Malcolm Tennant fatally injured in accident

by Richard Gladwell, sail-World.Com on 14 May 2008 One of New Zealand's leading powerboat and multihull designers, Malcolm Tennant, died on Saturday after an accident at his home in Titirangi, west of Auckland.

Tony Stanton writes on the Tennant Design website: 'Malcolm has been involved in the design of power and sail multihulls for many years, and it was his life long passion. Malcolm’s influence on the design of Multihulls in New Zealand and around the world is undeniable and he will be missed by many in the industry as a pioneer and as a friend.

Malcolm Tennant’s funeral will be held this Friday the 16th of May near his home in Auckland NZ'

Tennant was probably best known for his Great Barrier Express design, which was well ahead of its time in both looks and performance.

Introduced in 1973, the GBE successfully demonstrated the exhilerating performance of a light racing/cruising catamaran that could easily fly a hull.

www.multihull-maven.com: 'With the open wingdeck and alloy cross-beams of a conventional beach cat but with a length of 27 ft 9 in (8.5 m), the GBE is light and extremely fast.

The boat established Malcolm Tennant internationally as a multihull designer, and one design racing in larger multihulls first became established with this class. It was in series production in several yards around the world, over 300 being built.'

I only met Malcolm once, one sunny afternoon in Takapuna at a session in a cafe/bar that Chris Timms arranged. With those two in full flight it was a memorable afternoon. Malcolm impressed me as a very unassuming intellectual man, with a story or an idea to cover most situations. He was in good company with Chris Timms in that regard. I hardly got a word in edgeways!

Earlier this year, Malcolm penned a note to Sail-World giving his thoughts on the upcoming 33rd America's Cup in supermultihulls, which we reproduce below:

Sender: Malcolm Tennant

I would like to comment on Dick Enersens thoughts on racing the high performance multihulls.

As I contemplate a tacking duel at closing speeds approaching 40 knots I am in awe of the judgement and skill that will be required. As for the boat leading around the 'weather mark zooms off downwind, never to be seen by the trailing boat again'. Contrary to what appears to be popular opinion. This is not what actually happens with this type of boat. I still vividly remember a 'little Americas Cup' race of a few years ago. This was being sailed in solid wing rig C-class catamarans between the Australians and the challengers from the USA. Upwind the lead changed hands a number of times but on the down wind leg the positions changed around 14 to 16 times with the two boats tacking downwind at phenomenal speeds. At the finish line the loser crossed the transom of the winner some 600mm behind on the opposite tack! The boat that was first around the windward mark certainly did not 'zoom' away, never to be seen again. This was typical of C-Class catamaran match racing.

These races could generate an enormous amount of excitement. They will be rivetting television viewing and could well produce finishes decided in differences of hundredths of seconds.


MALCOLM TENNANT MULTIHULL DESIGN LTD

www.tennantdesign.co.nz
www.catdesigners.com

Tony Stanton can be contacted at tony@tennantdesign.co.nz