by Bond once again in 1986 to design a defender for the 1987 America's Cup. He designed Australia III and Australia IV for Bond's two boat defense program. Australia IV was ultimately defeated by the Iain Murray designed and skippered Kookaburra III in the Defender Trials. Steve Ward (builder of all four "Australias" maintains that Lexcen's design was not at fault but that Australia IV was uncompetitive due to last minute design modifications ordered by the upper echelons of Bond Corporation. Australia IV was originally designed to be longer on the waterline with less sail area similar to Conner's winning design. Australia competed in the Cup without a Lexcen designed boat for the first time in ten years. Kookaburra III lost in the finals to Dennis Conner and his American challenger, Stars & Stripes 87, 4 races to nil. Death Lexcen died suddenly in Manly, New South Wales on 1 May 1988, of a heart attack at 52 years of age. He is buried at Frenchs Forest Cemetery located in Davidson, New South Wales. Legacy In 1989, the Toyota Lexcen was released by Toyota Australia in Ben Lexcen's honour. The car was a rebadged Holden VN Commodore and was built in Australia under the Button Plan. Production lasted until 1997. In 1988 the University of New South Wales named its newly created sports scholarships the Ben Lexcen Sports Scholarships. These scholarships were the first sports scholarships to be offered by an Australian university. In 2006, Lexcen was posthumously inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame. See also Sailing yachts designed by Ben Lexcen In 2022, Netflix released Untold: The Race of the Century, a film about the Australian team's win in the 1983 race, including footage of Lexcen. References Bibliography 1936 births 1988 deaths 1980 America's Cup sailors 1987 America's Cup 20th-century Australian architects America's Cup yacht designers Australian Champions Soling Australian male sailors (sport) Australian yacht designers Members of the Order of Australia Sailors at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Soling Sportspeople from Newcastle, New South Wales Olympic sailors of Australia Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees