James Roderick Macalpine-Downie (9 May 1934 – 9 January 1986), known as Rod Macalpine-Downie, was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

multihull A multihull is a boat or ship with more than one Hull (watercraft), hull, whereas a vessel with a single hull is a monohull. The most common multihulls are catamarans (with two hulls), and trimarans (with three hulls). There are other types, wi ...

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

designer and sailor. Son of Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald James Macalpine-Downie (died 1958), M.B.E.,

Royal Tank Regiment The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the World War I, First World War. Today, it is an Armoured warfare, armoured regiment equipped with Challenger 2 main battle tanks ...

, of a landed gentry family of

Appin Appin () is a coastal district of the Scottish West Highlands bounded to the west by Loch Linnhe, to the south by Loch Creran, to the east by the districts of Benderloch and Lorne, and to the north by Loch Leven. It lies northeast to southw ...

, he was a King's Scholar at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England *Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States *Éton, a commune in the Meuse depa ...

with a focus on

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

, but seriously considered a career as a concert

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist. Macalpine-Downie and his wife, Shirley Agnes (née Reid), had two sons and a daughter.

Design career

After seeing a

Shearwater Shearwaters are medium-sized long-winged seabirds in the petrel family Procellariidae. They have a global marine distribution, but are most common in temperate and cold waters, and are pelagic outside the breeding season. Description These tube ...

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

while

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

farming in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, Macalpine-Downie resolved to design a superior vessel, producing the Thai Mk4

. 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.

Legacy

Macalpine-Downie is said to have been the first to try both 'una rig' and wing masts. His two most famous designs were the high-speed ''Crossbow'' multihulls which set sailing speed records in the 1970s and 1980s. The ''Crossbow'' proa set a speed record of 26.30 knots in 1973. Its successor, ''

Crossbow II ''Crossbow II'' was a late 1970s proa (or asymmetrical catamaran) sailboat, the successor craft to ''Crossbow (proa), Crossbow''. It was built by former Olympian Tim Whelpton at his boatyard in Upton, Norfolk, Upton near Acle. It revised the wor ...

'', 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.

Designs

*''British Oxygen'' - a 70 foot catamaran designed for Gerry Boxall and

Robin Knox-Johnston Sir William Robert Patrick Knox-Johnston CBE RD* (born 17 March 1939) is a British sailor. In 1969, he became the first person to perform a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe. Along with Sir Peter Blake, he won in 1994 the s ...

, and in which they won the 1974 two handed Round Britain race *

Buccaneer 18 The Buccaneer 18, also called the Buccaneer dinghy and the Gloucester 18, is an American planing (boat), planing sailing dinghy that was designed in 1966 by Rod Macalpine-Downie and Dick Gibbs (naval architect), Dick Gibbs as a one-design Saili ...

sailing dinghy *''

Crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an Elasticity (physics), elastic launching device consisting of a Bow and arrow, bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar f ...

'' and ''

'' multihulls *

Gloucester 15 The Gloucester 15 is an American sailing dinghy that was designed by Rod Macalpine-Downie and Dick Gibbs and first built in 1987. The Gloucester 15 is a development of the Chrysler Marine 1972 Mutineer 15 design, with a heavier displacement. ...

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Downie, Rodney Macalpine 1934 births 1986 deaths Multihull designers 20th-century British designers People educated at Eton College

Design career

Legacy

Death

Designs

See also

References