I am an independent Naval Architect, Designer and Consultant specialising in the field of high speed powercraft for all fields of operation. I am a Fellow of The Royal Institution of Naval Architects, a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and serve on the RINA Small Craft Committee.

I also have served on the Royal Yachting Association's Technical/UIM Working Group for Offshore Powerboat Racing and am a judge for the annual Concept Boat Competition run by the BMF and RINA.

I was apprenticed to Vosper Ltd, specialists in fast patrol boats and other military craft, in 1965 and attended Newcastle University and Portsmouth Polytechnic. I was interested in fast powerboats even before my teens and my design hero was Commander Peter DuCane of Vosper; the pre-eminent UK designer of that period. The other powercraft designers of the time that I rated highly were Sonny Levi, Ray Hunt, Jim Wynne and Bob Hobbs.

After spending time in the Hovercraft design office at Vosper I moved to Fairey Marine (leisure, military and commercial powercraft) and then Rotork Marine (commercial and military powercraft). In 1977 I helped to set up Capoco Design, a contract design company covering the Marine and Automotive worlds, with Alan Ponsford and, in 1981, I started Lorne Campbell Design to concentrate solely on marine powercraft.

Over the years a large number of offshore racing powerboats have been designed gaining 11 world championships, 28 national and other championships plus 11 world records. In August 2005 ‘Bradstone Challenger’, a Bladerunner 51, gained the round Britain record in a time of 27 hours 10 minutes, cutting more than three and a half hours off the previous record. This gave an official average speed of 50.16 knots (57.8 mph) including 5 refuelling stops.

I enjoy designing raceboats but am also interested in using the technology learned to produce less extreme leisure, commercial and military craft. It took a long time to convince potential customers that I also understood this world despite the fact that I had spent my earlier years in the design departments of companies that practiced in that area.

As a company, Lorne Campbell Design covers the design and naval architecture of all types of planing powercraft; both mono and multi-hull, stepped and non-stepped and using all varieties of propulsion systems. We cover all that is needed for the external shape of the hull including lines, weight and centre of gravity calculations, static and dynamic stability, resistance and propulsion. We look at styling and general arrangement, the main components of the power train installation, tanks, generators, etc. Structural design mainly covers wood, FRP and aluminium although other materials have also been worked with. Craft length has varied from 11 ft. (3.4 metres) up to 100 ft. (30 metres) so far, but any size which will plane can be catered for.

Stop Press:
June 2007, awarded the Royal Institute of Naval Architects, Small Craft Group Medal for 2006 for contributions to fast powerboat design.

 
 

 

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