Lock Crowther

Lock Crowther (9 September 1940[1]–1993; first name by birth Lachlan[2]) was an Australian multihull sailboat designer. He grew up in Bairnsdale in the East Gippsland region of Victoria.[2] Though his first name was Lachlan by birth, he insisted on being called Lock or Lockie.[2]

Lock Crowther
Born(1940-09-09)9 September 1940
Brighton, Victoria, Australia
OccupationShip Designer
ChildrenBrett Crowther

Career

Lock and his family[2] built his first boat, a trimaran called Bunyip, in 1959 while he was still a teenager. In 1960 he raced in the Easter regatta at Paynesville, Victoria, Australia, and won against a field of 300 boats. This initial success inspired others to build similar boats. Crowther then studied electrical engineering in Melbourne[2] and in the early 1960s became involved in multihull design and the Amateur Yacht Research Society.[3] In 1962 Trio was built based upon his designs.[2][4]

Crowther's next design was the Kraken 25, garnering some recognition.[3] Later, Lockie decided to give up his day job in Melbourne and move to Sydney to design multihulls full-time.[2]

In 1969, a Kraken 40 won the New York to Bermuda race with him aboard.[3] Crowther's first offshore racing trimaran, Bandersnatch, won the Sydney to Hobart multihull race in 1996.[3]

Legacy

During Crowther's career, over 2500 of his designs were built.[3] A notable design was the trimaran Spirit of America, an early user of GRP-foam sandwich construction featuring composite beams with unidirectional fibres and turned-down ends. Crowther also developed 'bulbous bows' to reduce pitching, and thus increase speed when sailing upwind in a swell.

After Crowther's death in 1993, Crowther Designs was run by his son, Brett.[3] Based in northern Sydney, it merged with Incat Designs - Sydney in 2005[5] to form Incat Crowther.[6] Some Crowther designs are now offered[7] through Melbourne-based Bloomfield Innovation, run by a former associate.

Designs

Please note this list is incomplete.

See also

References
  1. Gary Maskiell. "Paynesville Maritime Museum Journal issue 5" (PDF). Lachlan Russel Crowther was born on 9 September 1940 in Brighton, Victoria.
  2. Howard Stephenson. "Trimarans on the Gippsland Lakes". Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2015. Lock Crowther taught me a lot about how boats were designed and stimulated my interest in learning more. His real name was Lachlan, but he couldn't stand it, and insisted on being called Lock, or Lockie. I knew him slightly from our home town, Bairnsdale. In 1960 or 1961 we ended up by coincidence in the same Melbourne boarding-house. We were both part-time students. As Lockie had a car, he would sometimes give me a ride home to Bairnsdale for the weekend. On one of these weekends home I went to Paynesville, about 15 Km from Bairnsdale, on the Gippsland Lakes. This was one of my favourite places, because of the boats there.
  3. "Crowther Design". Multihull Maven.
  4. Andrew Griffiths. "The Historic Lock Crowther Kraken & Bunyip Open Trimarans". In Australia, Lock Crowther was focused on trimaran design, and after building and racing the original Bunyip in 1959, and designing a further two boats including Trio in 1962, Lock decided to build a C-class trimaran.
  5. "Incat Designs (Sydney) and Crowther Designs merge". Marinelog.com. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  6. "Current details for ABN: 23 104 658 791". Australian Government.
  7. "Multihull Sailboats".
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