Ian Hannay

Hailing from Edinburgh, and having the river Forth on his doorstep, Ian Hannay became a yachtsman from an early age and at 15 won the 1950 Junior Cadet Championship at the Royal Forth Yacht Club. That early win was the springboard to success that would see him enjoy two Olympic Dragon Class appearances in 1960 and 1972. At the Roma Games, Hannay, Graham Mann, and Jonathan Janson won the fifth race in Salamandar but could only finish seventh overall. At Kiel in 1972, Hannay crewed Royalist with Alistair Currey and London book publisher Simon Tait, the owner of the boat. They finished 12th despite finishing second in race two.

Hannay was an airline pilot with British Airways. He was also an inventor and submitted patents for several ideas. In the late 1960s and early-1970s he designed the “G Class” Galion boat, and in 1978 he built his first boat, “QED”, from the garage of his Hampshire home. The following year, Hannay tried his hand at aircraft design for the Royal Aeronautical Society´s Light Aeroplane Competition.