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"If it doesn't break, it's probably too heavy," is a motto for architects, builders and sailors in the America's Cup. But on Sunday, March 5th, 1995, during the 4th Round of the Louis Vuitton Cup, Australian skipper John Bertrand would have preferred that oneAustralia AUS-35 was too HEAVY!
When the yacht started its second windward leg in pursuit of Black Magic II NZL-38, pounding into a strong 1.5 metre swell, and winds of 20 knots, a terrible crack was heard. oneAustralia seemed to break in two, just behind the main winches. Rod Davis exclaimed: "I think we are going to sink", and his prediction was confirmed immediately by Iain Murray. In fact, the boat sank incredibly quickly. John Bertrand hardly had time to alert the two crewmembers who were working down below in the hold. 17 men threw themselves into the water to be scooped up by chasing boats. The yacht sunk in 1 minute and 40 seconds to the bottom, 150 metres below. Experts later calculated that the boat, pulled down by its 19-ton ballast, would have hit the bottom at a speed of at least 12 knots! Enough to destroy irreparably the second oneAustralia. The wreck lies off San Diego, the first yacht to have sunk whilst racing in the America's Cup.
Later the same evening, despite having lost six spinnakers, which sank with the boat, John Bertrand decided to continue racing with the first boat built by his team, oneAustralia AUS-31. The "old" boat was beamier than the second boat. It also had more wetted surface and weighed 300 kilos more. This partially explains the disaster. The structure of the second hull had been reduced - it also appears that the box which supports the structure of the keel did not rise up to the bridge and that its reinforcements had been reduced. Furthermore, during the 3rd Round Robin, AUS-35 had struck an submerged object or a whale whilst sailing at full speed, likely weakening the structure of the boat.
After the disaster, the CEO of the OneAustralia Challenge, Dr. Peter Morris, concluded not without humor: "that answers the two-boat controversy"... Indeed a little bit earlier, John Bertrand had managed to convince the Arbitration Panel '95 about a delicate question. He argued that the two Australian challenges, OneAustralia, which he chaired, and the Australian Challenge led by Syd Fisher, could benefit from a common architectural team, Fluid Thinking. Some had considered it as a possible violation of the "two new boat limit rule" per syndicate. It was true that the first oneAustralia AUS-31 raced for a long time with Sydney' 95 AUS-29. The second oneAustralia AUS-35 was then built long after these full scale 'tests'. Bertrand's last tour de force was to group together numerous talents in this architectural team, to make them work together to build an exceptional boat: oneAustralia AUS-35, which in the event appeared to be the only one capable of challenging Team New Zealand's domination on the race course. When Bertrand resorted to the "old" AUS-31, Peter Blake's men took out their trump card by racing 'the mighty 32', Black Magic I NZL-32, the boat which would eventually go on to win the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America's Cup Match.
J.T./pr
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Year of building
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1994 |
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Launched
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1994 |
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Edition 29(1995)
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Crew
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16 |
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Hull
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Carbon Fiber |
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Mast
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Carbon Fiber |
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L.O.A
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24.15 |
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L.W.L
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18.1 |
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Mast
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Beam
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4.15 |
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Boom
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Sail Area
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Displacament
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24.8 |
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Draft
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Rating
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IACC |
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Ballast
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