Courageous has beendesigned by Olin Stephens with the assistae of David Pedrick for the 22nd 1974 America's Cup; she is another landmark in the design of Twelves being the first 12mR built in aluminium alloy according to the Lloyd's scantling rules new standards authorizing this material in the building of Twelves. This means an advantage of about two tons in the weight of the hull and in fact Courageous is a light boat, quite conservative in her lines and very elegant. Also, the availability of lighter material encouraged new thinking about hull form. Courageous' geometry represents a new interpretation of the 1967 Intrepid. As designed, the lighter aluminum hull suggested extra ballast, and that made possible a slightly shorter and finer ended hull than the earlier boat, with lower profiles at both ends. She is one of the first Twelves having a computer systems installed on board enabling tuning and sail testing. The Defense Trials were raced between Courageous, Heritage, Intrepid and Valiant; the fisrt skipper was Bob Bavier, who was later replaced by Ted Hood. Dennis Conner was the starting helmsman, marking the start of his long career with the America's Cup. She was appointed official defender after beating Intrepid. Courageous handily defeated the Australian Southern Cross by four races to one in the America's Cup Match. In the same year she also won the Chandler Hovey Gold Bowl (NYYC).