[4] The story of Miss Nylex began in 1971 when a syndicate was established to build a yacht to defend the ICCT, which Australia had won from Denmark in 1970.
[4] Buzaglo and Strange had known the yacht designer and automotive engineer Roy Martin since the early 1960s through local Melbourne sailing networks, including the Australian Catamaran Association.
After assessing the likely challenger from the United States, the syndicate decided that the existing defender, Quest III (ICCT winner in 1970), would probably be superior, giving them the freedom to experiment with something new without jeopardising Australia's chance of winning.
[1] Drawing on his aeronautical expertise, designer Roy Martin developed a 'rigid aerofoil rig' or solid wingsail, which was highly efficient in upwind sailing conditions.
The test wingsail was mounted on the hulls of the catamaran ‘The Adventurer’, another Roy Martin design developed for Sailcraft Australia.
[4] Upwind, Miss Nylex had no equal and at the time was the fastest catamaran in the world, breaking the speed record for an Australian yacht at 24 knots.
[4] However, early versions of Miss Nylex were problematic and the boat had too much power when sailing downwind in winds of over 20 knots.
[8] Miss Nylex was highly competitive and considered by many to be the superior boat, but the selectors (Jock Sturrock, Russ Gibbons and Bob Clark)[11] conservatively opted for Quest III, the Charlie and Lindsay Cunningham entrant, as the Australian contender for that series.
Miss Nylex was faster in the trials, but the syndicate did not have a spare wingsail if anything got damaged during the race and the selectors were also cautious about the reliability of the revolutionary new design.
Quest III had been highly tuned during the selection trials and comfortably beat Weathercock four races to nil, winning the trophy for Australia for a second time.
For the Australian selection trials in 1974, the design of Miss Nylex had been refined and the wingsail rig had been modified to eliminate many of the earlier problems of too much power in high winds.
The rigging had been modified to allow much greater wing rotation for downwind sailing and for reducing power in heavy weather conditions.
Miss Nylex was known to be superior in winds over 15 knots, which meant that race day weather conditions would significantly influence the result.
[8] After the 1976 race, Miss Nylex was offered for sale to Tony Di Mauro of Connecticut, owner of C-Class catamaran 'Patient Lady', but he declined due to the price being too high, saying it would cost him over AUD$30,000 to purchase the boat.
[8] Miss Nylex has an aerofoil wingsail similar to an aircraft wing with two trailing edge flaps, which are attached with simple hinges.
The hull shape chosen for Miss Nylex had the lowest wetted surface area over the widest range of heel angles.
[1] The second set of hulls, used for the 1976 campaign, was built by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation in Melbourne (where Roy Martin once worked).
The centreboards and rudders were also carefully designed to maximise performance and are made of highly polished wood to minimise drag.
[10] The forces of the wingsail rig were so well distributed into the hulls that the control gear proved very reliable and no significant failures were experienced in the four or five main years that the boat raced.