Yacht designer Prof Peter Joubert honoured in Queen’s Birthday Honours

by Peter Campbell on 9 Jun 2009 Professor Peter Numa Joubert OAM, the distinguished academic and noted authority on fluid mechanics and the only ‘amateur’ yacht designer to have designed an overall winner of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, has been made an Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Prof Joubert, now retired and living in the Melbourne suburb of Kew, designed Zeus II, a Currawong 31, which was overall winner of the 1981 Sydney Hobart, as well as other yachts that have won their divisions in the 628 nautical mile ocean classic.

He competed in 27 Sydney Hobarts, mostly skippering yachts of his own design which he named after Australian birds, including the Currawong 31 and Brolga 35. More than a hundred yachts have been built to his designs.

While yacht design was more a sideline to his major research work in mechanical engineering, he is a Member of the Institute of Naval Architects and has authored more than a hundred scientific papers, including 10 papers in the Journal of Ship Research. These have included investigating the forces caused by slamming impact on yacht hulls.

He survived the Sydney Hobart storm of 1998, despite his yacht having been turned upside down before righting. In 1993 he was awarded the Commodore’s medal of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia for outstanding seamanship after his crew rescued eight survivors from a sunken yacht at night in a strong gale.

Prof Joubert has received the AO for ‘services to engineering through research in the field of fluid mechanics, particularly in relation to submarine design and education.’

However, his research work has extended far beyond that, including the development of seat belt whilst a World War II fighter pilot on active duty in New Guinea which led to road safety action and safety harnesses for yachtsmen.

Prof Joubert was awarded the OAM for service to road and offshore yachting safety in the 1996 Australia Day Honours.

Peter Joubert retired in 1989 but he continued his research as an Emeritus Professor at the University of Melbourne. His recent work includes the study of separating flow about a submarine body while engaged in a turning manoeuvre, advising the Department of Defence and senior naval officers on hull shapes for the latest RAN submarines.