Kevin Dibley likes pointing out he designs boats around the world from the third bedroom of his home in Queenstown’s Jack’s Point.
Though yachts are about 60% of his business, the 60-year-old designs everything from one-metre radio-controlled model yachts to a 170-foot superyacht, and just about everything in between.
An international award-winning designer who’s also done a power of sailing, Kevin says of his career choice, "I don’t think I got into it, it just sort of found me."
He was born in Calgary, Canada, to a Kiwi father "who left in the ’50s for his big OE and never came back", and a Canadian mother.
His dad was an oil industry accountant who’d always wanted to build a boat, so, aged four, Kevin’s family moved to Vancouver Island so he could do just that.
On completion, they stayed onboard the cutter for four years on nearby Gabriola Island where his dad ran a shipyard/chandlery.
During his schooling he’d work there during weekends/holidays, and got experience buying, fixing and selling old wooden Star boats, in particular.
Older brother John became a sailmaker, moving to New Zealand in ’82 to work for Tom Schnackenberg before managing various Volvo and America’s Cup campaigns.
Kevin followed in ’83, studying mechanical engineering at Canterbury University on a bursary that paid him, rather than shelling out for uni in Canada.
During holidays, he worked for various boatbuilding yards, as well as cleaning North Sails’ loft floor in the evenings.
In subsequent breaks he worked for Ian Franklin Boat Builders in Christchurch, building Laurie Davidson- and Bruce Farr-designed one- and two-tonne race yachts that’d become famous like the Farr 44 Kiwi.
During this time he also started a yacht design correspondence course through the United States’ Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology.
After a year back in Canada he worked in Auckland for famed Kiwi helmsman, the late Graeme Woodroffe, where he also met other influential designers.
He also managed new design company Eagle Yachts, which grew out of Elliott Yachts.
In ’95, Kevin formed yacht design company Dibley Marine and has been self-employed ever since.
A major early influence was renowned America’s Cup designer Laurie Davidson, for whom he design managed high-end non-cup projects like a Norwegian around-the-world Volvo yacht.
"I was still trying to get my business up and running, so that was a bit of key cash coming in."
In 2019, in fact, Davidson handed Kevin his complete design portfolio, going back to 1954, two years before he died.
As for developing Dibley Marine, Kevin says about 80% of his business is international these days.
"About 15, 20 years ago, NZ was going up and down and it was really hard to get consistent cashflow.
"Kiwis didn’t like to spend money, so I decided to concentrate on Australia, and then I went to the States and Europe, and it’s the best thing I ever did."
While designing custom-made craft, he also developed two production yards for steady income — Poland-based Kraken Yachts and US-based LM46.
In 2017, he became the first Kiwi to win ‘Yacht Designer of the Year’ at the Asian Marine & Boating Awards in Shanghai.
An unusual project was designing the hull for Kiwi Olympic rower Emma Twigg, who won silver at the Paris Olympics in ’24, the challenge, Kevin says, being to cut drag.
He’s since also designed a traditional long Samoan boat, a fautasi, that’s being built in Auckland.
His Kraken 58 design, meanwhile, has been nominated for 2026 European Yacht of the Year.
Kevin says he used to travel a lot to trial his designs, "but with Zoom and Teams and that, you don’t have to do that as much".
However, he’s kept his hand in crewing or co-skippering boats he’s designed around the world.
A major drama occurred while crewing for Swuzzlebubble VIII in the ’93 Sydney to Hobart race.
The yacht was entering Bass Strait when a wave caught her, tipping her upside down for about five minutes at about 2am.
"It was horrendous, but a wave came and hit the keel with such force it snapped the mast and allowed the boat to come up."
Kevin moved to Queenstown with his second wife Rachel about 12 years ago — she grew up between Palmerston and here — and between them they enjoy visits from their three children and one grandchild.
He’s kept his Auckland post office box so overseas clients don’t always know where he is, "but when they do visit it’s great to entertain them here".
You’d think a yacht designer wouldn’t worry about wind, but Kevin says that was the problem with Jack’s Point when he first visited it.
However, he says with more housing and less wind, he’s very happy living there.
He considers Lake Whakatipu "a shit lake to sail on, Lake Wānaka’s a lot better".
However, he’s also managed to win the long-running Donald Hay regatta, from Kingston to Queenstown Bay, twice crewing on an early ’90s design Spring Loaded — his designs have won it three times.
And he may have another boat on the lake in the very near future.
He says one of his specialties is designing heritage picnic boats — "they’re modern, but they’ve got that old look about them".
"We’re talking to one of the high-end lodges here about getting one."
