Bwnham in aucn (~ mce as the back-up helmsman were indeed a fonnidable team . Many friendships were made from LhaL original onslaught which still exist strongly today .
The deed of gift differed from that of the America ' s Cup and provided for the venue to alter · nate between San Francise < 1 and Palm Beach regard · less of the holder of Lbe cup . Wilh the next challenge to take place in San Francisco in 1973 , John Taylor remined his loyalty and commissioned Sparkman and Stephens to design a new 6 meu-e . After their failure with Valio111 , Olin Stephens produced a new
12 metre yacht , which became Courageous and was the defending yacht for the 1974 and 1977 cha !· lenges . From the Co11rageo11s theme , the Australian
6 metre yacht was built by Halvorsen and Gowland and became Pacemaker .
Taylor realised ! hat he would need the best yacht , crew , sails and rig to matcb the expertise of the San Franciscans . With this in mind he invited David Forbes to take on this responsibility . David selected tl1e young Victorian , John Bertrand , to act as tacti · ciao and the remainder of ihe crew consisted of Rob
Antill , Rick Le Plastriere and John Hebden . Pace · maker gave a good account of herself in this series , winning the first race but surrendering it as lhe result of a protest lodged by Tom Blackaller . Blackaller won the next three races by narrow margins and retained ! he cup for the St Francis Yacht Oub .
The club conducted the world ehnmpiQnships foT the lntemallona ! Soling class in 1974 which was won by the Great Dane , Paul Elvsll ' Om . During this series Paul indicated that he had carried out considerable tank Le . Sting on large models for Baron Bich with a view 10 designing a 12 metre yacht for tbe Baron . Elvstrom considered ~ tat a 6 metre yacht could be designed from the results of these tests and would be faster than other conventionally designed 6 metre yachts . A group of enthusiastic club members banded together and fonned a syndicate which raised slightly over $ 33 000 . and a decision was taken to have Elvstrom design a 6 metre and the Sydney boaibuilder , BW Barnett , was contracted to build the yacht Pri11ce Alfred .
This new creation . be . 1utifully built of Honduras mahagoay , gained wide publicity in the yachting world becau • e of a large bulb incorporated in the bow , under the water . The bulb was designed to give tl1e yacht a theoretical longer water line due to the wave-making effect created by the bulb . The same principle applies to large commercial ships fitted with bulbous bows .
A challenge was held in 1976 , St Francis shipped out Sr Francis VI , a new design from Gary Mull . The Swedes were also represented and challenged with Maybe X . The series between Australia snd Sweden resulted in a win for Prince Alfred by four matches to one . However , the helmsman , David Forbes , and Elvsb · om ( sailing on board as tactician ) were not satisfied with her windward ability due to ihe lee helm which was evident . The rig wasmovedasfaraft as was possible but this alteration did not achieve the desired effect . Because of the pre .~ nce of the Ice helm the large trim tab , constructed oflead , could not be used . The yacht was designed to carry about two to three degrees of tab when sailing to windward to induce lift and prevenl lateral slip . It was apparent that the unusual wave-making crealed by the bul · bous bow affected tlle matl1emarics associated with the balance bciween hull and rig , and the yacht was never capable of being ' balanced '.
Tom Blackaller , sailing St Francis VI , took tl1e final series four matches to nil and held tl1e cup for the third thnc .
In 1979 it was Australia ' s cum 10 travel to the United States for the 4th challenge . After tlie controversial ' 76 challenge , funds were much harder to raise , however sufficient money was raised to enable acharterof Pacemaker , the 1973 challenge , from the owners in Seattle . Peter O ' Donnell , witll Richard Coxon , Richard Lawson , Graham Taylor and Lee Killingwonh . with a patched up Pacemaker ( she had lost her mast in lhe world championships ) Jost against Maybe XlJ . in the eliminations held on San Francisco Bay . Tom Blackaller was able to defeat Malin Burnham and Ted Turner in the defender eliminations and weal on to win the final against Sweden .
Prince Alji · ed l /.
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