Ben arrived at MARIN on 28th April 1981 and he left to go back to Australia on 17th June 1981. He was therefore in Holland for about 7 weeks and not 4 months as has been reported in the media.

Of those 7 weeks he was at MARIN (in the office we had given him) only on 28th and 29th April, on 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 15, 18, 19, 21, 25, 26, 27 and 29th May, and further on 9, 10, 15 and 16th June 1981 (a total of 21 days).

While in Holland he travelled to Lloyds in London for meetings on the construction and he took Yvonne to see parts of the Netherlands and Germany. By early June 1981 he was longing to go back to Australia. He used to say that he was sick of our food (cheese). He sent a telex to Warren Jones on 15th June 1981 in which he stated that he would "come home" Saturday 20th June and that he would be at the tank on 18 and 19 June 1981 (he wasn't, as he left on 17th June).

The project commenced on 1st May with the testing of the base "Australia" model and finished on 10th September 1981 when we sent full-scale tracings (lofting) on plastic of the hull, keel and rudder to be built.

The following documents attest to this as follows:

1. A telex to Ben that he should not come to Marin before 25th April because of the tests starting on 1st May, see the attached document;

2. An internal MARIN memo (in Dutch) dated 15th April 1981 that Ben would arrive at MARIN on 28th April 1981. This memo also states that Ben agreed to the proposed keel calculations at the Aerospace laboratory by Joop Slooff's people, see the attached document;

3. A hotel booking for Ben and Yvonne for the period from 27th April 1981 to 11th May 1981, see the attached document;

4. A telex to Warren Jones dated 15th June 1981 about going home, see the attached document;

5. A list of what Ben wanted to take home with him (in his own handwriting) given to me on 16th June 1981 (this list refers to the drawings we had made, of which he wanted to take copies), see the attached document;

6. A letter to Ben dated 10th September 1981 about the dispatch of the full-size tracings (lofting) of the boat and the 1 to 10 scale linesplan, see the attached document;

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