- This post is prompted by an e-mail I received following the article by John Rousmaniere about Dick Carter in the August issue of Seahorse magazine. See the above Post.
- P. A wrote: " In my life, I have worked for three or four "Rock Stars" and Dick Carter was the first. We were all in our twenties
(and Dick was only 42) when he hired all of us and gave us the freedom to do great things".
- I wish everyone to have had Mentors like I have been privileged to be associated with. No less than three, whom by finding something in me, allowed me to find myself.
- Their paths crossed mine. Fond of boats, Yachting, and enthusiast with sailing, their presence allowed someone very young to pursue a passion in many interesting ways.
- Yes, this is talking about myself but thanks to the Social Media and search engines, one can find everything there is to find about the above personalities. All larger than life.
- Illingworth and Primerose, then Illingworth and Associates.
My year with the firm, barely nineteen years old started in St-Malo, Brittany. With the building of Oryx a Class 1 Ocean Racer for Mr. Francis Bouygues. Then to be the skipper over the summer on Maryka in the 1966 One Ton Cup in Denmark. Richard (Dick) E. Carter won that event with Tina. Then on to England to design boats. Wow!
Francis Bouygues.
- Living in Paris now, being there studying, I became a frequent guest of the Bouygues. I also became involved with the Magazine Neptune-Nautisme where I had my own column reviewing boat designs.
- Implying many times to redraw in ink the submitted drawings.
Sailing took the full season of 1967 aboard Oryx ending with the Fastnet Race of that year.
A little side story.
- I got to be thinking; if I am to draw, re-draw drawings from designers for a magazine then why not buy the publication in order to publish myself and perhaps sell my own yacht designs.
- So I approached Francis to meet with Jean-Michel Barrault and Alain Glicksman the Chief Editor of Neptune-Nautisme, my boss there. Well, as you can imagine there is nothing that a magazine can bring to the table of a Trump/like. I am not comparing the person, just the type of business. And, the proposition went nowhere.
- Enterprise Francis Bouygues is one of the largest building companies in the world with Bouygues Construction, Bouygues Immobilier.
- His interest in Media came a few years later with Films, and Program TV Bouygues TF1, and the creation of telecoms, Bouygues Telecom. Telephones, the Internet. A giant.
- I sailed a lot with F.B, including the 1969 Fastnet Race aboard his newly designed Camper and Nicholsons yacht Pacha.
Baron Bich.
- At the time in France, every young Frenchman was obligated to 2 years to be spent in the Military services. I thought that I had better do it fast, rather than waiting and postponing. No time to lose.
- It happened that my younger brother had joined the AFCA, the Association Francaise pour La Coupe America, the syndicate put together by Baron Bich to challenge the Defender of the America's Cup.
- With my design background and the need to design a "12 International Metre," it became an easy shoe to get into the program. But first, the "Bataillon de Joinville" where athletes practicing their sport leading to the Olympics, could best serve the country for that length of Military service. This was the venue to feed the rank for crew needed to sail the training boats purchased by the Baron. Kurrewa, Sovereign, or Constellation.
- The stable of new recruits spent 3 months in boot camps. For me, it was about climbing hills and shooting canons in mock war games. My feet never felt so hurt, I had really bad boots and piercing was the only relief available just to be able to walk.
- With all this training over, we managed to climb, "faire le mur" almost every night, out of the casern. The wall, circling the barracks had a very obvious hole in the perimeter of barbed wires to allow our nocturnal escapes. Personally, I had rented a room where I actually designed boats. While others had more mundane Rendez-vous of the ladies kind.
- So, when finally delivered from the 3 months of boot camps, we sailed almost every day. Eventually, I went to Marseilles to work for Andre Mauric, the Naval Architect for the French Challenge. There, I learned a lot.
- A. Mauric, a mathematician had developed technics in drafting close to what is now all translated into computer hull design programs. In another blog post, I mentioned how we redesigned many of the famous twelve at the time.
- Based on Rating certificates and hundreds of pictures. The most important for sure was Intrepid. All this for a reason: Tank testing.
- This took me to Brittany, at the Ecole Centrale de Nantes, originally L'Institut Polytechnic de l'Ouest transformed into the L'Ecole Nationale Superieure de Mecanique, where we tank-tested the 12Metre models. I followed engineering courses as well, under the supervision of Professor Ravilly. The basin was relatively small but had seen Pen Duick 3, and was mostly used for the big shipyards around the area.
- The Baron had hired American Britton Chance to design a 12M; Britt, considered by many to be a genius in design, to learn what could be the next generation of America's Cup boats. Chancegger the result, the amalgam of the Designer's name with the Builder's, the Swiss Egger.
- The boat could only be a trial horse because of the non-eligibility for an architect to get involved with a foreign syndicate. Crew Nationality and even the origin of some equipment had to be strictly French. So, a few times I was given the privilege to fly in the Lear jet to see the construction progress. Even with a close call, when the Baron not feeling well, we had to land in a sort of emergency. The rest is history. Follow me to the U.S.A.
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