In 1974, after several years of apprenticeship, Bob Perry opened his own yacht design office on Shilshole Bay in Seattle. Since then, his body of work has established him as one of the world leaders in performance-oriented cruising yachts--a trend he initiated and labeled. His Valiant 40 has been in production longer than any other cruising sailboat in the U.S., and was named to the American Boatbuilders Hall of Fame in 1995. Perry himself was one of the original 15 inductees into Cruising World Magazine's Cruising Hall of Fame in 1989. Perry designs are recognized as the epitome of offshore cruising yachts. There are more Tayana 37's cruising offshore than any other design worldwide, according to a Blue Water Sailing survey.

Perry has taught yacht design at Evergreen State College and accepts interns from the University of Southampton, the Landing School, and other institutions. His popular yacht design reviews have appeared in Sailing magazine monthly for 22 years, and have been collected in five volumes to date. The website for Robert H. Perry Yacht Designs, Inc., is at www.perryboat.com.