Bravura Yacht, Inc. was founded in 1997. Our staff includes President and Designer, Leif Beiley, Master builder Samuel Mata and a skilled and dedicated workforce capable of building the best quality sailboats available anywhere. Our mission is to built very high quality boats that have the ability to win at any level of racing competition, are as exciting to sail as a sportboat, yet are versatile enough to be cruised in comfort. When we incorporated all of the virtues that are necessary to achieve these goals we found we had to coin a new name for our boats, hence the phrase "Sport Utility Vessel"™.

Our facility includes a building large enough to build boats up to 56 feet in length, with suitable cranes, vacuum bagging equipment and all the specialized tools necessary to built state-of-the-art sailing yachts. Located in the heart of the boatbuilding community of Costa Mesa, we have immediate access to a wide array of materials and technology for sophisticated construction projects.

Bravura Yachts has forged strategic and cooperative alliances with the best known manufacturers of raw materials, hardware, spars and equipment so that we can offer our customers the very best choices when it comes to rigging and outfitting our boats. These include Harken, Schaefer, Ronstan and Fredricksen blocks; Lewmar for windows, winches and other specialty equipment; Ballenger Spars for masts, booms and rigging; Forespar carbon fiber components and a host of other quality manufacturers.

While quality of construction is vital to our mission, quality of design is the essence of our products. We build the designs of Leif Beiley exclusively. As the designer of such outstanding boats as the B25 and B32 as well as many others, Beiley has a proven record of outstanding success at the highest levels of both inshore and offshore racing.

ABOUT LEIF BEILEY
Also see Interviews with Leif Beiley on the
Art of Design & Rudder Theory

LEIF BEILEY started sailing and surfing while in high school in southern California. As a teenager he built surfboards in his garage and sailed multihulls. After college he worked in the aerospace industry as an engineer. He continued to surf and sail, however, and in 1975 joined Islander Yachts as in-house designer and draftsman. At Islander he was instrumental in the development of several very successful products including the Islander 28 and 32, and the Freeport 36.

In 1977 Beiley hung out his shingle, offering yacht design and construction services and specializing in custom performance cruising yachts. His first major project was CARAMBA, a 43 foot racer/cruiser. At only 17,000 pounds displacement it was considered very light at that time. With this yacht he began the development of a design type which to this day has been extremely successful for both racing and cruising. His designs from that period include the Gryphon 26, Viking 34, Celere 47, IOR One Tonners, and innumerable new keels, rudders, rigs and optimizations for both racing and cruising yachts. During that time he raced competitively in both inshore and offshore races, and frequently worked as a delivery skipper. The result was that he logged many thousands of sea miles aboard a wide variety of racing yachts. Throughout those years he continued to refine his ideas about sailing yacht performance and began to concentrate more on racing yacht design. In 1986 he launched "VAPOR", the prototype of what was to become one of the most successful racing yachts in the country, the B-25. Over the next two years VAPOR trophied in nearly every regatta it entered.

In 1988 Beiley founded Bboats, Inc. to build and market a production version of the B-25. This boat not only won many Grand Prix regattas, but was the first trailerable boat to be competitive in virtually all venues, winning such diverse events as the Colorado ILYA PHRF championship, Key West Race Week (twice), Trimble North Race Week and the Santa Barbara--King Harbor Race. While designing and building racing yachts occupied much of his time and energy, he continued to race. In 1992 he won the B-25 National Championship. In 1993 he won the inaugural Los Angeles NOOD regatta then went on to win PHRF overall in the Cabo San Lucas race. In 1994 Beiley began to develop the B-32 and launched hull number one in early 1995. The new boat got off to a wonderful start by winning the 1995 Annapolis Race Week, 1996 Key West Race Week, and recently won the prestigious Sailing World 1996 Sport Boat of the Year Award.

In the mid-1990’s the market for Sportboats became saturated, particularly in the 30 foot range, and Beiley began to think about a new type of boat that would be more suitable for the lifestyles of people as the turn of the century approached. Consequently in 1995 he sold Bboats Inc. and began design work on a pair boats that would take sailing to the next level. The result was the Bravura Sportster 29, the world’s first Sport Utility vessel . A Sport Utility Vessel is a boat that combines the performance and ease of sailing of a Sportboat with the ruggedness and versatility of all all-around offshore boat. In 1997 he founded Bravura Yachts to build and market this new breed of boats.

Today Bravura Yachts Inc is a recognized leader in the field of performance sailing yachts, and continues to refine his basic design philosophy of light displacement hulls with fine waterlines forward and powerful aft sections combined with efficient foils and rigs. This approach has proven to be nearly unbeatable in racing, and it offers the cruising yachtsman fast, easily handled boats that are both fun to sail and seaworthy. Because of his extensive hands-on experience in yacht building, his many thousands of miles of racing and cruising, and his strong engineering background, Bravura Yachts Inc. is uniquely qualified to design competitive, seaworthy and beautiful yachts for racing, cruising and daysailing. We take a very personal approach to each of the boats we design and look forward to working with each individual client to help meet his or her particular yachting requirements.

The B-35 "Presto"

Leif Beiley's B32
Winner of Sailing Magazine's
1996 SPORT BOAT OF THE YEAR
click above for Scott Taylor's B-32 "Defiance"



Beiley's B-25 - Line drawing





Bravura Sportster 29





Bravura Speedster 29




The Celere 47





The Bravura 52