I have always been a big fan of the Olympic Tornado and have a big poster of the Tornado in my office and at home. I was amazed to see how well the Tornado did in the Steeplechase and that a 30-year-old design can be so fast. I know it has a new rig, etc. but still I take my hat off to the person who designed it originally. He must of been ahead of his time!

It would be interesting to learn more about the history of the Tornado.

Hi Surf

Looked under the designer and found this site -http://www.aussailing.com.au/tornado/history.htm

The T guys are more updated on T-history ,-but look up Rodney Marsh catamarans for other related sites .
If you can find some older cat sailing books by Reg White -
-U K catsailor he has interesting insight and stories of early cat design constructed in B Class and C Class ---fun reading of some of the history of those earlier cat classes

The excellent T design came from having a competitive development type class in basic B Class specs -
Racers and designers developed cocepts ideas and kept improving better versions of them ,-The T resulted ,-still excellent almost perfect design features in balance .

The M-20 may be the only current semi active comperable cat ,--that due to modern lightweight building method.
Time for more and a future formula HT 20 CLASS to allow similar excellent design to be created ,tested and raced .

Carl

Check out: www.tornadouk.com and www.tornado.tc

In a 1997 interview with Sailing World
Meade Gougeon: "Well here comes Rodeney March, somebody nobody had ever heard of, and he hits the nail right on the head. The Tornado, even in todays world, is an lmost perfect boat.......
Anyway, March takes the concept, gets the boards, rudders and rig right, then goes off and nobody ever heard of him again."

I'd love to own one, however, finding one for sale is difficult.

Mr. Marsh was undobtedly known as a brilliant designer before designing the tornado.
Also he didn't disappear afterwards. He designed the fiberglass version for Panther Craft. Then the Dart. He has just kept a low profile.
When the tornado('67?) came out , no one knew how to build a glass version at min. weight.. Foam sandwich constuction wasn't evolved enough at that time to do a good enough job.
the privately made wood boats were winning the worlds from time to time as the glass versions developed. Then the the Zutec structurally designed wood/epoxy boats dominated for a while. Now the prepreg/honeycomb/epoxy boats can't be beat, and are actually considered heavy for that type of construction.

Have a look at :

web page1

and

web page2

Yes the Tornado is an impressive piece of work. It was descended from a C Class boat also designed by Rodney March(Marsh) called "Thunder".

How about a Tornado with the new rig and all carbon fiber construction like the M20? This would probably keep all-up weight < 300 #. That might show a DPN < 55.

David Ho
TheMightyHobie18 1067

Speaking of Carbon Fibre, I thought this was of interest.
Chris S.

December 17, 2002
EU Imposes $83M in Fines for Price-Fixing


BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Commission on Tuesday fined 11 companies $83 million in two separate

price-fixing scandals involving graphite and spices.

In the graphite cartel, eight companies were assessed a total of 60.6 million euro ($62.4 million)for

violating EU competition rules between 1993 and 1998.

The Commission said that a two-year investigation found that the companies held regular meetings to divvy up

the market and keep prices at inflated levels. Specialty graphites are used in everything from engineering to

electronics.

Germany's SGL Carbon AG received the highest fine of 27.75 million euro ($28.57 million), while Japan's Toyo

Tanso must pay 10.79 million euro ($11.11 million).

Other fines levied include 6.97 million euro ($7.18 million) for France's Carbon Lorraine SA, 6.97 million

euro ($7.18 million) for Japan's Tokai Carbon Co., and 3.58 million euro ($3.69 million) for Ibiden Co. and

Nippon Steel Chemical Co. also of Japan. Another two Japanese firms, Itech and Intech Inc. were fined 980,000

euro ($1 million).

SGL's fine was the highest ``because it was the ringleader,'' the Commission said, while the other companies

got reductions in exchange for their cooperation in the probe. U.S.-based GraphTech International Ltd. was

given immunity ``because it revealed the cartel,'' the Commission said.

http://www.sailcrac.com

In the classifieds!

Rodney March did design the Dart 18, 15 & 20. Two of these are still extremely successful in the UK and Europe.