Rod Macalpine-Downie Explained

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. 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

• Catamaran
• Shearwater I
• Thai Mk4

Notes and References

1. Making Waves: Michigan's Boat-Building Industry, 1865-2000, Scott M. Peters, 2015, p. 204
2. Web site: Sailing Catamarans and Trimarans – History of Multihulls Part 2. 17 Jan 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140628082816/http://yachtpalsdotcom/sailing-multihulls-9627. 28 June 2014. usurped.
3. Web site: Sir Timothy Colman's memories of Crossbow 40 years on. Stephen Pullinger. Anglia Afloat. 2015-01-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20150104004215/http://www.angliaafloat.co.uk/heritage/waterway-history/sir_timothy_colman_s_memories_of_crossbow_40_years_on_1_1663606#. 2015-01-04. dead. Stephen Pullinger.
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. Web site: 2019-03-31 . MACALPINE-DOWNIE - In Memoriam Announcements - Telegraph Announcements . 2022-05-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190331181426/http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/inmemoriam/16274/macalpine-downie . 31 March 2019 . dead.