In 1960 he raced in the Easter regatta at Paynesville, Victoria, Australia, and won against a field of 300 boats.
Crowther then studied electrical engineering in Melbourne[2] and in the early 1960s became involved in multihull design and the Amateur Yacht Research Society.
[3] Later, Lockie decided to give up his day job in Melbourne and move to Sydney to design multihulls full-time.
[3] A notable design was the trimaran Spirit of America, an early user of GRP-foam sandwich construction featuring composite beams with unidirectional fibres and turned-down ends.
Crowther also developed 'bulbous bows' to reduce pitching, and thus increase speed when sailing upwind in a swell.