Jonny Horsfield is a self-proclaimed workaholic. He also admits to being a bit of a control freak. Since he founded H2 Yacht Design in 1994, the London-based company has designed about 60 yachts.

“It is an ideal situation when we get to do both the exterior and interior of a new build,” he says. “We have an incredibly competent team, and, as such, my overriding ambition is always to do excellent, detailed work, not to grow the business larger.”

That team includes members who are British, Spanish, Italian, French and Australian, each bringing his or her own spin, not only to yachts, but also to residential projects such as a villa in Switzerland and a New York apartment. And, the company is opening a satellite office in Monaco.

“Monaco is definitely becoming a world superyacht hub, and it is important to be there,” Horsfield says.

Another Monaco staple—cars—is Horsfield’s personal passion. He collects them, putters around with them, and races them. He has about 25 cars, which he stores at his home outside London, near his race team on England’s south coast.

“My dad loved cars,” he says. “I guess I picked up the bug from him. When I was a young boy, I was constantly drawing cars and warships.”

Among his favorites are his Porsche 911 GT3 RS and his Jaguar Project 8. He enjoys racing his Alfa Romeos, including a 1977 Alfetta GTV and a 1965 Giulia saloon. He also joins colleagues and friends at classic car events and road rallies in Europe. One they do every September is a London-to-Monaco jaunt before the Monaco Yacht Show.

It’s all a far cry from how Horsfield, the youngest of three siblings, grew up in Manchester, U.K. His father was in the textile chemical business. Boating was not a family pastime. Horsfield attended a traditional boarding school, where, he says, most of his classmates were on track for professions in business, law, the army and other fields that didn’t feel creative enough to him.

After studying art, he enrolled in Coventry University to study transportation design. He never did fulfill his youthful dream of becoming a car designer, but he took notice when a friend went to work for Martin Francis, designing yachts in the South of France.

“I did not know much about yacht design,” he says. “I think I had one class in it at university my third year. But I, too, applied for a position with Francis Design, and, just like that, I got involved with superyachts.”

It was the early 1990s, and Francis was working on the groundbreaking 244-foot (74.5-meter) Blohm+Voss Eco (now called Zeus). “I was put in charge of the mast design and a few other details,” Horsfield says.

In addition to Horsfield, another newbie in the office at that time was a young Espen Øino. “Also, Dan Lenard was there,” Horsfield recalls. “He was just a kid, so we might have pushed him around quite a bit.”

They all, of course, have well-established careers in yacht design today. Horsfield went on to work with Donald Starkey in the U.K., where he got to know Pascale Reymond and Andy Langton, now of Reymond Langton Design. Horsfield also became friends with another colleague, Steve Howard, who is now a consultant at H2 Yacht Design.

“I was the one more on the creative side, and Steve, who was quite a bit older than I, handled more of the business side, as he was already acquainted with a lot of brokers,” Horsfield says.

Thus, Howard and Horsfield became the H2 in the company’s name, when Horsfield was still in his 20s. “I have always been very independent,” says Horsfield, who is 57. “I quite like doing things in my own way.”

In the early years, H2 Yacht Design garnered quite a bit of refit work from Yachting Partners International and other brokers. “There were not a lot of new builds out there,” he says. “Interior refurbishment on existing older yachts presented a steady cash flow, but I wanted to do more.”

In 2004, Horsfield did the interior design for the 98-foot (30-meter) Hakvoort Tigre d’Or. His first break for a significant new build was at Turkey’s Proteksan yard (now called Turquoise Yachts), where he won the contract for the interior of the 177-foot (54-meter) Talisman Maiton.

In 2007, Horsfield bought out Howard and H2 became a sole proprietorship. Design work on multiple new builds followed at Turquoise Yachts: Odessa, Sequel P, Talisman C, Vicky and others. In 2018, the 253-foot (77-meter) Turquoise Go debuted at the Monaco Yacht Show to much acclaim. Overall, H2 has been responsible for at least some of the design work on 10 Turquoise yachts. The latest is the 174-foot (53-meter) Jewels, with the 285-foot (87-meter) Project Vento due for launch in 2024, and interiors coming on the 249-foot (76-meter) Project Arrow.

H2 Yacht Design also worked on the 272-foot (83-meter) Graceful, built at Blohm+Voss, as well as several other yachts at various shipyards. In 2015, the team handled interior design of a 351-foot (107-meter) explorer vessel, Ulysses (now called Andromeda), built at Kleven Shipyard. In 2017, Lürssen launched the H2-designed 404-foot (123-meter) Al Lusail. Horsfield says Al Lusail was a life-changing project because the owners requested no changes through the build process.

Since 2019, H2-designed yachts have included the 209-foot (63.7-meter) Hakvoort Scout, the 262-foot (80-meter) Bilgin Tatiana, the 278-foot (85-meter) AK Victorious and the 246-foot (75-meter) Feadship Arrow.

In 2024, delivery is expected from the Vard Brattvaag shipyard in Norway of REV Ocean, a 600-foot (183-meter) expedition yacht that is expected to be the largest vessel of her kind in the world. Her exterior is by Espen Øino, and H2 is doing her interior layout and design.

“We do what the client wants,” Horsfield says, “but also, if a client or an inexperienced yacht owner is unsure of what he wants, we are happy to push him to new heights.” 

This article was originally published in the Fall 2023 issue.