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.

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!

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!