Lorne Campbell - Class 3 Offshore Racing designs.
 
Lorne Campbell ommission was apprenticed to Vosper Ltd, specialists in fast patrol boats and other military craft, in 1965 and attended Newcastle University and Portsmouth Polytechnic. Campbell was interested in fast powerboats even before his teens and his design hero was Commander Peter DuCane of Vosper; the pre-eminent UK designer of that period. The other power craft designers of the time that he rated highly were Sonny Levi, Ray Hunt, Jim Wynne and Bob Hobbs. (See our designers section).
After spending time in the Hovercraft design office at Vosper Campbell moved to Fairey Marine (leisure, military and commercial power craft) and then Rotork Marine (commercial and military power craft). In 1977 he helped to set up Capoco Design, a contract design company covering the Marine and Automotive worlds, with Alan Ponsford and, in 1981, started Lorne Campbell Design to concentrate solely on marine power craft. It is the period from the early 1980's to the 1990's that this article will concentrate on, Campbell's Class 3 multi hull designs.
After having had some degree of success designing a couple of wooden multihulls for The Countess of Arran in the 1970's Campbell took his first commission to design a hull for Class 3C, a series using 2 litre Mercury / Mariner Outboards.
 
The boat was a 21' wooden catamaran built by Gordon Wright and commissioned  by the popular Class 3 racers Jo and Peter Marenghi in the winter of 1982. At this same time however, Campbell had been putting his trimaran design ideas into practice with an American project named Triton.
As soon as the Marenghi's saw pictures of the Triton hull, they then shelved the nearly built 21' cat and instructed a 3C trimaran!
Gordon Wright was the builder of this 21' boat, Langan's Brasserie, it made its Class 3 debut in June of 1983 at the Peter Stuyvesant Great Yarmouth Trophy. Or, rather it didn't, it flipped over in the mustering area!
The boat had a mainly poor first year after that, mainly due to the fact as well as running a revolutionary new hull shape, the Marenghi's were also experimenting with a new outboard - a Yamaha 140. The 4 cylinder Japanese engine could not compete with the dominate V6 Mercury / Mariner power which was owning the class.

Langan's Brasserie 1984 -with Mercury power.

Poco Homes 1985 - Already a class champion courtesy Graham Stevens.
Come the winter of 1983, the Class 3C racer Steve Bourne was advised by Class 3 legend Peter Bloomfield to swap his Phantom 21' hull for the shelved Marenghi catamaran sitting unpainted, un rigged in Gordon Wright's shop in Windsor, and this is where the Campbell Class 3 success story starts in the 1980's!
Poco Homes would win the 1984 and 1985 National Class 3C Championships, rough or smooth it was a winner, with engineering from Chris Lewis, it rarely missed a beat, but a lighter version of Poco Homes, Miss Fitz, driven by Alan Gory debuted in 1985 and in the flat was unstoppable! Class 3C racers were taking notice! Gory was running a rotational navigator - and they were making big mistakes, but he was still catching up with the front runners and even winning races!
Come late 1985 Gordon Wright' s order books were full for new 3C hulls, (four in total), Birmingham boat builder Ron Wolbold was commissioned to build a 3C and 3D hull and a Class 3B Campbell design was being built in Guernsey for Peter Wilson.
The 3C boats by Gordon Wright in the winter of 1985/6 were a progression of Poco Homes and Miss Fitz, but all four boats had their own design differences, Neil Holmes' hull Power Prime looking the more "radical".
Mark Unwin would take Too Paralytic to Norway and win the Class 3C World Championship, the first British driver to have done it! On the domestic scene the Campbell cats won races, but Steve Bourne was to hold the Class 3C National championship for a third time swapping Poco Homes for a Cougar hull.
These Class 3C Campbell cats would continue to be successful race boats in the class for many years to come, under new owners, many trophies were gained, and incredibly all four boats are still around at the time of writing, 20 something years later!
 

Vladivar built in 1988 by Gordon Wright driven by Alistair Mcnulty - courtesy Graham Stevens.
 

Fina 1988 - Built by Gordon Wright - 3D World Champion - courtesy Graham Stevens.

Fina 1989 - Built by Midas Marine - 3D World Champion - courtesy Graham Stevens.
 
In 1988 we were to see the first of Lorne Campbell's Class 3D designs built by Gordon Wright. Howard Wretham had already had a Campbell design built by Ron Wolbold in 1986, and campaigned it well.
Neil Holmes had raced Power Prime in 1986 and 1987, with some success, in a very competitive class. Holmes who owned a Mercury Marine center, South Godstone Sports Boats, had served his apprenticeship with Ray Stapley. He had engine knowledge, race savvy and moreover had learned catamaran design ideas from Stapley's 1970's hulls.
With sponsorship from Fina and a central heating company Power Prime, Holmes commissioned Campbell to design him a Class 3D hull, the boat again being built by Gordon Wright, but this time Holmes had asked for his own idea on deck design to be used. He a likened it to the shape of a Coca Cola bottle, feeling that it would reduce the impact of side winds on the cat. You can see the difference above between Fina and the other 3D hull, Vladivar produced by Campbell / Wright in the winter of 1987.
Fina romped home to victory in her maiden race at Portsmouth, it was only when the boat was recovered from the water that it was noticed that extensive damage had been suffered, a split right down the hull! It was quickly repaired and Neil Holmes went on to win the 3D National Championship and more importantly his first World Championship, his first of 4 in class 3D using Campbell designed boats!
 

Carryfast 1992 - Built by Midas Marine 3C World Champion- courtesy Graham Stevens.
 
In 1992 Tony Jenvey was to win the 3C World Championship held in Swansea. Using the new bread of Campbell designed 3C Hull, 27' in length he would fight off a fierce challenge from the quick Aluminium mono hulls produced by Forgecraft.
 

Lorne Campbell Class 3 World Championships
Class 3C 1986,1992
Class 3D 1988,1989,1992,1994
 

Lorne Campbell Class 3 European Championships
Class 3C  
Class 3D 1986,1989
 

Lorne Campbell Class 3 National Championships
Class 3C 1984,1985,1987,1992
Class 3D 1988,1989,
 
Lorne Campbell UK Class 3 Multihulls 1982 - 1993 courtesy Graham Stevens / Lorne Campbell / Little Nige

Built

 Original Boat Name Class Builder Hull Length Photo

1982

 Total Confusion 3B Aggie Hewlett Tri 17' (5.18m)

1982

 Langan's Brasserie 3C Wright Tri 23.5' (7.16m)

1983

 Poco Homes 3C Wright Catamaran 21' (6.40m)

1984

 Miss Fitz 3C Wright Catamaran 21' (6.40m)

1985

 Express 3D Blu-Fin Catamaran 25' (7.62m)

1985

 Shy Tot 7 3B Aggie Hewlett Catamaran 18' (5.49m)

1985

 Too Paralytic 3C Wright Catamaran 21' (6.40m)

1985

 Pride of De Vere 3C Wright Catamaran 21' (6.40m)

1985

 Power Prime 3C Wright Catamaran 21' (6.40m)

1985

 Langan's Brasserie 3C Wright Catamaran 21' (6.40m)

1985

 First raced 1988 Ciao! 3C Blu-Fin Catamaran 21' (6.40m)

1987

 FINA the Right Formula 3D Wright Catamaran 25' (7.62m)

1987

 Vladivar 3D Wright Catamaran 25' (7.62m)

1987

 SGL-Jet 1 3C Midas Tri 22' (6.71m)

1988

 FINA Unleaded 3D Midas Catamaran 26' (7.92m)

1989

 Cowards Way / Carryfast 1 3C Wright Catamaran 22' (6.71m)

1989

 SGL-Jet 2 3D Midas Tri 26.5' (8.08m)

1990

 Just Add Water 3D Malcolm Weeks Tri 28' (8.53m)

1991

 Carryfast II 3C Midas Catamaran 27' (8.23m)

1992

 Shakespeare 3B Shakespeare Catamaran 20' (6.10m)

1993

 Turning Point 3C Wright Catamaran 27' (8.23m)

1993

 RNR Motors 3C Wright Catamaran 27' (8.23m)