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News & Events - New South Wales
Spirit of Mystery, the little wooden boat sailed by Pete Goss and his family crew to Australia last year in a re-enactment of a historic voyage 155 years ago, is to return home to Cornwall.
The 37-foot Mounts Bay lugger is currently in Port Kembla, Australia, being prepared for loading aboard a container ship bound for Holland. There she will be unloaded and finish the journey under sail to her spiritual home in Cornwall.
The ship survived storms and a knockdown in the Southern Ocean while sailing the 11,800 mile voyage, which shone a spotlight on the bravery of seven Cornishman who made the journey to seek out a better life and become the smallest migrant vessel ever to make it to Australia.
Spirit of Mystery is made of locally sourced wood and has history literally built into her. The keel, stem and stern were made from a tough hardwood called Ekki. Fallen Cornish Oak makes up the frames, with Larch for the planking and Ash for the tiller and sweeps. Pete sourced a piece of oak from Nelson’s Victory, teak from the Cutty Sark and a part of the rigging from the SS Great Britain. With so much local history and so many happy memories in her, Pete decided she should return to Cornwall rather than dry up under the burning Australian sun.
He said that he was excited about getting her home in time for the sailing season in the UK: “I have to say I have wrestled with the decision as to whether I should sail her home or ship her ever since we arrived in Melbourne. My heart wanted to sail her but looking at life, commitments and other projects I have in the pipeline, it was readily apparent that I didn’t have the time slot. Once I had made it the decision just felt right and I am now really excited about getting her home, we have missed her.”
An added bonus for Pete is that the ship is returning complete with her dinghy Tacker, which was feared lost forever in the Southern Ocean knockdown. This incident turned out to be the start of her own little adventure. The intrepid little boat drifted over a thousand miles and turned up in King Island between Tasmania and Australia, where she was spotted by local boys and after much detective work and some restoration reunited with Spirit of Mystery.
That Thin Line Between Bold And Insane..
This morning, one of the greatest Australian adventurers of all time, Don McIntyre, formally announced his most recent expedition – to re-create one of the most extraordinary stories of survival and determination, Captain William Bligh’s 4,000 mile open boat ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ voyage.
The reenactment, following the journey across the Pacific from Tonga to Timor, will launch on the same day (April 28th), at the same time and in the same place 221 years after the original mutiny journey.
Not content with just taking on this huge challenge, McIntyre and his crew of 3 men are also attempting to raise over $250,000 for The Sheffield Institute Foundation for Motor Neurone Disease (SIF), which is building the world’s first research Institute into Motor Neurone Disease (MND), Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
The seven week expedition aboard the Talisker Bounty Boat – a 25ft long, 7ft wide, open wooden vessel – will see the crew -facing the same deprivations as the original crew that were cast adrift in the middle of the Pacific, including: no navigation charts; only two weeks of water; hardly any food; and, of course, no luxuries like a torch or toilet paper!
Alongside Don McIntyre, one of Australia’s most experienced sailors and adventurers, the international crew includes experienced English sailor David Wilkinson, US sailor and businessman Peter Stier and the youngest ever Solo circumnavigator, 17 year old Brit Mike Perham. The crew met together for the first time a little over two weeks ago and have spent the last fortnight together in Sydney, training and making last minute preparations for the journey, a journey that has been Don’s dream to complete for 20 years.
McIntyre does not underestimate the challenge ahead: “We’re incredibly excited to get close to Captain Bligh and his crew; however everyone aboard the Talisker Bounty Boat will be pushed to the limit of endurance and survival, forever hungry and unsure of everything, except their own desire to fight through this.”
The voyage is sponsored by Talisker Single Malt Scotch Whisky, the only single malt whisky from the Isle of Skye which is also the origin of Don McIntyre’s ancestry as his grandparents emigrated to Australia from Skye shortly after their marriage in 1901.
To follow the expedition and donate to this cause, visit www.taliskerbountyboat.com
Yesterday marked the 174th running of the world’s oldest continuous sailing regatta, the Australia Day Regatta on Sydney Harbour.
Yachts competing included the iconic gaff-rigged Ranger, helmed by octogenarian Bill Gale from the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club, and the classic International 8-metre class sloop Erica J, skippered by Les Goodridge from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. The Historical Skiffs are all hand-crafted replicas of the hugely over-canvassed 18-footers that raced in the early 1900s.
Sydney turned on a superb mid-summer day, with the temperature peaking at 30°C and an easterly seabreeze reaching 10-12 knots, ideal for the fleet of modern and vintage yachts and skiffs that raced on the Harbour and for the ocean racers competing in a short offshore race in the Tasman Sea.
The 60-year-old International 8-metre class yacht Erica J took pride of place in the Classic Yacht division.
Erica J was built of Tasmania’s renowned Huon pine on the shores of Hobart’s Battery Point by Max Creese to a Norwegian design and launched in June, 1949. During an illustrious career of racing, she represented Tasmania in six challenge matches for the Sayonara Cup during the 1950s, winning for The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania against the Victorian defender Francis on Melbourne’s Port Phillip in 1953.
Erica J finished second across the line today to Nigel Stoke’s Fidelis, line honours winner of the 1966 Sydney Hobart Race, but lost first place on corrected time to Ian Kortlang’s Antara, another classic metre-style boat. Fidelis placed third.
The Gaff Riggers division saw a win for Gary Ferres’ Intrepid from Reverie (John Barclay) and Nigel Berlyn), third place going to Hoana (Martin Van Der Wall) which took fastest time.
The traditional Australia Day ocean race from Sydney Harbour south to Botany Bay and return to Sydney Harbour, retracing the passage north of the First Fleet 222 years ago to hoist the Union Jack and begin the European colonisation of Australia, attracted a fleet of near 40 yachts.
Peter Campbell
John McGrath is searching for pictures of Typhoon the 30 Square meter racer now kept at RQYS. Especially when she was sailing from Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club in the mid 1960’s. If you can be of any assistance please contact john@agsuk.co.uk
Entries for the 174th Australia Day Regatta close today with the Sailing Office at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, with regatta organisers expecting up to 140 yachts and skiffs to compete in the historic Sydney Harbour event and in the traditional short ocean race to Botany Bay and return.
The Australia Day Regatta will be sailed on the harbour from 1.30pm on Australia, next Tuesday, 26 January while the ocean race will start at 11am with the fleet heading down the coast to Botany Bay.
Casual entries are also being received by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia for the Botany Bay Race, which is part of the club’s Ocean Point Score, the Grant Thornton Short Ocean Point Score, with the Grant Thornton Short Haul (non-spinnaker) fleet also joining the race this year.
A feature of the harbour regatta will be the emphasis on the early days of yacht racing in Sydney, with up to 30 original or replica ‘old-timers’ taking part in the Gaff-Riggers, Classic Yachts and Historical Skiffs divisions.
Among entries for the classic yacht division are 1966 Sydney Hobart Race line honours winner Fidelis, now owned by Nigel Stoke, and the 8-metre class yacht Erica J, owned by Les Goodridge. Erica J last year celebrated her 60th anniversary and a career that included winning the coveted Sayonara Cup for Tasmania in 1953.
The gaff-riggers division is headed by the famous Ranger, with octogenarian skipper Bill Gale again at the helm and proudly carrying the sail number A1 of the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club.
The nine Historical Skiffs are all replicas of the spectacular gaff-rigged 18-footers that raced on Sydney Harbour a century ago, many helmed by modern-day skiff champions including John Winning (Australia IV) and Michael Chapman (Yendys). Built to the original plans, these icons of Sydney Harbour carry colour emblems rather than sail numbers on their massive mainsails. — Peter Campbell
Norm Souter-Smith recently contacted the Register of Australian and New Zealand Ships and Boats to find a good home for his very historic yacht Oimara.
Norm wrote:
“It is with a lot of sadness that my wife Beryl and I have come to the decision that Oimara should be passed to a younger person or organization with the enthusiasm and enterprise to restore her to her former glory”.
For the full story and some lovely imagery visit
Due to a lack of funds , and a lack of on going interest in the Easter event, the owners of the Heritage Afloat name,Toronto Chamber of Commerce, agreed to hand the event over to the community group that have been running this Classic Boat Rally for years. Chamber President Gail Ryan, said yesterday that as the date of Heritage Afloat could not be changed to suit the Chamber, the Custody of the event will be passed to the group who have the time and energy to promote it at the usual Time and Place– Therefore it is with much pleasure we announce that Heritage Afloat on Lake Macquarie will again take place at Toronto foreshore over Easter 2010, commencing with the Good Friday Meet and Greet –
See you there
Heritage Afloat Committee
Graeme Knott Convenor
Kilaben Bay
Clean Up Australia founder and round-the-world yachtsman Ian Kiernan has cleaned up again in the Hempel Paints 36th Gosford to Lord Howe Island Yacht Race, steering his classic yawl Sanyo Maris to its second successive IRC handicap victory in the ocean race across the northern Tasman Sea.
Sanyo Maris had twelve and a half hours to sail the final 68 nautical miles of the 414 nm race today to take IRC honours and she did it with just under three hours to spare, crossing the finish line off Lord Howe’s pristine coral lagoon at 16:09:43 hours this afternoon.
The 9.27 metre yawl, built of Huon pine in Hobart 51 years ago by the legendary Jock Muir for the equally legendary marine artist Jack Earl, appeared from the south this afternoon, sailing to windward below towering Mount Lidgard and Mount Gower in a light northerly breeze.
The crew were so confident of victory they dropped the headsail before they even crossed the finish line.
Kiernan, who owns the classic yacht in partnership with Lord Howe Island identity John Green and two grandchildren of Jack Earl, this year sailed the race with a crew of New Zealanders and a ’secret weapon’ in the form of the New Zealand-built reaching headsail.
His next objective is to take on the million dollar maxis with a boat he bought for $19,000 from Jack Earl in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
Sailing conditions were ideal for the little yawl, the oldest, smallest and lowest rating (handicapped) boat in the fleet of 14 yachts that set sail from Broken Bay, north of Sydney last Saturday – close reaching with some spinnaker runs in moderate northerly breezes all the way. She maintained a near constant 5.5 knots through the voyage.
On IRC corrected times, Sanyo Maris won from CYCA member Dennis Cooper’s Murray Burns Dovell 36 Amante and Greg Zyner’s Radford 12 Copernicus from Manly Yacht Club. AFR Midnight Rambler placed fourth and line honours winner, Ocean Affinity, a Martens 49 skippered by Stewart Lewis from the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, placed fifth.
In the PHS division, another Queensland yacht, Peter Lewis’ Holland/Cole-designed 40-footer Charlie’s Dream, took out top handicap honours from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club entrant Reflection, a 10.4m Groupe Finet design, and the veteran Gosford Sailing Club’s Polaris of Belmont, Chris Dawe’s Cole 43 which won this division in 2008. — Peter Campbell
Rees Martin Writes…
“After a very successful Six Metre World Championships in Newport R.I. it is clear that Classics Sixes are still being found and restored . Several were converted for cruising in the 1920s; some raced in the Solent as Q Class yachts. I suspect there are examples where the owner may not even know they are 6 Metres. Uffa Fox wrote enthusiastically about several – at least two of which have disappeared.
Could I ask your readers if they own or know of any Sixes sitting under wraps, being cruised or lying derelict in a yard? The Class has extensive records of all the Sixes built and most have been identified however there are several important examples still to be found and bought back to race again!”
Replies to Rees at rees@6mr.org.uk
Alan “Doug” Scott is trying to learn the whereabouts of Finisterre, the famous
39-foot yawl that Olin Stephens designed for Carleton Mitchell 55 years ago.
Scott may be contacted at: