May 12, 2012

Frank Bethwaite 1920 - 2012

by Doug
Frank Bethwaite - March 2012
Frank was the most remarkable man I have ever met. 

Sail World

6 comments:

  1. So sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. I only knew him through his book High Performance Sailing which is an amazing treasure trove of information about so many aspects of sailing. He certainly was a remarkable man.

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  2. I too have read and have his book High Performance Sailing. A special man from a great family. Every time I see a Tasar, I will remember all he has done for us all.

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  3. Thanks for your kind thoughts.

    This morning I was sharing some memories with Pam. One was about some of Frank's early wind tunnel experiments, where calipers below the tunnel would measure a model's lift and drag. But some models were bigger or required a higher speed, so Frank would attach them to the roof of his car and then would take a young Julian out for a drive. I have no idea what the tests were or how they were measuring it, but I do remember Julian's hair being blown straight back when they returned.

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  4. The above picture was taken on March 22, 2012. Frank was telling us about his new book and he printed out and gave us the chapter on Lasers. We just found this picture that was taken later that day of him doing his experiments out the car window.

    http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=97200&refre=y&ntid=0&rid=4

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  5. I remember reading in Frank's book about how he also towed hulls of various shapes around in the water to measure drag. The experiments war so sensitive that they picked up a difference in drag between two hulls that should have been identical but weren't because one still had "road film" on it from being trailered 200 miles and the other one had been washed. The film was invisible to the eye, but it made a difference in drag. Always reminded me of the importance of a clean bottom!

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