Clockwise from top left: after the maiden 6ft-beam success of Myra Too the previous year, in 1951 New Zealander Peter Mander took a further big step with his design Intrigue, combining the introduction of the first trapezes with a much lighter build – Mander’s thin cold-moulded construction over fine oak ribs producing a hull weight of around 250lb compared to the then more typical Australian 18-footers which weighed around 150lb more. Mander also introduced a fuller hull shape that could be driven harder than the slender Australian designs of the time; this fuller round bilge hull concept quickly overtook the previous ‘displacement-type’ skiff shapes – Kiwi entry Envy is a very neat ‘little’ Intrigue development launched in 1954; Jenny VI was a further development of the Kiwi light round bilge concept taking the world title in 1956; Bob Miller (on the helm) burst onto the skiff scene in 1959 with the extraordinary Taipan which included rudder fences among many other never-seen-before innovations; Taipan was originally fully decked which meant an unsatisfactory and rushed rebuild at the 1960 world championship which was eventually won by Dave Mark’s Surprise


moulded hull which became Queensland’s first Giltinan World Champion in 1956. During the same period in the early


1950s aluminium alloy spars had steadily been replacing wood, and synthetic fibres replaced natural-fibre ropes and sails. Almost everything else was also stream- lined to increase strength and lightness as much as possible. Chine hulls were also approved and in 1959 Norman Wright designed the first three-handed boat… which was immediately banned in Sydney but was permitted to compete in inter - national and interstate contests elsewhere. Once again the Brisbane club wanted to


boost its fleet and asked Norman Wright to design a cheaper, easier-to-build 18. It was


58 SEAHORSE


also now that a new name entered the skiff fray, one that would go on to become the most significant designer in the modern history of the America’s Cup. The young Bob Miller (later known as Ben Lexcen) had a sail loft in the Wright shed in Sydney that, in a joint effort with Wright, was about to produce a radical new design based upon a wholly new approach to the class. Miller’s new boat, Taipan, featured a


light plywood chine hull, two-thirds decked, with large genoa, inboard rig, no bowsprit and smaller sail area, designed for a crew of three with two on the trapeze. She also had heavily flared topsides, plus a narrow 4ft 3in beam on the chine. She did not look like a traditional 18 at all.


Taipan had a smaller rig (not dissimilar


to the rig used on Miller’s mentor Carl Ryves’ Flying Dutchman class boat) and very bendy spars. Miller referred to her as a ‘supercharged FD’. When Miller took the boat to Auckland


for the 1960 world championship Taipan immediately created a problem, because she was decked far more than was allowed at that time, forcing Miller to undertake a major reconstruction job prior to the start of the regatta. Taipan’s original deck had to be reduced by around 50 per cent which made the boat vulnerable in choppy condi- tions and as a result she finished only fourth – which included two non-finishes. That year’s title was won by New


GRAHAM MANDER COLLECTION


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115