It is with great difficulty, I announce the untimely passing of an r/c multihull champion from the U.K. ? and a contributor and article writer whose vivid descriptions of sailing r/c multihulls offered the insight into their spectacular performance.
I was informed today of the passing of UK r/c Multihull veteran Mike Howell.
Mike had been an avid Tornado (Big cat) sailor for many years with multiple national wins credited to him. He also served for many years as Commodore of the British Model Multihull Association and was instrumental in providing me with information and copies of rules for the Mini40 Class upon which the US Formula 48 Class is based. He was a contributor to Marine Modeling, a Traplet Publication, and will live on in the multihull community for his trimaran design called ?SNAPDRAGON?. Mike?s more famous article has been published on several websites ? including the web managed by Alan Hayes, and it describes the thrill and excitement of sailing a multihull on a windy day. Mike had been instrumental in the development of the Mini 40 in the United Kingdom, and traveled extensively with his wife Avril. He often competed in France for their major r/c multihull regattas, and had developed a new 2 Meter design trimaran. During the past few years, he busied himself with r/c glider airplanes, a ?real? lap-strake type dinghy, and was just beginning to look at r/c schooners.
Even though we had our differences of opinion regarding the spin off of the F-48 Class, Mike was always willing to help and consider my new ideas, many of which he had already tried and proven to be worthless.
If you wish to offer condolences, please post here. At the end of June, I will forward them to his wife Avril.
Dick Lemke