Rod Macalpine-Downie

James Roderick Macalpine-Downie[1] (9 May 1934 – 9 January 1986), known as Rod Macalpine-Downie, was an English multihull sailboat designer and sailor.[2][3]

Son of Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald James Macalpine-Downie (died 1958), M.B.E., Royal Tank Regiment,[4] of a landed gentry family of Appin,[5] he was a King's Scholar at Eton with a focus on biology, but seriously considered a career as a concert violinist.[2] Macalpine-Downie and his wife, Shirley Agnes (née Reid), had two sons and a daughter.[6]

Design career

After seeing a Shearwater catamaran while chicken farming in Scotland, Macalpine-Downie resolved to design a superior vessel, producing the Thai Mk4 catamaran.[2]

The Thai Mk4 was extremely successful, winning all six races of the 1962 European 'one of a kind' regatta, in addition to the first International Catamaran Challenge in 1963.[2]

Legacy

Macalpine-Downie is said to have been the first to try both 'una rig' and wing masts.[2]

His two most famous designs were the high-speed Crossbow multihulls which set sailing speed records in the 1970s and 1980s.[2] The Crossbow proa set a speed record of 26.30 knots in 1973. Its successor, Crossbow II, set a new record in 1980 of 36.00 knots, a mark which was not surpassed till 1986.

Death

Macalpine-Downie died in 1986, aged 52. A new Crossbow design was partly completed, which Macalpine-Downie believed was capable of 70+ knots.[2]

Designs

  • British Oxygen - a 70 foot catamaran designed for Gerry Boxall and Robin Knox-Johnston, and in which they won the 1974 two handed Round Britain race
  • Buccaneer 18 sailing dinghy
  • Crossbow and Crossbow II multihulls
  • Gloucester 15 sailing dinghy
  • Mirrorcat catamaran
  • Mutineer 15 day sailer
  • Phoenix 18 catamaran
  • Iroquois (Mk2 launched 1969) racer/cruiser 30’/9.3m catamaran, a very successful design with over 400 built by Sailcraft Ltd, UK
  • Comanche 32 (1978) cruiser 32’/9.8m catamarans, a very successful design built by Sailcraft Ltd, UK
  • Apache cruiser 41’/12.5m catamaran built by Sailcraft Ltd, UK

See also

References

  1. ^ Making Waves: Michigan's Boat-Building Industry, 1865-2000, Scott M. Peters, 2015, p. 204
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Sailing Catamarans and Trimarans – History of Multihulls Part 2". 17 January 2014. Archived from the original on 28 June 2014.
  3. ^ Stephen Pullinger. "Sir Timothy Colman's memories of Crossbow 40 years on". Anglia Afloat. Archived from the original on 4 January 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  4. ^ Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage 1973, p. 1390
  5. ^ Burke's Family Index, ed. Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke's Peerage Limited, 1976, p. 47
  6. ^ "MACALPINE-DOWNIE - In Memoriam Announcements - Telegraph Announcements". 31 March 2019. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2022.