Keel was Lexcen's: designer
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday October 16, 2009
A BOAT designer who worked on Australia's 1987 defence of the America's Cup has defended Ben Lexcen as the designer of the celebrated winged keel.John Swarbrick worked with both Lexcen and Peter van Oossanen, the Dutch naval architect who claims Lexcen was not the chief designer of the winged keel behind Australia II's 1983 victory.Swarbrick said he designed a winged keel inspired by Australia II and van Oossanen, in a 1985 report, tried to claim it was his Dutch team's work €“ as he is now doing with the Lexcen model. "It's utter nonsense," said Swarbrick, the designer of the Kookaburra series.He was a naval architecture student when he met Lexcen in the 1970s. "To ride on the back of Ben when he's not here, that really gets my back up," he said.Like Lexcen, Swarbrick conducted tank tests at the Netherlands Ship Model Basin, where van Oossanen was chief scientist. Swarbrick said he saw documentary evidence of Australia II's design evolution, and there could be no doubt Lexcen was the principle designer.For Kookaburra III, Swarbrick had proposed a "high-prismatic" hull form to achieve lower wave-making drag at the higher hull speeds that could be expected with the big winds off Fremantle, where the boat would have to defend the America's Cup in 1987.In November 1985 van Oossanen wrote a report to the Kookaburra syndicate opposing Swarbrick's hull proposal, and it was scotched.The New York Yacht Club, which lost the cup in 1983, has declined to buy into the controversy over who was responsible for the winged keel design.Van Oossanen said last night: "I wasn't aware of John's strong resentment of me. I was just doing what I was hired to do €“ to test his designs and to pinpoint strong and weak points."
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald