Crusader Designed for speed

I bumped a Laurent Giles masterpiece for this… forgive me, but this series is about great designs and to limit that to sailing yachts seems remiss, so here is an inspirational and often overlooked craft: Crusader.

The Vospers-built boat was designed by British high-speed craft pioneer Commander Peter du Cane for one of the original speed kings, John Cobb, to win the outright World Water Speed Record. Barry Stobart Hook’s excellent book, the launch of 15 years before Campbell’s fateful crash was one of the first steps in a long and deadly design evolution that for now has culminated in Ken Warby’s at 317.58mph.