Advance
Written by Gavin Bollard in 2020
from reminiscences by Bill Bollard
The America's Cup, 1983
At 5:21pm, Newport time (8:21am AEST) on 26 September 1983, Australia celebrated one of the greatest sailing victories of all time, winning the America’s cup with Australia II. A trophy which had been successfully defended for 132 years. There are a lot of stories about that time and most Australians know all about Alan Bond and Ben Lexcen’s incredible boat.
What most people do not remember is that Australia sent three challengers to the united states for this race. Australia II, Challenge 12 and Advance.
This is the story of Advance, the forgotten challenger.
Australia and the Cup
Australia’s involvement in the America’s cup stretches back to 1962 when Sir Frank Packer of the Royal Sydney Yacht club challenged in “Gretel”, designed by Alan Payne. The American defense was successful, but Gretel became the first yacht to win an America’s cup race in thirty years.
In 1967, Australia sent Dame Pattie
Australia returned a decade later with Gretel II, again designed by Alan Payne and this time, captained by John Bertrand who would eventually go on to win in Australia II. Gretel II won two races but were stripped of their win by the NYYC.
In 1974, Alan Bond bankrolled the challenge with “Southern Cross”, followed by “Australia” in 1977 and 1980. For the 1983 challenge, he built a new boat with Ben Lexcen. Australia II.
In 1983, there was a second challenger being from Victoria headed by Dick Pratt. “Challenge 12” was also designed by Ben Lexcen but was rejected in favour of Australia II’s winged keel. She was superior to Australia II in heavy winds and was used to great advantage to prepare Australia II for the cup. Challenge 12 was skippered by James Hardie.
The third challenger, “Advance” came from Sydney. It was bankrolled by Syd Fisher and was designed by Alan Payne. It was skippered by 18-foot skiff champion, Iain Murray. At 24, he was the youngest helmsman to enter the cup. While the design was considered “very radical”, it was under-resourced and designed for conditions which did not appear. It proved ultimately too slow for the race.
The Sydney Design Team
Syd Fisher
The Sydney team was bankrolled by Syd Fisher, an Australian businessman and property developer. He was also a very accomplished sailor. Over the years, he was behind five America’s Cup challengers, with “Advance” being his first. He had line honors and handicap honors in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race and was recognized as Australian Yachtsman of the Year (1971) and Australian Ocean Racer of the Year in 1993, 1996 and 2002.
Syd was very much the businessman and he left the design of the advance entirely up to Alan Payne and his team. He met Alan’s model-makers, Bill Bollard and Howard Peachey a couple of times and presented them with a tie pin each just prior to departing for the USA.
Alan Payne
Alan Payne was born in London in 1921 but emigrated to Australia when he was four. He had a long involvement with Australian boating and was the first Naval Architect to graduate from Sydney Technical College in 1945. He was also a crew member on the Horizon the first Sydney to Hobart yacht race (1945).
Alan’s first involvement in the America’s cup was with “Gretel” in 1962, for Sir Frank Packer. His second was “Gretel II” in 1970. Advance, 1983 would be his final design for the cup.
Alan was given the award of a Member of the Order of Australia for services to naval architecture on 13 June 1993. He died in Sydney in June 1995.
Photo from National Archives of Australia, 1961
Howard Peachy
Howard Peachey was born around 1945 and served his apprenticeship at Goat Island and in his last year when that Bill Bollard worked there. They crossed paths again when Bill started working with John Doherty. His first day was Howard’s last, as he was leaving to work with Alan Payne on Gretel 2. Howard sailed with Ron Robinson in the 18-footer “Ampol”, he also sailed with Bill once or twice in the 12-footers. When Gretel 2 left for America Howard and a mate sailed a plywood yacht across the Pacific intending to go to Newport for the Cup, but left the yacht at the East coast and flew the rest of the way. When he came back he went to work with Alan becoming a Partner.
Howard now lives in Adelaide with his wife Frances and until his retirement was working for the Harbour board there as a surveyor. He and Bill keep in touch by email.
Bill Bollard
Bill Bollard was born in Sydney in 1940. He built his first boat aged 14 years and was an accomplished skiff sailor, boat designer and boat and model builder. Bill was known for his work on skiffs as well as yachts, tugs and offshore supply vessels. His models are displayed prestigious yachting clubs and museums around the world.
Bill worked with Alan Payne on the Advance and on the Sydney ferries project before moving to Sydney Waterways to become a surveyor. Bill is retired now and lives at the central coast with his wife Doris. He is still heavily involved with the local skiff racing and model making clubs.
The Design Specifications
The 12-Metre design process is a complex one and all designs have to fit the “International 12-Metre rule” which is as follows;
The 12 Metre Rule
In this equation.
L is the waterline length.
d is the difference between the chain girth and hull skin girth measured amidships.
S is the sail area.
F is the freeboard.
A Unique Design
Advance was quite different to most 12 metres and was designed to suit specific conditions at a specific location. There was not a lot of room for error or for changed conditions.
The 12-meter rating rule is quite complicated and as it was Alan’s third involvement in the process, the calculations were left up to him. Alan gave the team the optimum waterline length and displacement which suited the sail area for the Newport winds for that time of the year.
He was aiming for a small hull shape and small keel that would develop some lift to windward.
One of the key issues with this design was that it was specifically tailored for light winds. This meant that if the winds freshened, the boat was far less stable.
Initial Modelling - In Plasticine
The modelling process started with two model boards, one for Howard and one for Bill.
Bill made two topside models with bow and stern overhangs also with the same waterline plan view suggested by Alan. He measured out a cubic block of plasticine that matched the displacement required.
Alan said not to ask for more plasticine and not to throw any away. This ensured that the displacement was correct in each model.
These models are not the Advance (which was not permitted to be photographed at this stage) but are of a yacht that Bill designed around the same time.
Plasticine was chosen because it was incompressible, and the same block could be used for several hull shapes.
There were always two models being built at the same time. While one was being modelled, the other would be altered ready for the next lines lift. This method allowed the team to model about many different versions and gave Alan a good idea which ones were best.
As a security measure, Alan had Bill make a couple of metal boxes to fit over the models and padlock them each night.
Approximately 30 different hull shapes were tested by Bill and Howard during the shaping process. Alan would be there with a plastic fairing batten checking the shape. It would only take a day or two to come up with a hull shape from which they would then lift off the section shapes by jotting down the offset numbers.
These numbers were then sent to Phil Helmore, who was the senior Naval Architect at Sydney University and in charge of the mainframe computer there. He would crunch the numbers and Alan would spend the night at home going through the computer results.
The design team would have a round table discussion next morning to discuss how we would change the models. The results were Displacement, wetted surface area, Longitude and vertical centres of gravity and Waterplane Inertia.
On completion of the plasticine tests Alan had enough information to narrow the selection down to two models. These two models where to be made 1/10 scale laminated western red cedar light enough to have some ballast and to float on the designed waterline. Bill built these models, and they were tested at Alan's brother swimming pool which was long enough for Alan to watch and record wave formation with video camera.
The models were loaded with lead ballast so that they heeled the models to approximately 30 degrees to the vertical and we were timed at a walking pace with a towing rod to the model.
The Keel
At the time of design, the Winged Keel used by Ben Lexcen was unknown so there was no chance of using this technological advantage. The small keel on the Advance had little volume for lead ballast which meant the centre of gravity was too high and the boat lacked stability in strong winds.
Alan did give Bill a chance to design his own model and he included a keel bulb on the bottom for more ballast, recognising the heavy wind limitations of the Advance. It was not used. After 1983 it became apparent that the English Challenger that year had a yacht with a bulb keel but it was not successful.
Further Modelling
Alan had gotten hold of a lines plan for the Enterprise. He was a friend of Owen Stephens, a famous US designer who designed a lot of the defenders. The Enterprise was regarded as the most scientifically tested design at the time.
To test the Advance against a known benchmark, two models of 1/20 scale were built. One was of the Enterprise and the other was from the final plasticine model with some slight design changes. Both models were rigged with a single cat rigged sail.
The Two Testing Models
Alan asked Bill to build bigger models, one was to be the modified "best" of the smaller 1/10 models and the other was to be a model of “Enterprise”. The larger models where built to 1/3 scale about 6 metres length overall. These models had ballast cast in lead to a pattern to fit their respective keels. The models were built in the old boat shed of Roy Phillips, who sold the shed out to the Balmain sailing club when Roy Phillips moved north.
When the models were almost finished, there was a whisper of espionage and it was decided late one night to remove the models from the shed and transport them to Alan's brother's house at Mosman where they were completed.
After the Cup races it was discovered that Phil Holmes had been working on Australia 2's keel plug for lead casting at the same time and in the same area of Balmain as the large models next to the sailing club. While it is unlikely that anything happened, his presence was probably enough to start the rumours of espionage.
The large models were built using 12 mm foam sandwich construction glassed inside and out with epoxy resin. They both had cast lead keel fitted and trim tabs on aft edges of the keel. The rudders were operated remotely from each hull by a push/pull Teflon tube and enclosed wire, controlled from a small rubber boat behind.
The models were fitted onto two cradles with four small wheels each and were loaded on to a trailer and taken to Saratoga where they where rigged with a mast and single sail and launched into Brisbane waters. Testing took place during the winter months of 1982.
Alan had borrowed a Halvorsen cruiser in which the testing crew of Alan Payne, Howard Peachey, Bill Bollard and Malcolm Griffiths camped to test sail the boats against each other. Testing took a couple of weeks and the models were taken out at the weekends and taken to a warehouse in West Gosford.
The Advance model had some small changes made using micro balloons and epoxy resin.
When the testing was completed, Bill left the team and took a job with the Maritime Services Board. He was still involved with the project when it came to fairing of the hull built by Syd Fisher's factory at Annadale.
Construction
The advance was constructed by Aqacraft in Aluminium at the James Hardie Industries site at Balmain.
She was named on Friday, 8th October 1982 at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.
Overall Performance
The budget for the Advance was extremely tight and the syndicate could not raise enough money to cover a research budget. Alan’s overall design budget was $60K, compared to Ben Lexcen’s $500K for Australia II. The financial difficulties continued for the Advance in Newport where they were unable to finance the hauling and cleaning of the hull or even their accommodation.
The budgetary impact meant that unlike Australia II, the team could not access external technologies such as the Wageningen towing tank, could not run simulations and could not adapt to different conditions.
New sails were not provided until the boat arrived in the United States and this prevented the young crew from being able to get the best out of them before the trials commenced.
Skipper Iain Murray, at 24 years, was the youngest ever helmsman in the America's cup and although he was already an exceptional sailor, this was the first time he'd sailed a twelve metre. He would often complain about handling and asked for a bigger rudder. He was frequently told that he needed to use the trim tabs on the keel but kept falling back to the rudder. Iain was a great skiff sailor and in hindsight this over-reliance on the rudder stemmed from inexperience and would have worked itself out had he been given more sailing time and instruction before the races.
The choice to adapt the keel specifically for light winds also proved to be a poor one. It had the side effect of making the Advance more difficult to manoeuvre and her crew came to refer to her as the "dog" and as their skills improved, the “good dog”.
Ultimately, Advance won two races and lost twenty-two in the trials and was eliminated.
The Advance under sail (1983)
