AYRS Zoom meeting – Presentation by Alan Smith

Our next Amateur Yacht Research Society Zoom meeting will be on 8th May 2021 at 20:00 BST – Note that this is half an hour later than usual.  For this meeting we have a presentation by Alan Smith about the development of sails, which is a slight change of subject from our previous announcment, the dynamics of foiling yachts will probably be for some future occasion.  Alan has asked me to circulate a hand out in advance of this meeting, so this is a link:

https://www.ayrs.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-05-08-Hand-out-for-Alan-Smith-talk-on-sails.pdf

Alan lives about 100 miles NE of Melbourne in Australia and because of the time difference Alan will join the meeting at around 20:30 BST, this is still very early morning for him. I am sure we can find something to talk about in the half hour before Alan joins the meeting.

Alan joined the AYRS at the Earls Court boat show in 1960.  At that time he was working as the liaison engineer to the British army for the Australian Malkara anti tank weapon. Then in 1966/1967 he studied for an MSc in aircraft stability and control at Cranfield, his thesis was on yacht dynamics. In 1967 he sailed with Tom Vaughan in International 14’s, mainly at Richmanswoth, and he raced in the Prince of Wales week out of Cowes. He worked with Tom and Jeremy Pudney to modernise the International 14 and to incorporate the Australian 14 ft skiff class.  Alan’s professional life was developing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and he regards Nulka as the high point, this being an Australian built anti-missile decoy system. Alan considers that there is a strong synergy between his professional life and his longstanding interest in fast sailing.

You can join this meeting by clicking on this link (or copying and pasting it into your browser):

https://zoom.us/j/2536740617?pwd=VFdMOGxWRDNzK1Z4NkxpTkU1a3ZUZz09
If you need it (you shouldn’t do if you use the link above), the Meeting ID is: 253 674 0617 and the Passcode is: ayrs

(We are setting a simple password for these meetings because this avoids people having to go into a waiting room before joining the meeting)

Remember that AYRS meetings, both conventional meetings and on-line meetings, are open to all, so do feel free to pass these details to friends who may be interested.

Again – note that this meeting will start half an hour later than usual (although I will log in at the usual time just in case that message has not reached everyone!)