Ben Lexcen
Encyclopedia
Ben Lexcen AM
born Robert Miller (19 March 1936 – 1 May 1988) was an Australia
n yachtsman and marine architect. He is famous for the winged keel
design applied to Australia II
which, in 1983, became the first non-American yacht
to win the prestigious America's Cup
in 132 years.
in the Hunter Valley
region of New South Wales
, he left school at age 14 to pursue a locomotive mechanic's apprenticeship
but soon found his attention turning to sailboats. At 16, he designed his first sailboat and began to make a name for himself in local competition. With friend Craig Whitworth, he founded a boatbuilding, sailmaking and shipchandlery firm (Miller and Whitworth) and designed boats part-time as well. One of his lasting early successes was the design that became the International Contender
. It was selected in 1967, in multi boat trials, as a potential Olympic successor to the Finn dinghy. The Contender was awarded International status in 1968 and now has fleets in more than twelve countries throughout the world.
Miller competed in the 1972 Munich Olympics representing Australia
in the Soling
class.
to build Apollo, an ocean racer. This partnership continued when Bond first challenged for the America's Cup
in 1974 with the Miller-designed 12-metre class
yacht Southern Cross, named for the southern hemisphere constellation
. Their challenge for the Cup was unsuccessful but Miller was kept on as the designer for future yachts, all of them designed to the 12-metre class
rules as used for America's Cup
competition at the time.
During the first years of his partnership with Bond, Miller withdrew his partnership from his sailmaking company but the company retained its name of Miller and Whitworth. Soon after the 1974 Cup challenge, Miller changed his name to avoid confusion with his former company. Keen to prevent the possibility of there being any confusion surrounding his name and business interests in the future, he asked a friend who worked for Readers' Digest to find out the least used surname within their membership. The result was Lexcen.
Bond and Lexcen challenged for the America's Cup in 1977 (against media mogul Ted Turner
) and again in 1980, losing both times.
Lexcen realised that to win against the defenders, with their 100+ years of America's Cup experience, they would need a superior boat. His next design featured a whole host of advanced design features, not the least of which was a revolutionary winged keel, intended to make the boat more stable and maneuverable in the water. The keel design borrowed elements from aeronautics, and was to prove highly controversial.
Australia II was a revolutionary design approach with her winged keel and hull design compromising the shortest waterline length ever measured on a 12-metre. The winged keel helped to reduce the level of drag resulting from a tip vortex
, which inhibits the speed of the boat. The New York Yacht Club
, holders of the Cup, formally protested both that the winged keel boat was not a legal 12 Meter, and that the design itself was not of Australian origin. The ruling arrived at on the boat confirmed that Australia II complied with both the 12-metre class
rules and the America's Cup
rules. The questions on her design origin were not formally answered, but the contention that the Dutch water tank team designed the boat has been refuted by both John Bertrand and Australia II project manager John Longley. Furthermore, it is well established that Lexcen had been working with wing adaptations to the undersurface appendages of boats for thirty-five years, as his 1958 skiffs Taipan and Venom amply demonstrate. In 1983 Lexcen commented on the controversy: "I have in mind to admit it all to the New York Yacht Club that I really owe the secret of the design to a Greek guy who helped me out and was invaluable. He's been dead for 2000 years. Bloody Archimedes..."
The 1983 America's Cup saw Lexcen's Australia II
, with John Bertrand at the helm, take on the NYYC skipper Dennis Conner
and the defender yacht, Liberty. The Australians were sure they had a fast boat, but mechanical failures and capable sailing on the part of the defenders caused Australia II to fall behind, losing the first two races. Australia II stormed back to take three of the next four. This was the first time in history that the series depended on the result of the last race, and the pressure of keeping a slow boat out in front of a fast one was now firmly on the defenders. In the deciding race on 26 September, Conner held tenuous cover over Australia II, but gambled on a wind shift to lift him ahead to the finish. The shift did not materialize, and when the two boats came back together Australia II was ahead. Australia II went on to win the race, becoming the first challenger to wrest the Cup from the United States since its inception in 1870. Lexcen was made a Member of the Order of Australia
for his contributions to the winning design.
Lexcen was commissioned by Bond once again in 1986 to design a defender for the 1987 America's Cup
. Australia IV, Lexcen's final design, was defeated by the Iain Murray designed and skippered Kookaburra III
in the Defender Trials
. Australia competed in the Cup without a Lexcen designed boat for the first time in ten years. Kookaburra III lost in the finals to Dennis Conner and his American challenger, Stars & Stripes 87
, 4 races to nil.
at 52 years of age.
in Ben Lexcen's honour. The car was a rebadged
Holden Commodore
and was built in Australia under the Button Plan.
In 2006, Lexcen was posthumously inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame
.
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
born Robert Miller (19 March 1936 – 1 May 1988) was an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n yachtsman and marine architect. He is famous for the winged keel
Winged keel
A winged keel is a sailboat keel, usually of moderate aspect ratio, that uses a nearly horizontal foil, the "wing", at the bottom to provide additional performance. Note that the wing is upside down with relation to the boat...
design applied to Australia II
Australia II
Australia II is the Australian 12-metre-class challenge racing yacht that was launched in 1982 and won the 1983 America's Cup for the Royal Perth Yacht Club...
which, in 1983, became the first non-American yacht
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
to win the prestigious America's Cup
America's Cup
The America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...
in 132 years.
Early life
Born in the coastal town of NewcastleNewcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
in the Hunter Valley
Hunter Valley
The Hunter Region, more commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney with an approximate population of 645,395 people. Most of the population of the Hunter Region lives within of the coast, with 55% of the entire...
region of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, he left school at age 14 to pursue a locomotive mechanic's apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
but soon found his attention turning to sailboats. At 16, he designed his first sailboat and began to make a name for himself in local competition. With friend Craig Whitworth, he founded a boatbuilding, sailmaking and shipchandlery firm (Miller and Whitworth) and designed boats part-time as well. One of his lasting early successes was the design that became the International Contender
Contender (dinghy)
The International Contender is a single-handed high performance sailing dinghy, designed by Bob Miller, latterly known as Ben Lexcen, in 1967 as a possible successor to the Finn dinghy for Olympic competition....
. It was selected in 1967, in multi boat trials, as a potential Olympic successor to the Finn dinghy. The Contender was awarded International status in 1968 and now has fleets in more than twelve countries throughout the world.
Miller competed in the 1972 Munich Olympics representing Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in the Soling
Soling
A Soling is a class of open keelboat designed by Jan Linge of Norway in 1965. In 1968, it was chosen from among many other boats to be the men's triple-handed boat for the 1972 Olympics...
class.
America's Cup
Miller was commissioned by Alan BondAlan Bond (businessman)
Alan Bond is an Australian businessman noted for his criminal convictions and high-profile business dealings, including what was at the time the biggest corporate collapse in Australian history. Bond was born in the Hammersmith district of London, England, and emigrated to Australia with his...
to build Apollo, an ocean racer. This partnership continued when Bond first challenged for the America's Cup
America's Cup
The America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...
in 1974 with the Miller-designed 12-metre class
12-metre class
The 12 Metre Class is a rating class for racing boats designed to the International rule. It enables fair competition between boats that rate in the class whilst retaining the freedom to experiment with the details of their designs. The first 12 Metres were built in 1907. The 12 Metre Class was...
yacht Southern Cross, named for the southern hemisphere constellation
Crux
Crux is the smallest of the 88 modern constellations, but is one of the most distinctive. Its name is Latin for cross, and it is dominated by a cross-shaped asterism that is commonly known as the Southern Cross.-Visibility:...
. Their challenge for the Cup was unsuccessful but Miller was kept on as the designer for future yachts, all of them designed to the 12-metre class
12-metre class
The 12 Metre Class is a rating class for racing boats designed to the International rule. It enables fair competition between boats that rate in the class whilst retaining the freedom to experiment with the details of their designs. The first 12 Metres were built in 1907. The 12 Metre Class was...
rules as used for America's Cup
America's Cup
The America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...
competition at the time.
During the first years of his partnership with Bond, Miller withdrew his partnership from his sailmaking company but the company retained its name of Miller and Whitworth. Soon after the 1974 Cup challenge, Miller changed his name to avoid confusion with his former company. Keen to prevent the possibility of there being any confusion surrounding his name and business interests in the future, he asked a friend who worked for Readers' Digest to find out the least used surname within their membership. The result was Lexcen.
Bond and Lexcen challenged for the America's Cup in 1977 (against media mogul Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
) and again in 1980, losing both times.
Australia II was a revolutionary design approach with her winged keel and hull design compromising the shortest waterline length ever measured on a 12-metre. The winged keel helped to reduce the level of drag resulting from a tip vortex
Vortex
A vortex is a spinning, often turbulent,flow of fluid. Any spiral motion with closed streamlines is vortex flow. The motion of the fluid swirling rapidly around a center is called a vortex...
, which inhibits the speed of the boat. The New York Yacht Club
New York Yacht Club
The New York Yacht Club is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. The organization has over 3,000 members as of 2011. ...
, holders of the Cup, formally protested both that the winged keel boat was not a legal 12 Meter, and that the design itself was not of Australian origin. The ruling arrived at on the boat confirmed that Australia II complied with both the 12-metre class
12-metre class
The 12 Metre Class is a rating class for racing boats designed to the International rule. It enables fair competition between boats that rate in the class whilst retaining the freedom to experiment with the details of their designs. The first 12 Metres were built in 1907. The 12 Metre Class was...
rules and the America's Cup
America's Cup
The America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...
rules. The questions on her design origin were not formally answered, but the contention that the Dutch water tank team designed the boat has been refuted by both John Bertrand and Australia II project manager John Longley. Furthermore, it is well established that Lexcen had been working with wing adaptations to the undersurface appendages of boats for thirty-five years, as his 1958 skiffs Taipan and Venom amply demonstrate. In 1983 Lexcen commented on the controversy: "I have in mind to admit it all to the New York Yacht Club that I really owe the secret of the design to a Greek guy who helped me out and was invaluable. He's been dead for 2000 years. Bloody Archimedes..."
The 1983 America's Cup saw Lexcen's Australia II
Australia II
Australia II is the Australian 12-metre-class challenge racing yacht that was launched in 1982 and won the 1983 America's Cup for the Royal Perth Yacht Club...
, with John Bertrand at the helm, take on the NYYC skipper Dennis Conner
Dennis Conner
Dennis Conner is an American yachtsman, noted for winning the bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics, two Star World Championships, and four wins in the America's Cup.-America's Cup:...
and the defender yacht, Liberty. The Australians were sure they had a fast boat, but mechanical failures and capable sailing on the part of the defenders caused Australia II to fall behind, losing the first two races. Australia II stormed back to take three of the next four. This was the first time in history that the series depended on the result of the last race, and the pressure of keeping a slow boat out in front of a fast one was now firmly on the defenders. In the deciding race on 26 September, Conner held tenuous cover over Australia II, but gambled on a wind shift to lift him ahead to the finish. The shift did not materialize, and when the two boats came back together Australia II was ahead. Australia II went on to win the race, becoming the first challenger to wrest the Cup from the United States since its inception in 1870. Lexcen was made a Member of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
for his contributions to the winning design.
Lexcen was commissioned by Bond once again in 1986 to design a defender for the 1987 America's Cup
1987 America's Cup
The 1987 America's Cup was the twenty-seventh challenge for the America's Cup and the first time for 132 years that it had not been defended by the New York Yacht Club....
. Australia IV, Lexcen's final design, was defeated by the Iain Murray designed and skippered Kookaburra III
Kookaburra III
Kookaburra III was the Australian 12 Meter yacht sailed by Iain Murray in the 1987 America's Cup held off of Fremantle, Australia. She won the Defender Selection and represented Australia in the America's Cup, where she lost to American challenger Dennis Conner and his Stars and Stripes...
in the Defender Trials
1987 Defender Selection Series
The 1987 Defender Selection Series was raced between four syndicates competing for the right to represent the Royal Perth Yacht Club as the defender of the America's Cup...
. Australia competed in the Cup without a Lexcen designed boat for the first time in ten years. Kookaburra III lost in the finals to Dennis Conner and his American challenger, Stars & Stripes 87
Stars & Stripes 87
Stars & Stripes 87 was the 12 Meter challenge boat sailed by Dennis Conner in his bid to reclaim the America’s Cup from the Royal Perth Yacht Club of Australia in 1987.-Design and Development:...
, 4 races to nil.
Death
Lexcen died suddenly on 1 May 1988, of a heart attackMyocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
at 52 years of age.
Legacy
In 1988, the Toyota Lexcen was released by Toyota AustraliaToyota Australia
Toyota Motor Corporation Australia, or Toyota Australia, is a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, which is based in Japan. TMCA markets Toyota products and manages motorsport, advertising and business operations for Toyota Motor Corporation in Australia...
in Ben Lexcen's honour. The car was a rebadged
Badge engineering
Badge engineering is an ironic term that describes the rebadging of one product as another...
Holden Commodore
Holden Commodore
The Holden Commodore is an automobile manufactured since 1978 by the Holden subsidiary of General Motors in Australia, and, formerly, in New Zealand. In the mid-1970s, Holden established proposals to replace the long-serving Kingswood nameplate with a smaller, Opel-based model...
and was built in Australia under the Button Plan.
In 2006, Lexcen was posthumously inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame
America's Cup Hall of Fame
The America's Cup Hall of Fame, located at the Herreshoff Marine Museum of Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, honors individuals for outstanding achievement in the America's Cup sailing competition...
.