Biography
Callahan a university degree in Philosophy. A naval architect by training, Callahan has designed and built boats, taught design, lived aboard, raced, and cruised boats of all kinds. Since the 1980s, he has also written widely for the yachting press worldwide, has been a contributing editor to Sail and Sailor magazines, senior editor of Cruising World, has authored Adrift and Capsized, the story of four men who drifted for four months on an overturned, half-flooded boat. He's also lectured widely and contributed to a number of other books on design, seamanship, and survival.
He holds three U.S. patents: a drogue-like boat stability and directional-control device (Patent No. 6684808); a Folding Rigid-Inflatable Boat (FRIB) (Patent No. 6367404); and a Folding Rigid-bottom Boat (FRB) (Patent No. 6739278). The initial model FRIB, called "The Clam" was developed on the basis of his survival experience. The Clam is a multifunction self-rescue dinghy, designed for use as a proactive lifeboat (as well as a yacht tender) that allows the sailor to sail to safety.
Callahan asserts that "It certainly would be nice to have a completely different kind of raft now, what the French call a "Dynamic" raft, meaning the thing sails. The last time I lost my boat, had I been able to beam reach, I could have shortened my drift from 1,800 miles to 450; had I been able to sail even dead downwind but increase speed to a moderate 2.5 knots, I would have been afloat 25 days rather than 76; had I been able to do both I would have sailed to safety in a mere 6 or 7 days." (From "The Life Raft: Don't Leave Your Ship Without It," Ocean Navigator magazine. )
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