[1] Kemp was born in Ryde, a British seaside town on the Isle of Wight.
Of his famous yachts, Firecrest (1892) was used by Alain Gerbault in his solo circumnavigation of the globe, and was the vessel he sailed to win the Blue Water Medal in 1923.
The British Admiralty ordered copies of his Yacht and Boat Sailing supplied to the Navy.
[1] As an architect, he was regarded as an expert on stability of vessels, and his work was supplied to officers of the Royal Navy.
In yacht racing, he was known for having devised a new ranking system based on the length of vessels and their area under sail.