative

Humphree is a Swedish company created from think-out-of-the box innovation. Back in 1994 its co-founder, Niclas Olofsson, had addressed a performance issue with a high-speed ferry by locating a vertical plate on its transom that protruded into the water flow off the hull’s lower surfaces. This created a high-pressure zone in front of the plate that generated lift at the stern. Counter-intuitively, the plate also produced less drag than the much larger angled flap of an equivalent conventional trim tab. Humphree was launched in 2002 to commercialise that same concept but with controllable blades able to be retracted or inserted into the water flow to control roll and pitch.

Market acceptance of these interceptor tabs was a challenge; not everyone immediately understood that a blade-like device entering the water at the stern could create lift with minimal drag penalty, as Humphree’s Henrik Ragnmark explains: “By the time we won the DAME Design Awards in 2015 we had been producing interceptors for more than 10 years and were still educating the market about their benefits – most obviously for trimming and saving fuel in a wide variety of situations. But quite early on we also understood that the rapid actuation of these devices made them equally suitable for automated stabilisation of the boat when it was underway. What we needed though was a development that made these capabilities more obvious to the market.

“We realised that by integrating fins with interceptors, we could add stabilisation of the boat at rest and improve overall system performance. We had a strong background in electric actuation for our interceptors, so that led to us deciding to power the fins electrically. Removing the rotational limitations of hydraulic rams meant we could operate the fins through 360 degrees, enabling them to prevent anchor walking (where the thrust of the fin on a boat at rest might otherwise drive the boat over its anchor rode).”

25th anniversary DAME Design Awards win

Humphree’s win happened in the 25th anniversary year of the DAME Design Awards – the first and so far only time that two joint overall winners were named. Both entrants shared something in common – their designs were so brilliant the Jury could not choose between them. But there the similarity stopped. Spinlock’s simple but incredibly well designed Lume-On lifejacket light was a very low cost, standalone item of equipment that you’d find stocked on a chandler’s shelf as a discretionary weekend buy. Humphree’s fully integrated and automated Electric Stabilising Fin & Interceptor System on the other hand pointing the way towards a world of much more involved.

Integrated solutions as a part of a wider industry drive to make boating more accessible and more comfortable.

Commenting on its decision at the time, The DAME Jury said: “Good design in marine equipment needs to drive better experiences for people afloat as the whole industry seeks to attract new generations. The growing market for stabilisers is clearly an area to watch in this regard and Humphree has introduced a series of valuable improvements with its Electric Stabilising Fin & Interceptor System. The stabiliser’s 24V DC servo, its 360-degree rotating fin (to combat anchor walking), its failsafe fin attachment (design to preserve hull integrity in case of a strike) and its full integration with interceptor trim devices would each be worthy of consideration on their own. Taken as a package this is a very impressive piece of technology, involving many design disciplines, that promises a step forward again in comfort afloat. Fully co-ordinating the effort of pitch and trim is a particularly welcome development and expected to lead to much better handling and reduced fuel consumption.”

Blending automotive and marine technologies

Creating ground-breaking products in the marine industry requires substantial design effort. In Humphree’s case, it has been able to channel expertise and knowledge from close to its home location, as Product Owner Sven Dahlberg explains: “We try to combine people who understand hydrodynamics with those who can design hardware and electronics. In Gothenburg there are a lot of vehicle engineers and they have the experience of creating robust systems, but they don't know about the marine sector. Many of the design choices we make come the automotive industry and we combine that with the knowledge that we have created here at Humphree about the needs of a boat and how to make it perform better. We also collaborate a sister company, Profjord, also based here in Gothenburg, that specialises in naval architecture and computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

“The control systems we develop require a lot of computing power to manage static and dynamic stabilisation. The boat needs to be trimmed and stabilised for different power, sea and wind states as well as for uneven loads. The system needs to understand and evaluate what situation the boat is in, anticipate its movement before it occurs and decide what control inputs to send to the fins and interceptors.”

Humphree used an approximately 50:50 blend of computer simulation and on-water testing to develop its DAME Design Award winner. This mix is largely unchanged on testing today, with only a minor skew towards more virtual modelling.

Five-fold business growth

At the time it launched the Electric Stabilising Fin & Interceptor System Humphree was a €5m turnover business. Winning the DAME Design Awards certainly helped the company’s ability to open doors with the new product, as Henrik Ragnmark recalls: “All the shipyards were lined up and very curious about our new system after the announcement and it was very easy for me to arrange customer visits. We did some early tests with two refit projects and then Amer Yachts in Italy and Van der Valk in the Netherlands became early adopters.

A year after it won the DAME Design Awards a majority shareholding in Humphree was acquired its Gothenburg neighbour, Volvo Penta. This gave it a major boost in terms of global distribution and a base for its on-water testing at Volvo Penta’s impressive Krossholmen Test Center on the Gothenburg archipelago. It also perfectly positioned the company’s portfolio of dynamic control devices within Volvo Penta’s growing line-up of Electronic Vessel Control (EVC) systems. Today Humphree has an annual turnover of more than €25m.

A year after it won the DAME Design Awards, the Electric Stabilising Fin & Interceptor System is still in production and has been the beneficiary of several improvements in response to operational experience and testing. In 2017, optional variations in the fin design were introduced to accommodate hulls of various forms. Versions for larger boats were developed, while software updates allowed for more careful tuning of fin response rates according to service speeds.

Daring to do things with courage

Asked to summarise how the company’s culture has enabled it to innovate through good design, Henrik Ragnmark reflects: “My feeling is over the years that we dare to do things. We are open-minded, with a lot of courage. We have had a couple of products that we thought worth developing but they did not find a market – we are prepared to fail to find what is right.

“Our success comes from being creative and finding the combinations that would be right for a particular boat model. We also listen to our customers a lot. A lot of our incremental development is driven by their feedback. We want to improve our products all the time.”

What are your memories of the DAME Design Awards over the years?

For this special 35th anniversary year we are publishing a series of features looking at the winners – who they were, why they won and what they meant within the leisure marine sector.

We would very much like to hear the memories of anyone involved with nominated and winning entries since 1991, particularly the overall winners. If you can help us, then please email dame@rai.nl or contact the author of this series, Kim Hollamby via LinkedIn. He’ll be pleased to get in touch.