Barry Pickthall wades into Australia II design controversy

11:04 PM Sat 17 Oct 2009 GMT

'Australia II wins America's Cup - 26th September 1983'

Barry Pickthall, former Yachting Correspondent to The Times (UK) was one of the top international sailing journalists, who followed the saga of the Australia 2 design claims and comments based on his notes from the time:

I have read with some surprise the claims by Dr Peter van Oossanen that he and Dutch aerodynamics expert Joop Sloof were largely responsible for the design of the radical wing keel on Australia 2.

I got to know Peter quite well during the 1983 Cup summer in Newport, and after the event, when Dutch Whitbread Round the World Race winner Conny Van Rietschoten was considering a Dutch challenge for the America's Cup, Peter was one of the first people Conny turned to for advice.

After the Cup series, I met with Peter again at his home in Holland to discuss this potential Dutch challenge and to flesh out the exact timeline of events surrounding the design of Australia 2 for a book we were proposing to write together, telling the story of the research and tank testing work that went on at the Netherlands Ship Model Basin in Wageningen where he was chief scientist.

Re reading my notes, Peter was quite explicit that Ben had been responsible for the concept of the 'upside down' keel.
'He came up with several keel shapes for us to tank test, including an inverted keel, which Ben threw in just to see what would happen.' Said Peter at the time, adding. 'The inverted keel showed considerable promise, providing a much better righting moment than traditional keel shapes. The one problem was the large amount of turbulence along the base of the keel. I discussed the problem with Joop Sloof from the Dutch Aeronautical Laboratory. He pointed us to some research papers produced by Boeing showing how winglets could be used to act as endplates to smooth out the flow of air around the wing tips. Ben went away and designed some winglets to add to his upside-down keel and we tested this in the tank.'

The rest of course is history.

I don't know if Dr Peter van Oossanen has been misquoted or his memory of those events has faded, but he was adamant in 1984 that Ben Lexcen was responsible for the design concept of the wing keel and that the Netherlands Ship Model Basin had simply tested and refined the design.

Barry Pickthall
Former Yachting Correspondent to The Times

by Barry Pickthall

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Barry Pickthall wades into Australia II design controversy

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