John Longley is a veteran of five Australian campaigns for the America's Cup, including four straight Cup Matches, winning the Cup in 1983 onboard Australia II. In 2009, Longley was inducted in the America’s Cup Hall of Fame, and is currently serving as the Event Director for the ISAF Sailing World Championships to be held in Fremantle in 2011. Here he provides his perspective on the Australia II design debate:

 

October 19, 2009

 

Dear Scuttlebutt

 

After having watched the Australian media recently awash with stories on this thread, I thought I should say something on Scuttlebutt.

 

I was Australia II's Project Manager and worked closely with Warren Jones (the Syndicates Executive Director) and Ben Lexcen in the early days of the Challenge when the design work was being done. Together with John Bertrand, who had already been appointed Skipper, that was it - the four of us. John lived in Melbourne so in the Perth office during that amazing time, there was only Warren and me. Both Warren and Ben are now dead, so that leaves me to tell what was going on in June 1981 when the breakthrough design was created.

 

To help my memory of the facts I went down to the West Australian Maritime Museum (WAMM) and dove into the seven filing cabinets of documents that we donated to the WAMM when the Bond syndicate was wound up in 1990. It is all there waiting for some PHD student to sieve through and come up with the definitive story (although I think John Rousmaniere’s article published four years ago in the American magazine Sailing World titled 'Who Designed Australia II?' just about does it).

 

I only had half an hour, as I still work for a living, so I went straight to the file labelled Designer. Almost immediately I found documents that contradict some of Peter van Oossanen’s claims (that he designed the winged keel).

 

Claim 1 made by Peter van Oossanen on ABC National Television last week - "Ben wasn't even interested in the radical design - he was more interested in the conventional version (that became Challenge 12). It was me and the other Dutch people at the tank who came up with the idea for Australia II." or words to that effect.

 

There is a letter in the file dated 9th February 1981 from Ben Lexcen to Warren Jones setting out in detail why he wanted to use the Netherlands Small Ship Basin (NSMB) and asking for support in funding a tank testing program. The main reason he stated was that the NSMB had the capacity to test very large models and were very good at it. In his letter he states: "I have some novel ideas I would like to try in the keel area, which would be quite revolutionary, and if they work out would be quite a big breakthrough. But only with models of this size can we try these ideas."

 

This was written well before Ben ever went to Holland, but Peter van Oossanen says he was not interested in innovation. Of all the statements that Peter van Oossanen has made recently this was the most bizarre. Ben’s middle name should have been “Innovation”.

 

Claim 2 made in the Professional Boat Builder Magazine article reproduced in Scuttlebutt "Ben had nothing to do with it. He wasn't even there when we tested it."

 

There are a number of letters and telexes that totally refute this claim.

 

Telex from Ben to Warren Jones dated 22nd May 1981: "Keel III a big advance. About to take yachtdesign (sic) into space age. Darth Vader looks good in computer in 3 Dimension. Will test on Wednesday 10th June. Can't return to Land of Oz untill (sic) 17th June. Need Brass and conversation."  Darth Vader was Ben's code for the winged keel.

 

Letter from NSMB signed by Peter van Oossanen dated 2nd June 1981 that says in part: "The NLR keel, with and without appendages, will be tested on June 9 and 10, 1981. I have  recommended to Ben that he should stay at least one week more (till June 17,1981) to enable us to go through all the results together." At this stage Ben had already been at the NSMB for four months and the design program was already six weeks behind schedule.

 

Telex from Warren to Peter van Oossanen dated 9th June 1981 "Agree that Lexcen must remain until final configuration agreed thus leaving you to complete your formal report which is required by Alan Bond by earliest possible date."

 

Telex from Ben to Warren dated 15 June 1981 "Going to Germany to meet John Bertrand's Professor.... Be back at tank Thursday and Friday, come home Saturday."

 

These telexes clearly show that Ben was in Holland through all the critical stages of the breakthrough keel's design and testing.

 

Claim 3 In the Pro Boat Builder article "We did the final set of full scale loftings, the final hull design, the final keel design. It was all done by us.”

 

In a file marked Keelgate there is a Telex from Peter van Oossanen to the Head of the NSMB, Dr M.W.C. Oosterveld, dated September 21 1983, which was mid way through the America’s Cup finals off Newport, RI. In it Peter van Oossanen advises his superior how to respond to Mr R Latham (representing the NYYC). It is a long Telex but there is one critical paragraph:

 

"The heart of the matter is, as I see it, that the conclusion you arrive at from Dr Van Oossanen's description of NSMB's activities concerning Australia II differs from  Dr Van Oossanen's and my own - conclusion from his description. Your conclusion is that NSMB should be considered as having participated in the design of Australia II. Ours is that NSMB acted in a testing capacity and did not participate in the design. From our own conclusion it follows that in our opinion Mr Lexcen is the sole designer of Australia II. An opinion we have openly expressed."

 

So in Peter van Oossanen's own words he told his boss that Ben designed Australia II. He was therefore either misleading his superior then ...or us now, when neither Ben Lexcen nor Warren Jones are alive to refute his claims.

 

The sad thing about all of this is that we have always acknowledged that the technicians including Peter van Oossanen played a part in the evolution of Australia II - how could they not? Ben spent four months in Holland surrounded by the NSMB personnel.

 

In Barbara Lloyd's book Upset she quotes Ben who acknowledges the role of the NSMB personnel: "They (the staff of NSMB) were just doing what I told them. Sometimes they'd tell me things back. How the hell can you stop them from telling you things? It's like in a jury -‘Well disregard that remark...' You can't disregard that remark. If someone says, 'I think this could be a good idea,' you can't say, 'Well, I didn't hear that.'

 

"The situation at the tank puts you almost under conditions that would contravene the spirit of the bloody ruling of the New York Yacht Club". But as far as I am concerned, if you use the tank, then you can talk to the people at the tank." Of course Vic Romagna, the Chair of the NYYC America's Cup committee, gave the Australia II syndicate permission to use the NSMB back in 1981.

 

It was not all a one way street either, Ben spent considerable time early on at the NSMB redesigning the tank testing carriage to better replicate the towing point from the centre of effort of the sail plan to give more accurate results for the tank tests.

 

Finally when the full scale lofting of the boat arrived from Holland and was laid out on the floor of Steve Ward’s shed in Cottesloe, I and Steve watched as Ben spent days crawling over the lofting floor fine tuning the lines. Later he did the same with the keel lofting before the plug was made.

 

Peter van Oossanen, Joop Sloof and other technicians and computer programmers at NSMB all had a role in the evolution of Australia II, but it was Ben Lexcen who was the team leader and designer who pulled together the whole package from the tip of the keel to the truck of the mast.

 

Best regards,

 

John Longley - Project Manager and crewman of Australia II