News Around the World
Kookaburra III racing in the defender trials ahead of the 1987 America’s Cup. Twenty-eight tons of boat, plus on a windy day a few more tons of water in the bilge, accidentally or deliberately to increase sailing length, and 30-odd knots of breeze. The loads on the 12 Metres in Fremantle are still talked about by those who were sailing them. Remember too that guys, halyards and headsail sheets are still mostly wire; there is a lot of human and equipment damage waiting to happen here if things get even slightly out of control. The protest flag is significant: 101 races were sailed in a long combative series before Kookaburra got the nod. Including 50 protests
AUSTRALIA Proud warriors Seahorse Magazine: You mentioned last month that you had great respect for Ben Lexcen. Was there any possibility of him assisting the Kookaburra design team in 1987? Iain Murray: That was never going to be an option really… He was pretty much like Alan Bond’s brother. It was never going to happen. Benny and I both lived in Seaforth on Sydney’s Northern Beaches,
and he used to help me with my Flying Ant dinghy after school when I was 10 years old; I then followed his path through the 18ft skiffs, so I had incredible respect for Benny. I remember I was at his chandlery one day helping him change part of the front suspension on his Ferrari – standing there handing him spanners. And so we had a good relationship! Just before he died both of us were about to travel to Europe
to work on what would become the new IACC Class – then he went out on his skateboard, had a heart attack and got stuck on Sydney Harbour Bridge. Typical Benny, he pushed the medic aside (even though his blood pressure had been an issue for a while) and then passed at 52 – way too young to go really. SH: Looking back to the defender trials for the 1987 Cup, Fremantle was a windy venue that you were all coming to grips with. How did the aluminium rigs and poles hold up? IM:We certainly broke a lot of booms! I don’t think we had too many problems with poles, although some went over the side, but we broke booms usually on the way back in or while having our lunch. We would put a smaller jib up leaving the vang taking substantially
20 SEAHORSE
more load than it needed to, and so that was the way it was. You made these aluminium booms as light as you could, and then gradually worked them up to be bulletproof. SH:How was your mood going into the defender trials… confident? IM:We thought we had done our homework and done a good job. We always knew we had really good rigs, really good sails, and I think our crew work was without peer – plus our ability to manoeuvre the boat, to tack or gybe. It was all really good. SH:And how did you think the mood was in your opposition’s camp, onboard Bondie’s Australia IV? IM: I don’t think they really knew where they were heading into the final defender trials. I think they were still going backwards and forwards on what their configurations were, particularly which keel wings they should be using. In part because Australia IV was a bit bigger than their earlier boats, they never seemed to get the balance right, whereas our balance was really good. We may not have been fast enough in the final analysis, but we had definitely got on top of the key issues – the forces on the boat, balanced with the wings and keel and rig. Where we were short was in sheer boat size… SH: How rude did it get out there… there were plenty of protests! IM: There were a lot of protests, mainly from Peter Gilmour’s boat, Kookaburra II. But the races weren’t anything like the races we ended up having against Dennis Conner – and that was part of the reason why we weren’t prepared. Those defender trial races were very engaged, combative races – tack, get up to speed, come back and defend while maintaining your rights. They were classic match races with 50 or 60 tacks in a race, tight stuff. So I think we and
AJAX/ALAMY
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