Interview
4 Nigel Macknight is the initiator and leader of the Quicksilver World Water Speed Record Challenge project, and he will also take the controls of the craft for its trials, development runs and record attempts. Jon Severn discussed with him some of the management issues that arise when leading a project that breaks many of the rules normally applied in the field of engineering.
4 Nigel Macknight est l’instigateur et le leader du projet Quicksilver World Water Speed Record Challenge (record mondial de vitesse sur l’eau), et prendra également les commandes du navire à travers ses essais, ses courses et ses tentatives de record. Jon Severn s’est entretenu avec lui de certains problèmes de gestion susceptibles de survenir lors d’un projet qui s’affranchit des règles courantes du secteur de l’ingénierie.
4 Nigel Macknight ist der Initiator und Führer des Quicksilver World Water Speed Record Challenge Projekts, und er übernimmt auch die Kontrolle über das Wasserfahrzeug für die Tests, die Entwicklung und die Rekordversuche. Jon Severn diskutierte mit ihm einige der Management-Themen, die sich auftun, wenn man ein Projekt, das viele Regeln, die normalerweise im Bereich der Konstruktion gelten, bricht, leitet.
How to manage a world speed record project
C
onventional engineering projects have fixed budgets and teams of engineers to undertake the design and see it through prototyping, development and production. Some
individuals are able to secure lucrative sponsorship for world record projects and, therefore, can follow a similar route. However, the Quicksilver World Water Speed Record Challenge, led by Nigel Macknight (Fig. 1), is more typical in that there is no set budget, just very limited financial resources. And rather than a team of full-time employed engineers, individuals give freely of their spare time, and companies donate expertise and other resources - referred to by Macknight as ‘support in-kind’. This situation introduces difficulties beyond the
usual engineering problems; for example, progress can only be as fast as the limited resources allow, which restricts planning to little more than defining the critical path, and Macknight has had to manage the transition from one chief designer to another - which resulted in a major redesign. Furthermore, given the current state of the world economy, support in-kind is more difficult to source. Nevertheless, Macknight remains appreciative
of what Quicksilver has received, saying: “Without contributions of components, materials and services from companies, free of charge, as well as contributions of expertise from private individuals, we could not operate. We would need a Richard Branson budget - and I’m not Richard Branson! - nor do we have a wealthy benefactor hovering in the wings to pick up the bills. We are a small, independent team of volunteers reliant upon offers of design and engineering assistance, however small. “The design and engineering support we have
had thus far ranges from people undertaking CAD/ CAE design work, to large firms such as BOC doing thousands of pounds’ worth of TIG welding. In between those two extremes, small and medium.”
Finding funding
Although the Quicksilver project benefits enormously from support in-kind, there are always things that need to be paid for. Even with overheads kept to an absolute minimum, Macknight describes the financial side of the project as a roller-coaster ride. “The fundamental problem is that there is no model that I have ever seen which creates profit-making circumstances for a speed-record team. The very large companies, with the very large promotional budgets, don’t tend to opt for
Fig. 1. Nigel Macknight is the initiator and leader of the Quicksilver World Water Speed Record Challenge project.
“What has been our saviour is the Quicksilver Corporate Club - our official supporters’ club. This is a low-cost sponsorship package for small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed people. It costs a one-off fee of £395 to join, and for that they get their name on the boat, a framed membership certificate, and free access for themselves and their guests at the special events we stage at regular intervals. We now have 350 members, and although the revenues we generate from that are tiny if applied in the real world, to us, in the world we inhabit with a small and very lean voluntary organisation, it is a significant input.” On the subject of finances, Macknight makes
a clear distinction between the project - the roots of which extend back some 20 years - and the company that was formed in support of it: “The recession took its toll. With already limited revenues falling rapidly as a result of the financial squeeze, the original Quicksilver company could no longer maintain its overdraft facility with the bank and it ceased trading in 2008. The Quicksilver project itself went on regardless, because it had existed as
www.engineerlive.com 7
speed-record bids as platforms. There are so many variables in what we do, and so much uncertainty as to the ultimate outcome, that the big budgets tend to go, instead, to activities and sports more likely to deliver a predictable outcome and a positive result. Second place in a major tennis tournament or in the F1 World Championship - or even third place - is a decent outcome. But there is no second place, nor third place, in the speed-record world. You either win Gold, or you win nothing.
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