I meant to mention, L F Herreshoff in his book on yacht design (Sensible Cruising Design?) mentioned that his uncle James had built model boats run by windmill.
In Bray's "Herreshoff of Bristol" on page 142 is a photo of a mindmill boat dating to 1904. Caption:
" NGH's oldest brother James conceived the idea for a propeller-in-the-air driving a propeller-in-the-water around 1850 and according to his nephew L Francis, put it to use on model boats. Here is a big version that NGH's children rigged up on an old skiff to see if the idea would work at full size. L Francis claimed that the models would perform only in strong winds, at which time they'd go to windward faster than a conventional model sailing yacht of the same size. How [well] this skiff sailed remains a mystery. "
Craig O'Donnell
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