Australian Seacraft MAY 1966

BUILT FOR ADMIRALS CUP

MERCEDES III

AUSTRALIA'S FIRST MOULDED OCEAN RACER

Designed by owner Ted Kaufman and sailmaker Bob Miller, this 40-foot lightweight yacht may be the answer to the Carmen-types.

     "It can't be done," the experts said when Ces Qulkey suggested that Ted Kaufman's new ocean-racer should be moulded.  A few months later, those same experts were praising the hull and forecasting great things for large cold-moulded racing yachts.

     When Kaufman first approached Quilkey he had a vision of the boat he wanted but didn't know how to build it.  He and Bob Miller, who is a mine of new ideas, had nutted out the general lines of their super Admiral's Cup contender and they wanted light weight construction and strength toput it on equal footing with the Carmen and Camille types that had done so well.  

     The cold moulding technique proved so suitable that the designers were able to modify their plans even further than they had dreamed possible.  For example Quilkey had managed to obtain a smooth 9-inch radius from "planks" to keel right through the hull from bow to stern.  He also moulded the timber, aft section of the unusual keel in one piece.  Saving in bolts alone totalled 400lb.  There's only one bolt in the entire keel assembly. 

     Built upside down on carefully prepared moulds,  most yachts are built right side up, especially 40-footers.  Quilkey and his brother, Bob, finished the shell in record time using 200,000 monel stapels and 36 gallons of Resobond glue.  The glue was spread with a roller on both surfaces of contact.  Quilkey did not make the common mistake of skimping on the adhesive. 

     Monel staples, fired from special compression guns, halve labour, as they are left in the job.  Anyone who has built a "mouldie" knows what a tiresome, time wasting job staple removing is.

     Planking is first grade edge oregon.  The first and fourth (5/16 inch) planks were laid fore and aft, under and over two diagonal layers 3/16 inch thick.  Queensland maple was used for the keel, ribs, frames and floors. . . all laminated.  The keel, bonded in 10 layers, is as strong as hardwood and half the weight.

     Removing the molds was not as tricky as anticipated.  The shell was rolled onto its side and the moulds removed.  Although a fair weight was thrown on to the topsides, the shell did not distort or make unhealthy cracking sounds.

     Mouldless and right-way-up, Mercedes III has now taken on a more conventional look, if you can discount the different keel profile, the way the rudder is hung, it's excellent shape and the fact she's already smooth as a pampered Dragon.

     They'll have her on the water before long and we'll know the true worth of Australia's first moulded ocean racer.  Incidentally, Kaufman's last boat, Mercedes II was all steel.  Does this mean that moulded oregon is just as strong? At any rate, it's twice as smooth.

     Finally, Bob Miller has designed another 40-foot mouldie which, he estimates will weigh seven tons! It will have two rudders, one on each bilge to make windward work a snack.

Power Boat and Yachting JAN 1967

THE ADMIRALS CUP.  VYING FOR WORLD SUPREMACY.

Australia will have her second attempt at the world's premier offshore racing series for the Admiral's cup, this year.  Experts, both here and overseas, are conceding Australia the best chance ever to wrest the coveted crown from Britain.

     The three yachts selected for the 1967 challenge are good; very good.  Their selection came as no surprise to those who had followed the elimination trials held last year.  The performance of Gordon Ingate's Caprice of Huon is well known.  The 45 ft. sloop now 14 years old, was the star of the 1965 challenge, and is the only yacht from that team to be selected for this years attempt.  Balandra, a 40 ft. sloop is one of the most beautiful craft built in the country, and the 40 ft. sloop Mercedes III is one of the newest.

      In July, the three yachts will be shipped to Britain to prepare for the cup series; considered by most yachtsman to be the ocean racing competition in the world.  The series, started early this century, consists of four separate races; the Channel Race, over a 225 mile rectangular course from the Isle of Wight to a point just off the French port of Le Havre and back;the Brittania Cup, a short 34 mile event around the Isle of Wight; The New York Yacht Club Challenge Cup over the same course; and the famous Fastnet race, 630 miles from the Isle of Wight, west past Land's End and around Fastnet Rock, on the south west coast of Ireland and back inside the Scilly islands to Plymouth. 

     In the long history of the Cup, only once has it been wrested from Britain.  This was by America many years ago.  But in 1955 Australia sent a team for the first time ever to challenge Britain and the other nine nations who were regular competitors.  The reception to the Australian team was perhaps a little sarcastic.  No doubt it was the best team Australia could muster, but the nations with their sleek ocean racers built especially for the series, tended to disregard the Australian team of canoe-sterners Freya and Camille and the then 12 year old Caprice of Huon.

     But at the end of the challenge, Caprice had won the Channel Race, Brittania Cup and New York Yacht Club Challenge Trophy, and Australia was only beaten into second place by 4 points by Britain.  The British are still recovering from the shock.  In 1965 Australia was the only nation to seriously challenge Britain's firm grasp on the Cup.  This year, with proven craft and a wealth of experience, Australia is in a strong position to be the second country to dethrone Britain.  Sir Garfield Barwick, Australia's Chief Justice and president of the Admiral's Cup Challenge Committee, summed up the position quite simply while announcing the 1967 challenge team late in November.  All he said was that he thought "we will do better than last time."

     This year's attempt at honours is once again being organised by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia based in Sydney.  Costs of transporting the yachts and the crews from
Australia to England have been offset somewhat by a generous offer from the cigarette manufacturers, Rothman's. A representative of the company at the ceremony called to announce the selected yachts, handed to the C.Y.C. a cheque for $10,000.  Assistance in transport has also been provided by Qantas.  The boats and crews will be in Britain for about six weeks. 

     Caprice of Huon, Balandra and Mercedes III were selected to represent Australia by a special three man committee within the C.Y.C.  The committee selected the yachts on race performances, suitability to British weather conditions and a host of other points.  The selection was made after a series of five elimination races, held in all sorts of weather conditions and over comprehensive courses.  The 12 yachts taking part in the trials experienced a large proportion of weather similar to that encountered on the Cup course.  Vying for selection were the cream of Australia's racing yachts; Bacchus D, Balandra, Camelot, Caprice of Huon, Catriona, Corroboree, Mercedes III, Mister Christian, karingal, Salacia, Seawind and Sayonara.  Two of the 1965 team boats, Freya and Camille were not available for selection but whether they would have made the grade any way is open to conjecture. 

     At the time of going to press, the crews for the three yachts are still unknown, but about thirty will be selected to fly overseas for the challenge well before departure time in July.  The team captain for the challenge series will be Ron Adir, who will be in complete charge of the Australian challengers during their stay in Britain.  Caprice of Huon performed better than anyone could ever have expected during the last Cup series.  For an old boat which has never taken part in this grueling competition to win three out of four races against the worlds top boats is nothing short of remarkable.  But if Caprice performed brilliantly, the brilliance was provided by her extremely competent skipper and owner, Gordon Ingate.  Ingate has a fantastic "feel" for sailing and got the very best out of his boat at all times.  But Ingate will not be there this year; at present he is helmsman on Vim, the twelve meter trial horse and he feels he must forego taking part in the Admiral's Cup and devote his attentions this year to the America's Cup. 

     Ingate's place at the helm of Caprice will be taken by Gordon Reynolds.  Reynolds is a capable and competent skipper with a thorough knowledge of top competition sailing.  Whether he can match Ingate in Britain remains to be seen.  Caprice of Huon was built in Tasmania 14 years ago to the design of Robert Clarke in Britain.  Her design is that of an eight meter type racer cruiser.  She was brought to Sydney for Division 1 class racing by Olympic star yachtsman, Bill Northam, and her success in this field goes unchallenged.  Caprice has an overall length of 45 ft. with a waterline length of 30 ft. Her beam is 10 ft. and she draws 6 ft. 5 ins.  She is particularly suited to the shorter ocean races, such as the Brittania and N.Y.Y.C. Cups, and is an ideal performer in light weather. 

     Balandra is a much more modern sloop, and is largest of the three to make the journey to Great Britain.  She is a big craft, with an overall length of 46 ft. 2 ins, a waterline length of 35 ft., a beam of 12 ft. and a draft of 7 ft. 6 ins.  She displaces 14.34 tons (of which 7.8 tons are ballast) and carries 1164 square feet of working sail.  With a twin skin of mahogany, she is strong and light, and certainly one of the sleekest and best looking boats in Australia today.  Built in Hobart to a design by Camper and Nicholson in England, she is now owned by R. Crichton-Brown and is based in Sydney. 

     Balandra's British sister ship, Quiver IV scored a resounding success in the Admiral's Cup in 1965 and the battle between the two, if Quiver is selected this year will really be something to watch.  She will probably carry the Australian team's hopes in the long distance races or in heavy weather running.  Balandra is the only one of the three selected Cup boats entered in the 1966 Sydney-Hobart race.

     Mercedes III, a 40 ft. lightweight sloop, is the newest of the three, and was launched only in 1966.  She carries two distinctions- one is that she is Australia's first moulded ocean racer and the other is that she was designed specifically for the Admiral's Cup. Despite cynicism from experts in the field, The yacht was cold moulded by Cec Quilkey.  The job was an outstanding success and produced a yacht with exceptional strength and a remarkably low weight.  Mercedes III owned by Ted Kaufman, of Sydney, looks every inch the ocean racer- sleek, fast, and beautifully finished.  Her recent performances prove the point.  With an overall length of 40 ft. and a waterline length of 31ft. 1.5ins., Mercedes III draws 6ft. 6ins., and has a beam of 11ft. 3ins.  She displaces 9.75 tons and carries a modest 750 square feet of working sail.  

     How Australia's team will fair is of course, in the lap of the gods, but looking at our 1965 performance and our challengers this year there seems to be no reason why there shouldn't be a great deal of confidence that this country can pull off the world's premier yachting trophy at its second attempt.  Other countries competing will probably be England (present holders), Holland (second in 1965), The United States (third last time), France, West Germany, Sweden, Ireland and Italy.  Until July, the three challengers will undergo practice sails, and extensive tuning up and fitting out, and the rest of Australia will have to sit pat and simply wish them luck.

MODERN Boating OCT 1967

RULE AUSTRALIA!

Preparation, consistency, inspired skippering and crew work was secret of Australia's Admiral's Cup win, says Jack Knights.

     Australia should be proud ofher Admiral's cup team; the men of Mercedes III, Balandra and Caprice of Huon.  On their second attempt thy won the Admiral's Cup and by a record margin of 104 points.  The secret was their consistency.  The only race any of them won was by default, when Ted Kaufman of Mercedes III found himself winner of the Britannia Cup, following American Dick Carter's late withdrawal of his already-signed declaration.

     They won because Balandra (Bob Crichton-Brown) was always well placed in Division I, while Mercedes and Caprice (Gordon Reynolds) were almost always in the first three or four places in Division II.

     Mercedes, with her beautiful motion in a seaway, was the most successful boat, winning her class in both the Channel Race (third overall) and in the most important event of the series; the 605 mile Fastnet (again third overall).

     The two others were only so-so boats inspired by fine skippering and sailed above themselves by well-prepared, seasoned and capable crews.  

     Balandra for instance, handily beat her British sister ship Quiver IV, which was sailed by Peter Nicholson, the designer of both, in all four Admiral's Cup events.  (The fact that last winter Quiver was given a separate rudder and skeg may be relevant.) 

     Thirteen year old Caprice developed from a pre-war design of Britain's Robert Clarke with her low freeboard and narrow beam just cannot be as well rated as the latest 1966 and 1967 RORC designs.  Mercedes beat her every time on handicap, but the important thing was that Caprice in her turn beat all her Class II opponents except Britain's Stephens designed Firebrand which sneaked in ahead of her in the two Cowes Week inshore races.

     Gordon Reynolds, Skipper and charterer of Caprice, navigator Bill Fesq and the crew probably did the best crewing job in the whole team. 

     Other teams had sensational successes.  France's Pen Duick IIIwon both the Channel Race and the Fastnet, besides being first home in both, and U.S.A.'s Rabbit II designed, owned and skippered by Dick Carter, which should have won the Britannia Cup, did win the New York Yacht Club Cup and won her class in the Channel.  But these individual performances lacked the necessary team backing to accumulate winning points.  

     After the Channel Race the Aussies were leading by a whopping 26 points with Britain second.  In each succeeding event, they stretched this lead till coming into the last race.  The Fastnet counting treble points, they led by 44.

     This lead, barring accidents, was impregnable.  And there were no accidents, not amongst the Aussies, anyway.  True, Balandra carried away a steering wire sheave while close reaching under spinnaker int the open Atlantic in winds of force 6 or more.  Somehow her crew put things right and soldiered on.   

     In two respects, the Australian team was fortunate; the American team, though it had winning boats- The Southern Offshore Circuit winner Figaro, The Bermuda race winner Thunderbird (a cal 40), The very special-purpose designed steel-hulled Rabbit II andsome top notch sailors such as Lowell, North, Bobby Symonette, Bill Snaith, Dick Carter, Sandy Weld, Norrie Hoyt, and British navigators Mike Ritchie and Erroll Bruce- never seemed to gel as a team.  

     The individuals had had no preliminary working-up races.  They jetted in a day or so before the first race, then jetted out again upon arrival back in Plymouth.  

  The British team was probably a good deal less strong than the one which only just managed to wind up ahead of the first Australian Challenge in 1965.  Its top boat, Dennis Miller's Firebrand, now with a separate rudder and skeg, met it's match in Mercedes (Firebrand beat Mercedes in the New York Cup).

     Its largest yacht, the Class 1 Noryema V, was built at enormous expense last winter for the great enthusiast Ron Amey to the heavy displacement, easy-sectioned designs of Peter Nicholson.  There seems little doubt that she is less successful than the old Noryema IV.  At her best in winds of Force 1-2 and smooth seas, she lacks stiffness, directional stability downwind, and is said to pitch too much in a sea.

     She appears too extreme a design, too full in the garboards with too high a ballast ratio, too heavy a displacement, too potlike a belly.  The third British boat, Arthur Slater's Prospect of Whitby from Yorkshire, a Stephens design, slightly earlier but of the same size and type as Firebrand.  Surprisingly and deservedly ousted Ren Clarke's Quiver IV, sailed by Peter Nicholson, from the British team in the elimination trials.  That effort apparently took too much out of her.  She was unplaced thereafter.  

     The most successful single yacht in the Admiral's Cup series, with its teams from nine countries (Australia, U.S.A., Germany, Finland, Ireland, Spain, Holland, France and Britain), was undoubtedly Eric Tabarly's sensational new schooner Pen Duik III.

     Tabarly will be remembered as the winner of the last Solo Transatlantic with the plywood, double-chine fin keeler Pen Duik II.  For this feat a grateful Charles de Gaulle made him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and saw to it that as a naval lieutenant he would henceforth have any amount of time for sailing.

     All last winter he helped with the design and construction of his new super solo transatlantic yacht, Pen Duik III.

     She is about 58ft. overall, about 41ft. l.w.l (very secretive the French), 9ft. 2in. draft with her fin and true bulb keel, and some 14 ft. wide.  She is double chine, the upper one being radiused, plated from light alloy, and flush decked.  The rectangular spade rudder is aft of the waterline ending.  She is clipper-bowed with a pinched-in counter; two indications of the working of the RORC rule.  

     Most interesting is her schooner rig, the two alloy spars being almost the same length.  In between, she sets either a fully battened foresail or a huge over lapping fisherman staysail or "golliwobbler" with a wishbone gaff sheeted to the mainmast head.  With spinnaker, golliwobbler, main and genoa up, she boasts about 3340 square feet; quite a handful for a crew of nine, let alone a single hander.  She is close-winded like no schooner ought to be, and downwind - fast, fast, fast.  Even with a high rating of over 37ft., she has been winning on handicap as well as coming home first.  It is marvellous to see a boat built for speed beating boats built for rating.  

     The most successful Admiral's Cupper during Cowes Week was Dick Carter's latest Rabbit II.  She is a development of the first Rabbit and Tina, the 1966 One Ton Cup winner.  Like them she is steel-hulled and built by Frans Maas of Breskens, Holland.  Like them she has a short fin keel with trim tab, separate spade rudder, low ballast ratio (35%) and aerodynamically clean rig.

RABBIT'S DIMENSIONS

     She is 42ft. overall, 30ft. l.w.l., 12ft. beam, 6ft. 7in. draft (RORC max. without penalty) and has a displacement of eight tons.  Being amidships, and low, the hefty Saab diesel helps with the stability besides getting a scantling bonus.  Interior room is enormous, the high freeboard and low coachroof contributing to at least 6ft. 7in. headroom.  There are seven berths and good navigational and cooking quarters.  This is a handsome boat and much stiffer than former Carter designs.  

     She actually finished the Britannia Cup third, boat for boat, in a fleet of over 60, many of which were twice as long on the waterline.   Her main mystery is why she didn't do better in the Fastnet Race.  Dick Carter won with Rabbit I in 1965 and Rabbit II looks a much improved yacht.

     The Australians gave notice of their serious intentions, even before they arrived.  The Middle East war and closure of the Suez Canal looked as if it would delay the arrival of the freighted yachts till after the Channel Race.  So Ted Kaufman flew to South Africa and regardless of expense and troubles arranged for transhipment of the yachts to a fast freighter at Genoa.

     The team got to Cowes before their yachts.  They spent the intervening days practising in two borrowed yachts; Lutine and Fedalah.  Specifically, they sniffed out the Solent tides and committed to memory all those intricate little course instructions and provisos which have tripped up so many of the worlds best skippers in past Cowes Weeks.

     The whole Australian approach was more professional, more dedicated, more cohesive and better organised than the others.  Deservedly it triumphed.

     The Admiral's Cup got of to a tame start with the Channel Race.  This 225 miler from Soutsea east to the Royal Sovereign lightship off Beachy Head, then over the Channel to the Le Havre lightship and then back to the Nab Tower and into Spithead gave hardly any beating and was reach, reach, reach all the way.  

     Though the sea never cut up rough, this turned out to be a big-boat race and the corrected slowed downwards, from class to class.  Pen Duik was back in a a fast elapsed time of 31 hr. 14.28min. for the 225 miles.  She was best in fleet on corrected time and second best was the second home; Hans-Otto Schumann's new Stephens designed cutter Rubin, fitted out by Abeking and Rassmussen from a cold moulded plywood shell.

     The Australian Admiral's Cup team showed the consistent high placing which was to be a feature of their British campaign.  Third in Class I was Bob Chrichton-Brown's Balandra, first and second in Class II(a) were Ted Kaufman's Mercedes III and Gordon Reynold's Caprice of Huon.  Dennis Miller's Firebrand, so often a Class II winner was forced into third place.  

     The Britannia Cup, sailed over a 33.5 mile course in the Solent, was one of those races which became trickier as the day wore on; the wind took off and the west going tide turned.

     The Australian team did not show out until the end of the first round; as the course took the fleet through the crowded moorings off Cowes and things got really tricky, they were suddenly there.  Ted Kaufman had Mercedes through Firebrand but not past the beautifully sailed Rabbit II.  Balandra was now well ahead of her British sister Quiver IV.  Caprice always difficult to pick out, was now well up, too. Suddenly the team was leading.  Ten minutes after their poor starts, such an event seemed highly unlikely. 

     Pen Duik led Gitana by two minutes in the end, then came the amazing little Rabbit, third boat for boat in this fleet of over 60, then Firebrand, Mercedes, Noryema, Oryx (French Illingworth and Primrose design), Rubin, Caprice and Balandra. 

     Now came the argument, the protests, the disqualifications and finally the sensational withdrawal by Dick Carter of his signed declaration. 

     The race committee disqualified several, including Gitania for crossing through the starting line when she should have avoided it half way through the first lap.  Oryx protested Rabbit for doing likewise.  At the first protest hearing neither party turned up, so the protest lapsed.  By the afternoon of the next day, Oryx had the matter re-opened.  This time her protest was dismissed since she flew no protest flag.  Then a few moments later, over a drink, Carter decided to retire after all.  His withdrawal handed victory to a blushing Ted Kaufman and hoisted the big Australian points lead still further, since Mercedes, Caprice and Balandra were now first, third and eighth on corrected time.

     The New York YC Cup course was much simpler than that for the protest-ridden Britannia Cup.  The wind stood up better too, often squalling at up to Force 6 with heavy clouds and heavier rain.  This was a fast race and good test of stiffness and of steering when over driven downwind. 

     Gitana IV, after a good start, led by large margins at every mark, finally coming home forty minutes ahead of the next yacht; a huge gap for a 31.5 mile course.

     Corrected times placed Dick Carter's Rabbit II first.

     For the third time running, the well balanced, well prepared, well sailed Australian trio had accumulated more points than any other of the teams from nine countries.  Mercedes, Caprice and Balandra were third, fourth and fifth in fleet on corrected time.  Dennis Miller's Firebrand was in second place.  Teammates Noryema and Prospect of Whitby were unplaced.  

     The Fastnet was a race of ups and downs.  None of the 150 yachts from 12 Countries led all the way.  Pen Duik only took the lead on the way back home from the inhospitable Rock.  Helmsmen all spoke of unusually frequent changes in wind force and direction sailing between Ireland and the Scillies. 

     In the end it turned out to be a big yacht race for once with Pen Duik III and the American yacht Figaro (Bill Snaith) first and second, Australia's Balandra (Bob Crichton-Brown), Britain's Outlaw (Roger Fuller), Germany's Rubin (Hans-Otto Schumann) and France's Oryx (Francois Bouygues) fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, all from Class I.  The only smaller boat to get a look in was Ted Kaufman's Mercedes III, from Australia, top of her class again and third overall.

     Two main factors contributed to the dominance of the larger yachts; on the returnthe wind suddenly piped up from the sou'west just about the time Balandra was weathering the Scillies.  She was able to free sheets and charge homewards; those behind, lead by Diana and Quiver, had to beat around the Scillies in a freshening wind and steepening sea. 

     Those who were not able to finish before Wednesday evening, August 9, the great majority of the fleet, had the wind drop on them.

     Gitana rounded the Rock by nearly four hours, at 06.34 on Monday.  At this stage she was seven hours ahead of her own course record breaking time of 1965 when she finished in three days, nine hours, 40 minutes. 

     Second now was Pen Duick, which had obviously enjoyed the hard downwind sailing.  She turned at 10.25.  Then came Rubin 11.10, Figaro (rigged as a cutter for the occasion) 11.22, Carina 11.54, Oryx 11.58, outlaw 12.17, Levantades 12.58, Balandra 13.27, Diana 13.52, Quiver IV 14.28, Noryema V 15.10.  First of the Class II yachts was Caprice of Huon at 16.04 with teammate Mercedes next at 16.50.

     The trickiest, most fateful part of the race was the few miles after the Rock.  Most yachts encountered sloppy seas near the lighthouse and some ran into calm.  Those who didn't nearly all encountered calm patches later.  Having gone east by south, the wind now gave a long beat back and to weather of the Scillies; the question was; whether to make a first starbboard tack sou'east or a port tack sou'west?

     The port tack turned out to be the correct one.  Gitana went off on starboard and paid dearly for the error.  Soon She had more trouble; her jib halyard went and then the mainsail headboard pulled out.  With the wind Force 6 or so and a matching Atlantic, there was no question about anybody trying to climb to the peak of her 120ft. mast.

     Pen Duick finished at 01.39 on the morning of Wednesday, August 9, having averaged 6.88 knots around the course.  Figaro was next in at 06.23, a fine performance after the poor showing in the Channel race, when a limpet-like lobster pot was blamed, and the inshore races, when it began to look as if the extra two tons of lead was harming her.

     After her came the Illingworth desined Outlaw, then Dick Nye's Carina, twice a winner, then the sisters Levantades and Rubin, then Oryx, a French Outlaw.  Mercedes was the first Class II boat at 16.08, then came Caprice, and two hours later Firebrand.

FINAL ADMIRAL'S CUP POINTS: Australia 495, Britain 388, U.S.A. 358, France 350, Germany 288, Finland 285, Holland 182, Ireland 169, Spain 78.  Individual boat scores: Mercedes III (Aust.) 177, Balandra (Aust.) 164, Rubin (Germany) 154, Caprice of Huon (Aust.) 154, Firebrand (Eng.) 152, Pen Duick (France) 140, Oryx (France) 134, Noryema V (Eng.) 134, Thunderbird (U.S.) 121, Rabbit II (U.S.) 121, Figaro (U.S.) 116, Prospect of Whitby (Eng.) 102.