1987 Don Shead - Powerboat Archive

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eteoric would be a fair
way to describe the career
of a man who started
sailing Cadet dinghies,
.l- Y I- progressed to world domination
of offshore powerboat racing
and who is now designing gas turbine
propelled luxury motor yachts fit for
Klngs.
At 51, Don Shead is at the forefront
of a new. era in high speed power
boat design. Twenty years ago, any
craft capable of 50 knots would either
belong -to a oary or be considered a
breakthrough in offshore powerboating.
Now private yachts of 100ft (3Om;
or more, with all the luxurious trimmings
of more sedate vessels, can
break the 50 knot barrier. Lightweight
aluminium construction, and extra
boost from compact gas turbine
engines driving water jets, have provided
the glamour yachts of the Riviera
with race boat oerformance.
King Juan Carlos of Spain, hungry
for luxury at speed, was one of the
first to indulge in the gas turbine
experience with Fortuna, a Sheaddesigned
95-footer capable of more
than 50 knots. Shead was later
involved with the conceptual planning
of the Aga Khan's even faster Sbergar,
built by Lurssen of Bremen in Germany
and fitted with three gas turbines.
Shead's fascination with high speed
offshore craft stems from his student
days at Aston Technical College, in
Birmingham, where he studied
engineering. From his Cadet, on the
south coast of England, he continued
sailing at college in Fireflies and Mer-
Iin Rockets, but he was soon drawn to
the high speed world of hydroplane
and runabout racing.
\fith a family house on Cowes
waterfront, almost next door to the
Iate Sir Max Aitken's residence, the
mooting of an offshore powerboat
race from the Solent to Torquay soon
caught Shead's attention. He iook pan
in the first race in the Colin Mudiedesigned
Blue Marlin and later had
the Sony Levi-designed Trident 23
built before teaming up with the
Gardner brothers of Surfurv fame for
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Once an all-conquering powerboat ra,cing driuer,
Don Sbead nou concentrates on designing higb
speed super yachts. Dauid Glenn reports
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an assault on the Miami-Nassau offshore
classic in the early 1960s. The
attemDt. in which Shead was to take
the Souter-built Delta 28, was a disaster.
"I wasn't at all happy with the boat,
so I decided to give up my engineering
business and set up designing
boats on my own," recalls Shead. It
was a brave move because the existing
business was centred on the now ubiquitous
automatic, self-opening door,
which Shead designed.
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SUCCESS OFFSHORE
This led to a hair-taising era racing
mono-hulled circuit racing boats, during
which, in 1.967, he broke the lap
record at the Paris 6-hour race no less
than five times. A controversial race,
Shead was placed 2nd, pipped by a
fast Frenchman.
In the same year he met Tommy
Soowith. an association which led to
astonishing success in oflshore racing.
The pair started on a high with the
revolutionary Telstar, a Shead design,
powered by a single 500hp ((373k\7)
Dayona engine, driving one of the
first ever surface propellers. In appalling
weather conditions, the little boat
was first home in the 1968 Cowes-
Torquay powerboat tace at an average
speed of iust 32 knots. Capable of 70
knots, Telstar was way ahead of her
time in terms of engineering and
design.
The following year, Sopwith commissioned
Shead to design the 91ft
(27'7m) deep vee motor yacht
Pbilante V1, built by Camper & Nicholsons.
Despite this move to larger
yachts, Shead's career in offshore racing
was about to enter a five-year golden
era. He met up with John
Goulandris, who owned a company
called Enfield Marine, which specialised
in building aluminium hulls.
The first Class I offshore Dowerboats
to be built to Shead's designs were
Miss Enfield I and Miss Enfield 11, the
second of which was re-named Enfield
Auenger. This boat was then bought by
two of the most colourful figures in
powerboat racing, Ronnie Hoare, who
owned the Ferrari distributorship in
the UK, and Harry Hyams, millionaire
property developer of Centre Point
iame. Thev named their boat
UNOWOT, Iater to become UNO
fmbasq)
Degan.
as the sponsorship bonanza
Over a five-year period Shead
heloed the boat to two Cowes-
Torbuav-Cowes offshore wins and succ()NllNl,EI)
()N PAGE 105
Left, Sbead in his Fareham ffice. In tbe foreground, a model of a j5-knot, 98-footer
G8m) beinp built at Brooke Yacbts, Below, tbe Malibu 17, latest in tbe Sunseeker range
OCTOBER, 1987 103

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cess in every European offshore
championship race. By 7976 they had
achieved more than any other racer in
Europe and, as a result, the Italians,
Shead's biggest rivals in man) races,
came clamouring for his designs.
The Viareggio-based company, Cuv,
has been building successful racers to
his design ever since and at least a
third of the Eurooean offshore fleet is
now made un of Shead boats which
have notched-up 10 European Championships.
At the last count, out of more
than 1,000 major grand prix races ever
run, Shead's boats have taken 140 of
them, his nearest design rival being
the late Don Arronow of America, with
neadv 100.
By'now, production boat builders
wanted to exoloit Shead's talent. Halmatic
subsequentlv built hundreds of
DS110 pow6rboats and Nautor, the
Finnish firm better known for the
Swan sailing yachts, built 11 motor
yachts between 40ft and 47ft (12'2m
and I4.3m) in length. This project was
stopped when Oy rW/ilh Schauman
bought the company.
Today, the highly successful firm of
Sunseeker International use Shead
designs exclusively. In eight years he
has produced some 15 different boas
for the company, the latest being a
47-footer (74.3m) called the Malibu.
Shead's involvement with larger
yachts continued in the late 1970s
when offshore racing rival Dr Carlo
Bonomi from Italy commissioned a
125ft (38m) Picchiotti-built yacht called
Solhaire of tbe Isles. "The yacht's well
known in the Med and Carlo still owns
her, which I hope says something for
my design," beams Shead.
His fascination for gas turbine
power stemmed from his racing days
when Mis Emba,ssy was powered with
an experimental unit. Salt spray played
Tttis olfsbore powerboat, builr by tbe ltalian.firm Cuu, is a typical deep-uee Don Shead
design. Seaeral similar craft took part in the recent Ancasta Cowes Classic race
havoc with the turbine blades originally,
but design improvements have
eliminated the oroblems. "For ultimate
performance turbine engines are the
only alternative," claims Shead. King
Juan Carlos's yacht was built by Palmer
lohnson in America in complete secrecy
and launched in 7979. She is fitted
with two 'low speed' diesels which
will take the vacht uo to 27 knots. At
this stage the Lycoming gas turbine
engine can be cut in to take the vessel
uD to more than 50 knots.
-A11 the power units drive through
KaMe\ra water iets, a system which
does away with external propellers
and, in terms of loadings, poses far
fewer engineering problems.
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GAS TURBINE YACHT
The conceptual study for the Aga
Khan's Sbergar, another gas turbine
yacht, was completed four years ago,
and there are several other remarkable
projects on the drawing board of
Shead's Fareham office for fast,
turbine-oowered vachts.
The demise of 'souter of Cowes, Isle
of Vight, last year, delayed the launch
of rwo motor yachts from Shead's
board. Souter had managed to complete
Pbilante VIII (another Shead
design) for Tommy Sopwith before
they ran into difficulties but, until a
consortium of owners formed a comoanv
called Lifeline to finish the boats
iney naa commissioned the yard to
build, the Greek owned Argoljmne, a
1.Z4-footer (38m; also by Shead,
couldn't take to the water. She was
eventually launched last winter and is
now in the Mediterranean.
Another Shead boat trapped at Souter,
a ll4ft (25m) luxury yacht, has
been shipped to the recently revived
Brooke Yachs in Lowestoft where she
will be completed. \fith a big infection
of capital by the American comPany
LeBow Industries Inc, Brooke are the
only big motor yacht building concern
in the UK. Interestingly, the yard is
also due to build a 98ft (30m) Shead
yacht. Fitted with a gas turbine-dieselwater
jet combination, she will be
capable of 35 knots and represent
Shead's latest sq,ling trends.
These may well be influenced by a
special design project he has undertaken
for a 70-knot, 50ft (15m) yacht,
the protoqpe of which is being built
in the UK. Details of this high speed
luxury yacht are still on the secret list,
but 'Shead could reveal that a
revolutionary plastics and aluminium
composite construction is being planneo.
with other work underway on the
Continent, particularly in SPain,
Shead's five-man team in Fareham is
busy. As yachts get bigger and faster,
there is no doubt that his belief in
aluminium construction and lightweight,
gas turbine power units, is
going to result in some remarkable
launchings over the next few years. I
Flying bridge detail of Argolynne, one of
tbe last yacbtsfrom tbe Souter yard
OCTOBER, 1987 105