General arrangement for 80 foot maxi yacht
Designer
Ben Lexcen
(1936 - 1988)
Datec 1975
Object numberANMS1543[077]
NamePlan
MediumPencil on drafting film
Dimensions675 x 1020
Copyright© Ben Lexcen
ClassificationsMaps, charts and plans
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionA Ben Lexcen hand drawn design work showing the General Arrangements plan for an 80-foot IOR Maxi racing yacht.HistoryThis Ben Lexcen ‘General Arrangements Plan’ for an 80-foot IOR Maxi racing yacht, has no date, drawing number or owners name, but does show his office address at the time, so could be between 1980 and 1983. It is not known if this yacht was built, if it was a proposal drawing for a new yacht, or one which the owner wanted changed. The interior layout has some similarity to the 72-foot racing yacht ‘BALLYHOO’ which Ben Lexcen designed for Jack Rooklyn in 1973. It is noteworthy that Jack Rooklyn’s yacht ‘APOLLO III, designed by Ben Lexcen and launched in May 1981, was re-designed and extensively rebuilt at Brisbane in 1984. The length was then 23.3m overall with a 19.2m waterline. 1986 was the last time Jack Rooklyn raced ‘APOLLO III’ in the Sydney to Hobart race. ‘APOLLO’ is now a charter yacht in the Whitsunday Islands.
In 1952, at the age of 16, Ben Lexcen (then Bob Miller) designed and built his first sailing boat THE COMET with his friend William Bennett. He soon began to make a name for himself at local sailing competitions. In 1960 he entered his boat ‘TAIPAN’ in the 18-Footer World Championships, and later winning the World Championship in 1961 with his design, the 18-foot skiff ‘VENOM’. In 1962, together with his friend Craig Whitworth, he set up the ‘Miller & Whitworth’ sail making business in Sydney, while continuing to design sailing dinghies. An accomplished sailor, Ben Lexcen (then Bob Miller) represented Australia in the Soling class at the 1972 at the Olympic Games at Munich, West Germany.
Bob Miller became a friend of Ted Kaufman in the early 1960’s and stayed at his house in Sydney. Kaufman was interested in building a new Admirals Cup racing boat at the time and asked Bob Miller to help. The result was the fast and very successful ‘MERCEDES III’ later referred to as a Kaufman/Miller designed yacht. Launched in in 1966, it was part of Australia’s winning team of three yachts in the 1967 Admiral’s Cup series in England.
Ben Lexcen’s (formally Bob Miller) first large yacht design was the 51-foot ‘VOLANTE’ designed in 1967/1968 for a New Zealand client. Built by Max Carte with a hull of double skin kauri and cedar, covered with fibre glass, the yacht was launched in 1968. With a length of 51 feet overall (12.5m), 47 feet (14.32m) waterline, a beam of 12 ½ feet (3.28m) and a draft of 9 feet (2.74m) it was an immediate winner and the fastest Division One boat in 1972. At about the same time ‘VOLANTE’ was starting to win races, a young Western Australian building developer from Perth called Alan Bond, was looking for a fast light-weight boat to race on The Swan River. He commissioned Bob Miller (later Ben Lexcen) to design a boat specifically to win races in the sheltered waters of the Swan River, Western Australia. With an overall length of 58-feet, the Bob Miller yacht ‘APOLLO’ was considered an advanced design and an extremely modern yacht at the time. The hull lines show a revolutionary design for a light-weight racing yacht, with a shallow hull, narrow forward sections but with wide, flat underwater shape aft. Built by ‘Griffins Boatyard’ in 1969 the hull of ‘APOLLO’ was cold moulded with three layers of Oregon pine on laminated wooden frames. The yacht took part in the 1969 Sydney Hobart race, was second three times in later races.
By 1972, Ben Lexcen (then Bob Miller) was 36 years old and one of the world’s top offshore racing yacht designers. At the time Bob Miller was still in ‘Miller & Whitworth’ partnership and two yachts were designed using the same hull lines and sail plan. The first to be built was GINKGO, the cold moulded wooden yacht made by ‘Halvorsen, Morson & Gowland Pty Ltd. for Garry Bogard. ‘APOLLO II’ was built of aluminium, also by ‘Halvorsen, Morson & Gowland Pty Ltd. and launched in 1972. Two smaller derivatives CEIL III and RAMPAGE won handicap honours in the Sydney to Hobart race.
In 1973 Ben Lexcen designed the 72-foot maxi racer BALLYHOO for Jack Rooklyn, which was built by the ‘Halvorsen, Morson and Gowland’ boatyard, and launched in November of that year. At the same time, he designed the 12mR Australian America’s Cup challenge yacht SOUTHERN CROSS for Alan Bond. This yacht would later be shipped to the USA for the races at Newport Rhode Island in September. Following the America’s Cup race in 1974, when SOUTHERN CROSS failed to win thew cup for Australia, Bob Miller (Ben Lexcen) left the ‘Miller & Whitworth’ partnership and moved to Cowes, Isle of Wight in UK. He later joined forces with Dutch naval architect Johan Valentijn and on designed the 12mR ‘AUSTRALIA’ for Alan Bond which raced in the 1977 America’s Cup races. He re-designed the yacht for the next challenge in 1980. Bob Miller changed his name by deed poll to Ben Lexcen in 1977 due to the fact his name was still being used by ‘Miller & Whitworth’.
The 76-foot aluminium maxi racer ‘APOLLO,’ was designed by Ben Lexcen in 1980 and built by Aqua-Craft, for Jack Rooklyn. It was originally 21.6 metres in length overall but underwent extensive redesign and re-build work in Brisbane during 1984. According to the Sydney to Hobart race documents for that year, ‘APOLLO’ was then 23.3m long with a waterline of 19.2 metre plus new rig and sails.
Following three earlier attempts, Alan Bond’s dream of winning the coveted America’s Cup came to fruiting in 1983 when the Ben Lexcen designed 12mR AUSTRALIA II won the cup for Australia.
Follow the success AUSTRALIA II Ben Lexcen achieved international recognition. The Ben Lexcen Design team went on to design other 12mR yachts, fast racing and cruising yachts, as well as large motor yachts up to his untimely death on May 1st, 1988, at the age of 52.
SignificanceIt is unknown if this lightweight 80-foot IOR Maxi yacht by legendary Australia yacht designer Ben Lexcen, was built, but it is a fine example of his work, which may well have been a proposal design for a potential owner.
