Living , Modern

Duncan

MacLane

Duncan

1946 -

Duncan MacLane’s professional career has spanned more than 25 years, including nine years devoted to designing and consulting for four America’s Cup syndicates. He is president and CEO of MacLane Marine Designs. He was a key member of Dennis Conner’s successful Stars & Stripes ‘88 catamaran design and sailing team and played a major role in the design of Patient Lady V. Patient Lady V was described as “the best-behaved, best handling C-Cat I’d ever sailed,” by Le Rous Cogito, world-class Catamaran racer.

Honors and Accomplishments:

  • 1968-1971, Aqua Cat Class – National Champion – In addition to winning many regattas starting in 1963, won two junior championships and the senior championship four years consecutively before concentrating on C Class catamaran sailing and design development with the Patient Lady series
  • 1970-1985, Skipper for the Patient Lady team: C Class Cats, Patient Lady I-VI. Won International Catamaran Challenge Trophy ( “Little America’s Cup”): 1977 at Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club vs Australia, Miss Nicholas, 4-0 1978 at Roton Point vs Italy, Miss L, 4-0 1980 at Roton Point vs Italy, Signor G, 4-0 1982 at Roton Point vs Italy, Signor G, 4-0 Lost “Little America’s Cup” 1985 at Roton Point vs Australia, Victoria 150, 4-0 Won C Class World Championship – 1976
  • 1972, 1974, 1975, 1978 Won North American Championships
  • 1975 Started experimenting with a new downwind technique, deliberately sailing higher to try to fly a hull and reduce wetted surface drag.
  • 1975, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1985 Won Pacific Atlantic Match Race Trophy
  • 1975-1988+ Developed new style of high speed downwind sailing technique: This technique has now become the standard technique for downwind sailing on all high performance catamarans. In the beginning, many called it “ice boating” but it’s often referred to as “doing the wild thing”.
  • 1980-85 Perfected the downwind technique with Patient Lady IV and Patient Lady V, flying a hull downwind. We deliberately reduced stability to induce hull flying, thereby reducing wetted area drag, moving apparent wind forward of a-beam, building apparent wind speed, then sailing lower and faster than before. No other competitors used this technique.
  • 1981-1985 Co-Designer for the Patient Lady team
  • 1982-1996 Consultant to Bruce Kirby, Inc.
  • 1985-1987 Co-Designer for Heart of America. One of four-man design team for the 1987 America’s Cup Challenger in Freemantle, Australia: skipper Buddy Melges.
  • 1987-1988 Co-Designer for Stars & Stripes ’88; One of the core members of the six-man team for the catamaran defense of the America’s Cup in San Diego.
  • Skippered the wing-sailed catamaran all summer against Dennis Conner and in the U.S. trials; had a race record of 10-0 until wing-sailed Stars & Stripes ‘88 was chosen as the defender.
  • Sailed as crew for Dennis Conner in the America’s Cup races against the New Zealand challenger.
  • 1988 Brought this hull flying downwind technique to the Stars & Stripes ’88 campaign where it totally changed the downwind sail design program and dramatically improved the downwind VMG.
  • 1989-1991 Co-Designer for Altair XII: 32-foot wing sailed catamaran for Philippe Stern; skippered boat in fleet regatta at Morges and in Bol d’Or race.
  • 1993-1996 Designer and Skipper of “C” Class Catamaran, Cogito; Won International Catamaran Challenge Trophy for the fifth time in January, 1996 at McCrae YC, Australia, defeating Yellow Pages Edge, 4-0.
  • 1996-2000 Design Technology Project Manager for Young America
  • Member of Young America executive, and strategic planning committees
  • 2001-2002 Consultant to Team Dennis Conner Stars & Stripes
  • 2000-2003 Designer for ORMA Open 60’ Trimaran Gitana X
  • 2004 Skipper of “C” Class Catamaran, Cogito – Won International C-Class Catamaran Championship for the sixth time (“Little America’s Cup”) in September, 2004.
  • 2005-2006 Consultant to Mascalzone Latino
  • 2008-2010 Consultant to Alinghi
  • 2010 Measurer for International C Class Catamaran Championship, Newport, Rhode Island
  • 2010 Consultant to Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Mascalzone (the challenger of record for the 2013 America’s Cup)
  • 2010-Present Official Measurer for C-Class catamarans
  • 2013 Measurer for International C Class Catamaran Championship, Falmouth, England
  • Publications
  • 1990 The Engineering of the WingSail for Stars & Stripes, 1988 America’s Cup Defender Co-authored with David Hubbard and presented at the New England Sailing Yacht Symposium, March 1990.
  • 1997 The Cogito Project: Design and Development of an International C-Class Catamaran and Her Successful Challenge to Regain the Little America’s Cup Presented at the 13th Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Symposium, January 1997.
  • 2000 Selected as winner of Richards T. Miller Prize, best paper of the Symposium. Later published by SNAME in “Marine Technology”, October 2000.

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