AYRS ANNOUNCES THE WINNER OF
THE JOHN HOGG £1000 PRIZE COMPETITION 2007-8

Flex Foil is a unique omni-directional wind generator. It is made of cloth or similar flexible material, and can be mounted vertically or horizontally, and stored when not in use in a bag. Goodman originally intended it to be used on sailboats as an alternative means of charging batteries at anchor. He has noted also that its small size, portability and low-cost make it ideal for backpacking to remote areas, or for use anywhere small amounts of electricity are needed away form the power grid.
Flex Foil is not patented and Mr Goodman has placed the concept is in the public domain, but he retains design copyright in the USA and Europe.

Runners-Up

The runners-up are:

The AYRS John Hogg Prize

The AYRS John Hogg Prize is awarded in memory of John Hogg, the distinguished amateur yachting researcher, who died on July 24th 2000. The prize of £1000 was established to commemorate John’s life and work.

The aim of this international award is to encourage and recognise important contributions to the understanding and development of sailing performance, safety and endurance.

Jack Goodman

Prior to retiring for health reasons, Jack was an engineering consultant in the Washington DC (USA) area. Over 30 years time, he worked in the medical, fiber optic, materials and liquid handling, military and solar energy fields.
Designing and assembling all sorts of instruments and widgets, has left him with a lot of interesting hardware as well as a small machine shop. When sailing doesn’t get in the way, he likes to experiment with the fun things he never had time for. Besides the Flex Foil wind turbine, he is currently making a surface foil assisted catamaran dinghy and experimenting with vortex generators on the mast, in front of the main sail.
Jack was also responible for making a toy landyacht that travels directly downwind faster than the wind. A video of this device can be seen on YouTube.
He can be contacted on email at imaginationltd@aol.com.