Kiteship

I’ve built a few boats; El Toro with my dad at 8, coupla more plywood boats with him as I grew up. Built a 31’ Searunner in 1976. I helped build—then worked—a 65’ steel motor-sailing fishboat.

Designed and built half a dozen Weymouth Speedweek entries, proas and one little cat; both on my budget and as commissions. Built half a dozen more kite proas, kite-cats and one hydrofoil with 100% aerodynamic controls (3-axis), all in California. Never flew, but a cool money pit.

Designed and built a loophole-utilizing “spinnaker” for Oracle Racing in 2001 for the 2003 America’s Cup, expanded into a business of building spinnaker-replacement kites for racing yachts. Assembled financing and started KiteShip Corp to

bring wind power to the international shipping industry. Good science, poor business acumen.

Let me see, I think we did two patents (first bi-directional kiteboard in 1982 and spinnaker-replacement kite in 2003), and still hold a Guinness record or two. Longtime member—then committee member of the Amateur Yacht Research Society.