Lines plan for model no. 5854A, KIEL V - VA 2 VINNEN II
Designer
Ben Lexcen
(1936 - 1988)
Datec 1981
Object numberANMS1543[320]
NamePlan
MediumInk on tracing film
DimensionsOverall: 760 x 620
Copyright© Ben Lexcen
ClassificationsMaps, charts and plans
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionA detailed ‘lines plan’ and ‘table of offsets’ showing the keel and wings in section views. It was used in 1981 to build a 1/3rd size test keel to use on the tank test hull model of the Ben Lexcen designed America Cup challenge yacht AUSTRALIA II.
The famous winged keel, designed and developed by Lexcen in 1981 for AUSTRALIA II, was a major way-point in modern yacht design. Not just for high profile 12 metre racing yachts, but also on smaller production cruising yachts, widely use around the world. HistoryAustralia’s quest for the coveted America Cup began in 1962 with the Alan Payne designed GRETEL. This was followed in 1966 with the Warwick J. Hood yacht DAME PATTIE and by GRETEL II in 1970. Alan Bond took up the challenge hopes in 1974 when he hired Ben Lexcen (then Bob Miller) to design SOUTHERN CROSS (KA-4). The 1974 challenge was not successful, but they went on to design and build AUSTRALIA (K-5) for the 1977 and 1980 races.
For the design of AUSTRALIA (KA-5) in 1977, Lexcen teamed up Johan Valentijn, a young but experienced Dutch naval architect, who had worked for ‘Sparkman & Stephens’ in the US. The designers worked together as a partnership on a number of yachts including the 45-foot IOR yacht GUIA V in 1976 for experienced Italian racing yachtsman Giorgio Falck. The designers spent seven months in 1976 testing 1/9th scale models of AUSTRALIA at the University of Delft test tank in the Netherlands. This period of on-site design and tank testing scaled models in the water, proved vital for later design work on AUSTRALIA II (KA-6). The 1977 and 1980 challenges of AUSTRALIA proved unsuccessful, but were a considerable help in the future design and build of the winning yacht AUSTRALIA II.
Interestingly, Bond ordered two yachts to be designed by Lexcen for the 1983 America’s Cup challenge. In addition to AUSTRALIA II Lexcen also designed CHALLENGE XII (KA-10). The yacht was built by ‘Steve E. Ward & Co.’ and launched in 1982 but sold to the ‘Challenge 12 Syndicate’ in 1983 and shipped to Newport, Rhode Island in the US for the challenge trials. The displaced weight of CHALLENGE 12 was significantly more than AUSTRALIA II and had a larger ‘bustle’ aft and more volume in the forefoot. The ballast keel was conventional in plan-view but sported a bulbous shape in section view, lowering the centre of gravity.
CHALLENGE 12 was not successful in the trial races at Newport RI in 1983 but despite this the yacht was used by several other challenge syndicates in France and Italy.
SignificanceThe Ben Lexcen designed America’s Cup challenge yacht AUSTRALIA II (KA-6), winner of the 1983 America’s Cup race, is arguably the most famous racing yacht ever designed and built. The overall design of the yacht, including the hull, rudder shape, deck layout and revolutionary mast and rigging, as well as the winged keel, really did, as Lexcen said, ‘take yacht design into the space age’. This is a fine example of a detailed lines plan and table of offsets is from the later stages of the design program in 1981.
