Since I open my big (email) mouth fairly often, I'd better file my own credentials:
Although I had long "designed" sailing boats as a child, I did not become seriously involved in boat design until I was a student at the Atlantic College . There, as a sideline from studying for university entrance, we invented, designed and built rigid-inflatable inshore lifeboats, both for our own use, and as a development project for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. These boats were the forerunners to the Atlantic 21 ILB . The design/build team I worked with concentrated on small boats for use in beach patrol work. One went to a team of lifeguards, one went to the National Coastal Rescue Training Centre at Aberavon, Wales, and one never really saw the light of day because we could not fabricate the inflatable collar of the right shape (VERY sharp angle at the bow).
It was at that time (1967) I became a member of the Amateur Yacht Research Society (AYRS) .
Other matters (like paid employment) intervened, so designing (though not sailing/building of other people's designs!) took a back seat for a number of years, though I did manage to build a proa a few years back.
I remained a lurker within AYRS.
However, because, at one AYRS Annual General Meeting, I was the only person in the room not already on the Committee, I was elected to that august position in 1990. I now have taken responsibility for editing the AYRS Newsletter, and have also acted as the "official"point of email contact for AYRS using my own account Fishwick@compuserve.com . I have also been heavily involved in designing and building the AYRS' stand for the London Boat Show.
At present I work 350 miles away from my UK home, in another
country (Belgium), so I don't have time to go sailing.
But if you want a small boat designed . . . (You can see the
sort of boats I design on this page
)
During the holidays I sail my canoe.
In my day job, I am an air traffic control systems engineer, working as a consultant to the Eurocontrol Agency, after a 24-year spell with the UK National Air Traffic Services.
Cheers
Simon
