Iain Murray (born 14 April 1958) is an Australian

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...

and yacht designer Murray is known for his success in the 18 ft skiff class, appearances in

12-Metre Class The 12 Metre class is a rating class for racing sailboats that are designed to the International rule. It enables fair competition between boats that rate in the class whilst retaining the freedom to experiment with the details of their designs. ...

yachts in the 1983 and 1987

America's Cup The America's Cup is a sailing competition and the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one from the yacht club that currently holds the trophy (known ...

regattas, innovation in yacht design, management of the 2013 and 2017 America's Cup and global SailGP and for winning a second World Championship in the

Etchells The International Etchells Class is one-design sailboat racing class, designed by American Skip Etchells. Production The first 36 boats were built by Skip Etchells and the Old Greenwich Boat Company between 1967 and 1969. In the early 1970s ...

class 35 years after the first.

Sailing career

Murray started sailing in Flying Ant class dinghies at the age of nine. His first major event win was at the 1973 Australian

Cherub A cherub (; : cherubim; ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'') is one type of supernatural being in the Abrahamic religions. The numerous depictions of cherubim assign to them many different roles, such as protecting the entrance of the Garden of ...

Championships at the age of fourteen in a boat he had designed and built himself at the age of twelve. He won regattas including 6 consecutive 18 foot skiff World Championships, leading to his appearances in

yachts in the

regattas, and then for his long-standing involvement with the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. This includes 26 races, and three overall victories, one as a designer, builder and skipper of Bumblebee 5 in 2001. A 14-year association as tactician and helmsman on super maxi Wild Oats X1 contributed to nine Line Honours victories. For the 2022 Rolex Sydney to Hobart, Murray is sailing master on rival supermaxi Andoo Comanche.

Olympic career

He represented Australia in

Sailing at the 2008 Summer Olympics Sailing/Yachting is an Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad ( 1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece). With the exception of 1904 and possibly the cancelled 1916 Summer Olympics, sailing has always been included on the Olympic s ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, raced the Olympic

Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

class

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...

. In the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, alongside Victor Kovalenko, he managed the Australian Olympic Men's 470 team of Mat Belcher and Will Ryan to gold-medal victory.

Sailing awards

Murray won the 18 ft skiff world title, the

JJ Giltinan International Trophy The JJ Giltinan International Trophy is considered the world's premier 18 foot dinghy, 18-foot skiff open championship, the eponymous brainchild of noted Australian sports entrepreneur J. J. Giltinan. Early days – 1930s and 1940s In the early ...

, for six consecutive years from 1977 to 1982. He was recognised as the Australian Yachtsmen of the Year in 1984. In the same year he won the World

championship held in Sydney, a title he won again in Corpus Christi, Texas in 2019 with Colin Beashel and Richard Allanson. He was awarded Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron Yachtsman of the Year in 2020. In 2023, Murray was inducted to the

Australian Sailing Hall of Fame Australian Sailing Hall of Fame was established in 2017 by Australian Sailing in collaboration with the Australian National Maritime Museum. There are two nomination categories: the sailor or athlete category; and the general category which recogni ...

Boat design

Murray developed the Nippa 2.65m dinghy for children, and also in partnership with Ian Burns and Andy Dovell, designed the Murray 41, the Sydney 36, 38 and 46, the Magic 25 and classic motor boats such as Cambria 11 and Oscar all built by Azzura Yachts.

America's Cup

Racing

In the

1983 America's Cup The 1983 America's Cup was a 12-metre class yacht racing series which pitted the defending New York Yacht Club's ''Liberty'' against the Royal Perth Yacht Club's challenger, ''Australia II''. The September 1983 series of match races was won ...

challenge at

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and nort ...

, Murray sailed on

Syd Fischer Sydney Fischer (4 March 1927 – 23 February 2023) was an Australian businessman, property developer and sailor. He was also a rugby league player with Manly Warringah. Most noted for his sailing, Fischer was described as Australia's most suc ...

's ''Advance''. ''

Australia II ''Australia II'' (KA 6) is an Australian 12-metre-class America's Cup challenge racing yacht that was launched in 1982 and won the 1983 America's Cup for the Royal Perth Yacht Club. Skippered by John Bertrand, she was the first successf ...

'' went on to win the Cup and bring it to Australia. Murray joined

Kevin Parry Kevin John Parry (1933 – 26 November 2010) was a businessman from Western Australia, most noted for his backing of the Taskforce '87 syndicate which unsuccessfully defended the 1987 America's Cup in Fremantle, Western Australia. The defence cos ...

's Taskforce '87 syndicate and co-designed and skippered their ''Kookaburra'' yachts. '' Kookaburra III'' won the defender elimination trials against three other Australian syndicates including Alan Bond's Australia 111, off

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

. Racing contracts prevented the winning syndicate from amending a boat to meet the waterline length of the American contender Stars & Stripes 87, rendering a proper defense unachievable and resulting in a four nil defeat.

Management

He was Regatta Director for the

34th America's Cup The 34th America's Cup was a series of yacht races held in San Francisco Bay in September 2013. The series was contested between the defender Oracle Team USA team representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club, and the challenger Emirates Team New Zeala ...

in 2013, 35th America's Cup in 2017, and

36th America's Cup The 2021 America's Cup in March 2021 was the 36th staging of the America's Cup yacht race. It was contested on the inner Hauraki Gulf off Auckland, New Zealand, between the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Circolo della Vela Sicilia of It ...

in 2021, 37th America’s Cup in 2024 and CEO of America's Cup Race Management.Seventh team now confirmed. ''americascup'', 4 February 2011
/ref> He is the Regatta Director for SailGP since its inception in 2018.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Iain 1958 births Living people Australian male sailors (sport) 1987 America's Cup sailors Sailors at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Star Olympic sailors for Australia 2000 America's Cup sailors 1983 America's Cup sailors 1995 America's Cup sailors America's Cup yacht designers Etchells class world champions World champions in sailing for Australia Sailors (sport) from Sydney Sportsmen from New South Wales 20th-century Australian sportsmen