Ben Lexcen

Ben Lexcen ( born March 19, 1936 as Bob Miller; † 1 May 1988) was an Australian yacht designer and designer.

His greatest success was in 1983, the victory of which he designed 12-Metre yacht Australia II in the 25th America's Cup. For the first time a design from outside the U.S. had won the bottomless pot. Ben Lexcens innovation was the winged keel, with the Australia II was able to rotate or turn faster and higher could sail to the wind. But the defeated Americans accused him of a violation of the nationality rule because he had called in Dutch experts to construct the revolutionary winged keel.

The losing skipper Dennis Conner caught up in the next 26 America's Cup 1987 Cup ahead of Australia (Perth ) in the high waves of the Indian Ocean with 4-0 victories back to the U.S.. Conner's Stars & Stripes yacht also took advantage of a wing keel and so relativized Ben Lexcens construction.

Ben Lexcen designed, among other things, the very challenging for sailing single-handed trapeze dinghy Contender.

Honors

Because of his outstanding achievements as a designer for the America 's Cup, he was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 2006. The car model Toyota Lexcen was named after him.