When I read this is when it really struck home that maybe boats could use wings both as solar collectors and use them to sail. If it seems fantastic, consider that one hundred and twenty years ago industry depended on sailing ships. For the last hundred and twenty years, we’ve been using fossil fuel motors for industry but it is potentially logical that we will exit this century with totally different technology. Just as the clipper ship captains would have rolled their eyes at the idea of today’s diesel-powered ships, I know many are doubtful about the idea of ships sailing around on solar and wind power. But wind and the sun represent two most abundant forces on the ocean.

So right there on the plane I started drawing pictures of a boat, putting wings on it, and doing a rough calculations. I put the book on the seat in front of me on the plane and then forgot to take it with me when I left the plane. I came back and found the hostess and I tell her, "Look, can I get my book back?" I went through a crazy thing where I thought, "What if the guy cleaning the plane picks up the book, takes a look, figures it out, then goes ahead and patents it."

Well, that didn’t happen but I did spend ten days on board a boat and while vacationing convincing myself that what I was doing was absolutely valid. I went to my wife after the holiday and said, "Look, this is driving me nuts. I think I can win next year’s solar boat race because I can build a better boat. Every doctor my age has a hobby. What about if I spend a little bit of money, darling, and see where this goes?"

She encouraged me so off I went to a patent attorney. I had a partner who had just come into my medical practice. Before too long, one day he walked and I said, "How would you like to buy the whole practice? I want to go and do this solar boat thing."

So I sold my practice and it was in the local paper, that I was off to Sydney to work on a solar boat project. This prompts a call from a lady named Marjorie Kendall. I didn’t know Marjorie but her mother was a patient of mine. Her name was Lilly, lived in a nursing home, and was a ninety nine year old lady who’d sacked every doctor she’d had. One day a nurse said, "We’ve got to have a doctor on the book." So I go and say, "Hello." She snarls, "You young doctors." She’s had mild heart failure, emphysema. You name it, she’s got it. She wouldn’t take any medication for any of them. But she was tough. I would pop in and see here every now and then, more a social chat that I’d use as an excuse to examine her.

Well, Lily’s daughter Marjorie rings me and says, "I read that you’re doing this thing with solar boats." I’m seventy six years old myself and I love solar. I’m solarizing my dairy farm for my children. You’ve got to come out and see my solar pump."

So I get out there and I realize that the solar pump she had was moving and tracking the sun. Also, it was exactly the same size as the wings that I envisioned for the boat that I was planning to enter in April’s race. I’m standing there and there was a pipe with water coming out like a fire hose. It was unbelievable. I’m standing there thinking, "This is going to work."

Marjorie says, "How are you going to get started?" I explain it to her and she says, "Well, where are you going to get the money?" I told here that I was going to try to get some sponsorship. She said, "No you’re not. You’re going to form a company and I’m going to be your first shareholder. How much money do you need?"

Next, I went around and saw my surfboard guy and said, "Can we build wings that have solar panels on them?" He said, "We can do anything. No worries." Then I realized that that’s what he said to everything. If you said, "Can we fly to the moon?", his response would be, "We can do anything!" I guess I was delusionally encouraged by this.

He had a friend who was working in a pub pouring beer, a hobby train enthusiast, who would take a photo of an old locomotive, make a mold, pour the soft metal and make an unbelievable model just from a picture. Between all these guys, we started work on the boat.