Behind the scenes with Hugh Ward, Senior CFD Consultant

At Cape Horn Engineering, we are passionate about everything we do. We have built a reputation upon our racing pedigree and winning formula over the last two decades and we thrive on being the best. From developing ground-breaking CFD technologies to increase performance in global yacht racing, to reducing emissions for shipping decarbonisation, we excel at what we do.

Behind the scenes, and in our spare time, we are just as driven. Here is an insight into one of our team members, Hugh Ward, Senior CFD Consultant, at Cape Horn Engineering.

Current Work:

Working on multiple demanding studies at any one time, Hugh is currently involved on a specialist project which requires an extremely complex analysis process, more so than usual. The simulation requires multiple coupled and moving bodies in a simulation set-up with extra degrees of freedom to normal. The self-propulsion simulation of the futuristic looking vessel also included simulations in waves.

Hugh has also been developing our next generation foil design methods for quick low fidelity optimisation, as a pre-step to our usual CFD simulations. His continued testing of different Machine Learning workflows on different data sets is ongoing, as part of our development process.

As we move to the next stage of the Tidal Turbine Benchmarking Project, Hugh has started to implement waves in the simulations. See case study and simulation here. This blind validation study is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate our specialist technologies and capabilities to assist companies in exploring less carbon-intensive and more sustainable energy systems. Researching new technologies is a crucial part of our daily work. We are dedicated to reducing shipping emissions and improving air pollution, this is a strong commitment for all the team. We firmly believe the future will rely much more on sustainable energy sources and we have a strong desire to contribute to this development and to improve the performance of renewable energy technologies and the work boats of the future.

Hobbies & Interests

When Hugh is not working on the delivery of client’s projects or researching the latest software developments, he is following his passion and spending as much time as possible on the water.

A keen sailor, Hugh started to learn to sail when he was 8 at a small lake near London, sailing Optimists, and then progressed to 29ers when he was 14. He sailed the UK circuit in both boats, and also participated in many international events including one at the beautiful Lake Garda, where he would love to return to sail again, in the future.

Hugh has competed regularly at national and international level. This year after his success in the Cape31 fleet winning the 2023 National Championship aboard Jubilee, see here. The season has ended and they finished a respectable 5^th out of 29 teams. The team also won the most number of races throughout the season!

On top of inshore racing, Hugh competed in the pinnacle offshore race event in the calendar, the 50^th Edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race, sailing on board the JPK1180 Dawn Treader. The start of the race was challenging and extreme conditions up to severe gale (Force 9) were recorded. 24 hours into the race more than 100 yachts had retired of the 430 boats competing. After the first day the weather became easier, but the racing was still tight, with boats leading ahead by only a few miles when rounding the Fastnet Rock. Dawn Treader proudly finished 3^rd in IRC1 out of 100 boats, and was 12^th of 358 boats in IRC overall. Including this great performance and the other events in the RORC season, most of which Hugh competed in, Dawn Treader won the IRC1 class overall!

This summer has been an especially windy one, so when Hugh has not been competing in various sailing regattas, he has been kitesurfing all over the south coast. The challenge of designing a high-performance Formula Kite hydrofoil at work and watching others test prototypes left him wanting to experience the exhilaration and speed for himself. So, he now regularly spends time on his kite foiling, following the wake of his friends in the British kitesurfing team, perfecting some of his manoeuvres. However, when the wind picks up to 30kn, his adrenaline seeking activity changes to performing extreme jumps and kite loops, as shown in the video above.

Education

Originally from London, Hugh has furthered his education at Southampton University where he studied for 4 years, gaining a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics.

Behind the scenes with Hugh Ward, Senior CFD Consultant

CAPE HORN ENGINEERING LTD.