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Sloop plan

Designer Ben Lexcen (1936 - 1988)

Date1936-1988

Object numberANMS1543[374]

NamePlan

MediumPencil on tracing paper

DimensionsOverall: 700 x 575

ClassificationsMaps, charts and plans

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds

Terms

DescriptionBen Lexcen hand-drawn proposal design, for a lightweight fast, cruiser/ racing yacht of about 55-feet overall, from 1985. HistoryMany of the world’s top yacht designers often start a new project using a hand-drawn scaled, paper worksheet. It is quite common to undertake initial design work on paper, using a drawing board and a scaled ruler. Despite the advances, and universal use of computer aided drawings, (CAD) in 2D and 3D using plain paper and a pencil still has some advantages. By 1983, Ben Lexcen had been designing successful racing boats and yachts for almost twenty-five-years. Using traditional graph, or grid paper was likely a familiar tool, so this design concept for a light-weight racing yacht using this medium, would have been normal practice for him. Scaled paper can be ‘Millimetre Paper’, which has ten squares per centimetre, or Engineering Paper, which is usually green, and has four, five or ten squares per inch. From the available information, and using the typical height of the side deck guardrails, this yacht is about 17-metre overall (55.8-feet), and possible one of the proposal drawings made for Mr. Denis O’Neil in 1985. This yacht was 17.5 meter overall, had a beam of 4.8-metres (17.7-feet) and a draft of 2.3-metre (7.5-feet). Denis O’Neil was a friend and sailing companion of Ben Lexcen for many years. Denis O'Neil won the 1968 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race with his 43-foot wooden yacht KOOMOOLOO. The young Ben Lexcen (then Bob Miller) had designed the yacht and sailed as part of the eight-man crew. They later sailed together in the 1972 Soling World Championship in Germany, with Ben Lexcen (then Bob Miller) at the helm. Denis O’Neil was also part of the Australian Soling winning team in 1975, and crew in the Australian boat at the 1976 Olympics, coming 7th. The light blue colour of the hull, shown on the drawing, may well have been an owner’s preference or the designer’s idea to highlight the hull shape. No information is available if this yacht was built, but there were no yachts of this size or colour, designed by Ben Lexcen in the 1985, 1986 or 1987 Sydney to Hobart races. Denis O’Neil owned and successfully raced many well-known yachts, including the 41-foot BONDI TRAM, built in 1982 and took part in the 1983 Australian Admiral's Cup trials.SignificanceMuch of Ben Lexcen’s preliminary work on a new design was carried using scaled graph paper. This would allow him to draw the yacht, its parts and equipment, to a specific scale, which could then be easily scaled up to full working drawings. It is not known when Ben Lexcen changed from using imperial measurements to metric, but he certainly used it in 1981 on the design of the 12mRAUSTRALIA. However, some of his later work was also carried out using imperial so it is possible he used both.