PRIME MINISTER
EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
PRIME MINISTER'S SPEECH NOTES FOR LAUNCHING OF BRUCE
STANNARD'S BEN LEXCEN: THE MAN, THE KEEL AND THE CUP
CRUISING YACHT CLUB, SYDNEY, 26 SEPTMEBER 1984
The launching of this book gives me enormous pleasure from
three points of view. First, it enables me to salute the
achievements of Ben Lexcen, an original Australian genius.
Second, it gives me a chance to pay tribute to
Bruce Stannard, whose magnificent radio commentaries and
reports and whose unwavering confidence in Australia II,
notwithstanding her early travails, made such an important
contribution to the nation's experience of the America's
Cup Challenge. Third, we have an opportunity to relive the
enormous sense of national achievement which we all felt 12
months ago today. In the laconic words of Bruce Stannard's
book: " Race Seven
24 September ( abandoned)
Rerun 26 September
Australia II defeated Liberty by 41
seconds"
Behind those laconic words, however, there was a great
awakening of Australian patriotism unparalleled since the
War. Whatever our differences all Australians could be
extraordinarily proud of that achievement. On that 26
September last year, this country was united. All
Australians were-indeed brought together.
But the Australia II triumph also represented something far
wider. It was a symbol that this country was on the road
back. Australia was on the move. Australia was winning
again. The Australia II victory showed that Australian drive,
Australian determination, Australian ingenuity could take
on the world's best and triumph. And it was the triumph of
Australia II that epitomised the new national spirit of
confidence, commitment and achievement.
That wider significance of the Australia 11 experience
makes this book even more worthy of consideration. Because
it is Ben Lexcen's struggle and eventual triumph that
encapsulates what the Australia II achievement was all
about. And indeed because without Ben Lexcen there would
have been no Australia II victory.
Ben Lexcen emerges from Bruce Stannard's pages as original
and remarkable a man as his yacht designs have been radical
and innovative. I had expected that. he must have been born
on Sydney Harbouir or at least somewhere by the sea. In
fact, he is a boy from the bush, born in Boggabri in northwestern
New South Wales.
For those who see sailing as a silver-tail sport, it will
come as a surprise to learn that Ben was born to hardship.
He had a very tough childhood and, in fact, spent some time
in a boys home. Life there was pretty hard but it had one
enormously important benefit, both for Ben and for
Australia: some unknown benefactor had donated to the home
hundreds of old yachting magazines, from which he developed
a fascination for boats and sail.
Ben, like my Treasurer, Paul Keating another genius
destined to come into his own in 1983 left school at 14.
He worked as a metal worker at the Railway Depot at Cardiff
near Newcastle and there taught himself to sail, design and
build sailing boats and, as Bruce says, developed skills
which a naval architect with a university degree would
never dream of employing. Ben's sailing career is very much
the story of sailing over the last 30 years in Australia.
He began his sailing in those classic Australian craft, the
VJ and VS. Later he made revolutionary design changes to
those supreme and unique Australian racing machines, the
18-footers. At the same time, he showed his expertise in
international classes, such as the Soling and the Flying
Dutchman, in which he won the title of Australian Yachtsman
of the Year in 1967.
From dinghies Ben graduated to, and showed his mastery in,
ocean-going craft, designing such outstanding boats as
Mercedes III and Apollo. Many of Ben's designs achieved
superb results in international ocean racing.
With this basis, he graduated to the supreme yacht racing
test. His work on Apollo marked the beginning of his
relationship with Alan Bond and his involvement in the
America's Cup campaigns, unsuccessful ( occasionally
bitterly so) in 1974, 1977 and 1980 and finally brilliantly
triumphant in 1983. This is not a time, of course, to dwell
on the losing challenges but they were very important in
preparing the ground for the 1983 success. What emerges
from Bruce Stannard's account of the early campaigns is the
way in which the Bond team, and Ben particularly, learned
from their own experiences and from the innovations of
other challengers, not only those from the United States.
The other striking lesson is the way in which the team had
the guts to-* bounce back after some frankly pretty
disastrous results. We should remember that in 1974 and
' 1977 the Australians went down 4 nil. One can only be
impressed by Ben's honesty in blaming himself for the loss
of the last race in 1980, when he believes he gave Jim
Hardy bad tactical advice, and his realistic optimism after
winning the one race in 1980 that Australia had the ability
to win the America's Cup.
Bruce Stannard's book properly gives importance to the
famous Lexcen winged keel. Without this in~ spired
invention, Australia II's results may well have been very
different. Indeed, Ben Lexcen is fairly critical of her
basic hull design and in view of his realism, honesty and
determination to do better this suggests that the
challengers in 1987 will have a real job on~ their hands.
With the keel, Australia II, not only, in Ben's poetic
words, " looked like a giant Plesiosaur with wonderfully
rounded flippers," but, under the superb seamanship of John
Bertrand and the crew, put up a performance! which took her
into sailing history and caught the imagination of
Australia and the world.
The romance and mystery of the keel are an integral part of
the story of Australia II. And every romance and mystery
requires a villain. At this point, enter the New York
Yacht Club. It has been suggested occasionally that I am
somewhat prone to resort to litigation but with due modesty
I doubt if I could compete with the ingenuity and total
commitment which the NYCC showed in its attempts to keep
Ben's magic keel out of the water. Basic t~ o their case, of
course, was the suggestion that he had received improper
foreign assistance in its design. Again, Ben's colourful
words say it all; " They are accusing me of' cheating......
I have a mind to admit it all and tell them that I really
owe the secret of the design to a Greek guy who helped me
out. He's been d-ead for 2000 years but invaluable. Bloody
Archimedes." Bruce Stannard's technically informed and vividly written
account of the seven races has all the excitement and
professional competence which he brought to his radio and
press commentaries at the time and crown what is, I
believe, an outstanding book on Australian yachting and, as
I have indicated, a great Australian character.
In the story of Ben Lexcen I see one very important lesson
for contemporary Australia: It demonstrates the importance
of applying our native ingenuity and innovative capacity,
while staying abreast of international technological
developments. Even as a child, he kept himself informed
of, and learned from, what was being one by such great
international designers as Nat Herreschoff, Uffa Fox and
Manfred Curry. As a man, he was in no way ashamed of, or
in any sense, hypocritical about, his use of the tank
testing computer facilities in the Netherlands.
Ben Lexcen's achievement lies in absorbing that
international technology and going beyond it. Just as he
helped to revolutionise the Australian 18 footer class in
the 1962' s, so has he revolutionised the international
12 metre class in the 1980' s. And his achievement has
brought success to Australia at the summit of international
competition. Ben's is an example which Australians in all fields of
endeavour can look to, as our country faces the challenges
of the late 20th Century. Australia II represents the
latest state of the art in 12 metre yachting. That
obviously involves a great deal of absorbed international
technology and know-how but no-one can deny that
Australia II is a magnificent Australian technological
achievement any more than we can deny that Ben Lexcen is a
unique Australian genius and original character. All
credit to Bruce Stannard for telling the story of both of
them.