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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. |
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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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