Marc Van Peteghem

Studies

Born in January 9, 1957 in Paris, Marc Van Peteghem studied at Southampton Solent University from 1977 to 1979 where he became a naval architect. There he met Vincent Lauriot-Prévost with whom he became friend.

Career

In 1983, Vincent Lauriot-Prévost and Marc Van Peteghem became associates and founded the naval architecture agency VPLP (the acronym of the initials of their names: Van Peteghem and Lauriot Prévost).

Together, they specialize in racing multihulls design. Their first boat is a 50-foot (15m) foiler baptized Gerard Lambert and was the first in a long line of racing trimarans.

Their multihulls became famous and won many victories in races, including the America’s Cup in 2010 and records around the world. Later, this success would Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot-Prévost international references in the field of naval architecture.

VPLP also develops yachts such as « Douce France » and « Hemisphere », which are the two largest cruising catamarans in the world. The agency also works with the Groupe Bénéteau to design their cruising catamarans, produced at nearly 3,000 units since 1986, and works with the shipyard Outremer.

In 2004, Marc Van Peteghem meets Yves Marre and begins to work with him on a catamaran ambulance for Bangladesh, built in TaraTari Shipyard. In 2010, he decided with Yves Marre, Alain Connan and Gerald Similowski to create NGO Watever which assists underprivileged populations living on the shores of oceans and rivers. He is the President of the NGO.

In 2012, he co-found « The Sustainable Design School » with Maurille Larivière and Patrick Le Quément, a school of design and sustainable innovation based in Nice.

In 2014, Marc Van Peteghem took part in TEDx Cannes with the talk "Let's reduce our fuel consumption at sea!"