history onspeed boats boats

Denney - 1983/86
Anyway, back to AYRS - in 1983, along came Rob Denney with a serious project. He wanted to build a 28' three bladed wind turbine on a 40' trimaran to take part in the Singlehanded Transatlantic Race in 1984. He thought that the boat would be able to sail directly upwind driving a propeller, be easy to control from inside the cabin, and would put less strain on the boat than ordinary sails.
He built up a sponsorship proposal, and had a team of very well qualified and experienced people behind him, with a trimaran hull designed by the late Rod MacAlpine-Downie, but he did not get any money to build it.


Anyway, after his attempts at finding sponsorship for this, he found that it was a better idea to write to the suppliers of materials and offer them free publicity in return for free supplies. So, in 1986, he teamed up with Neil Bose from Glasgow University and put a 3-bladed turbine on his Iroquois catamaran.


AYRS 102 (1986) p.23

This boat is now owned b...