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News & Events - Tasmania & SA
Hello Classic Yacht Association of Australia,
Please download and read our new Cruising Newsletter for the 2012 Kent Group, Bass Strait cruise.
Included is the Geelong Wooden Boat Festival weekend.
Best Regards,
Tim Phillips
The Tasmanian One Design yacht Vanity, built in Hobart in 1911, has returned to sail on the River Derwent in her centenary year and be one of the major attractions at the MyState Australian Wooden Boat Festival.
Vanity, which has been lovingly restored in Queensland by her current owner, now Hobart-based Robert Virtue, is moored in her new berth at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania in Sandy Bay.
From February 12-14 she will on public display at the Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart’s Sullivan Cove, along with other stunning feature vessels, including Gretel II, Princess Iluka, Tacoma, Hurrica V and the Yaizu Horocho boat.
For owner Virtue, a hydrogeologist with a passion for old wooden boats, this is the end of a five year restoration of Vanity, one of seven wooden Tasmanian One Design class yacht built in Tasmania between 1910 and 1912. Two others were built in New Zealand in 1914 and one was built in Bombay, India, some time before 1916. Remarkably, all seven of the One Designers built in Tasmania, six in Hobart by Charles Lucas and one in Launceston by E A Jack, are still afloat. The first to be launched, Weene, last week raced in the Classic Yachts division of the 175th Australia Day Regatta on Sydney Harbour. The Tasmanian One Design class was based on plans published in the USA magazine The Rudder in 1910 for a ‘knockabout’ yacht designed by William Hand Jr.
Hobart naval architect Arthur Blore modified Hand’s design to suit local sailing conditions, and by 1910 had persuaded several prominent yachtsmen to build these identical boats, for the sum of about $200. They became known simply as ‘One Designers’, and they went on to dominate racing on the River Derwent until the late 1920s.
Vanity was the fourth One Designer launched, on November 3, 1911, for W F Darling, G S Crisp and Dr E J Ireland, who races her successfully for several seasons, including three times placing second (to other One Designers, Pandora, Curlew and Weene) in the 89 nautical mile Bruny Island Race and winning the North v South Cup on the Tamar River at Launceston – after being taken there by train.” — Peter Campbell
The 175th Australia Day Regatta, sailed into the nation’s history when more than 160 harbour racing yachts, classic yachts, ocean racers and modern and historical skills celebrated this remarkable yachting anniversary on Sydney Harbour. The regatta is the world’s oldest, continuously-conducted annual sailing regatta, a celebration of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet to found the penal colony that eventually became the great Commonwealth of Australia.
The fleet today included 49 mostly wooden yachts in the Classic Yachts division, many gaff-rigged and several built more than a century ago. Many crews dressed in period sailing gear and later rendezvoused at the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club to celebrate the regatta’s history. Despite a morning sea fog that blanketed the city and suburbs and the harbour, the misty conditions cleared somewhat and a light east to north-easterly breeze cooled conditions and provided close racing around fixed marks.
On waterways along the New South Wales coast, Australia Day regattas were linked to the historic event on Sydney Harbour while ocean racing yachts sailed to Botany Bay and return, albeit slowly, covering the same course sailed by the First Fleet in 1788.
In Hobart, Australia’s second oldest seaport, yachts, dinghies and windsurfers competed in the Australia Day Green Island race and the Sandy Bay Regatta.
Another icon of Australian yachting, the 1970 and 1977 America’s Cup Challenger Gretel II took line honours in the 40 nautical mile Green Island Race, helmed by her 1977 skipper, 85-year-old Gordon Ingate.
On Sydney Harbour, a fleet of 49 yachts, mostly built of wood, many gaff-rigged and several more than a hundred years ago, contested the Classic Yacht division of the 175th Australia Day Regatta.Winner of the 175th Australia Day Regatta Trophy and the Australia Day Council Trophy was Antares (R Keeson and D Wood). The Centenary of Federation Gold Medal went to Reverie, owned by Nigel Berlyn and John Barclay.
The Botany Bay race, conducted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, was a slow race, with headwinds heading south and fickle breezes on the return leg, with some yacht not finish until 1900 hours, after more than eight hours at sea on a hot, humid and misty day. Line honours went to Jim Cooney’s famous conventional maxi, Brindabella, giving her the Geoff Lee Trophy, while the City of Sydney Sesquicentenary Trophy went to Rod Wills X43 Great Expectations. — Peter Campbell
Joyce Talbot from the CYANZ Writes……
“Below is a pdf of the January issue of Sheerlines with reminders to get your entries in for Anniversary Weekend events, including the Oceanbridge Anniversary Day Regatta and The Southern Trust Classic Yacht Regatta 11-13 February.
An invitation to join our Sail Past on Anniversary Day is also included ……….we would love to see a major armada of vessels on the Waitemata prior to the start of racing so please invite your friends to come along and join in. Sailing, motoring, paddling ………..all welcome!
General assembly outside the Viaduct at 0900 with a leisurely sail, motor or paddle to Orakei Wharf, across to Devonport (keeping an eye out for the tugboats finishing off the wharf from 10.20 approx‚) and heading back to the start area at Princes Wharf.”
Those Aussies planning to attend as crew on these magnificent vessels are asked to contact the Australian Co-Ordinator, Roger Dundas rogermdundas@gmail.com so that the information regarding the Australian contingent can be passed on to the organisers.
This year will be the 175th anniversary of the Australia Day Regatta, the oldest continuous regatta in the world. As part of the celebration of this anniversary we wish to invite as many classic yachts to participate in a special “Classics” division, award a special trophy and, following the race, to return to the Sydney Amateur Club in Mosman Bay to enjoy the hospitality provided by Club and the ADR. The intention is for the Classics division to start as the last division in a “time start” handicapping with the expectation of having most boats completing the race together to have most impact.
For more information download the Invitation and Notice of Race below
The Cup Regatta 2011 will be held October 29,30 & 31st.
Notice of Race and Entry information available here,
Prince Philip Puts In Plea for City of Adelaide Clipper
In a rare radio interview, recorded to mark the 40th anniversary of the rescue of Brunel’s SS Great Britain, now a major tourist attraction in the dock where she was built in Bristol, the Duke of Edinburgh focussed attention on the clipper ship City of Adelaide, still abandoned on a slipway in Scotland.
Asked about the problems of raising funds for ship preservation, Prince Philip said “As long as I’ve been alive there’s never been a good moment to raise money,” and added: “We’ve still got a horrendous problem with the City of Adelaide, which belongs to the Scottish Maritime Museum, but it’s caught in a sort of trap and a timewarp… it’s now become a listed building but they can’t raise the money to do anything with it. I think it’s a great pity.”
The interview with Prince Philip was broadcast on Radio 4’s Sunday-morning Broadcasting House programme, and is available on BBCi-player. SS Great Britain was rescued from the Falkland Islands, and towed back to the UK, arriving in Bristol this day, 5 July, in 1970.
Gavin Pascoe writes from New Zealand…..
I have a 23 footer in NZ designed by Roydon Thomas called Shemara. see http://shemara.blogspot.com
She has a sister which was sold to Australia, (I think South Australia) and would like to get in contact with the current owners as I plan to write an article about the Designer.
Shemara was the first to be built in Wellington 1958, and I think her sister (originally named “Gazelle”, then possibly later “Reefer”) followed within a year or two. Shemara was built of NZ kauri, and Gazelle of cedar.
If any one can help with information contact.
Thomas André writes…
Please, find attached the program of our classic event, that will take place in Ajaccio, Corsica, from the 24th of may to the 30th may 2010. The Event will close on 30th of may with the start of the “Yacht Club de France Spring Cup”, the first CIM cruiser race of the year Ajaccio-Antibes. We expect an exceptional meeting as 42 classic yachts are already registered and with the coming of “big boats” like Mariska the sistership of Tuiga (W. Fife), Moonbeam of Fife vs Moonbeam IV and many visitors coming from all over the world, as the “Roaring Forty” Rowdy (Herresoff NYYC class 40), Samarkand from Germany. Registration is open to any yacht owner in the Epoch, Classic and Spirit of Tradition categories. Of course, all impassioned sailors who wish to join the Régates Impériales will receive a friendly welcome.
The Australian campaign to adopt the clipper ship City of Adelaide has gained momentum with a visit to the UK by two leading members of the group. Peter Roberts and Tom Chapman came over with the intention of “eyeballing” the ship itself – they got no further than the rusting barbed-wire fence – and the various bodies involved its its fate, where they were much more successful.
The passion behind the South Australian campaign is evident – it is founded on the City of Adelaide’s original role of carrying emigrants from the UK and Europe to the new territory in the late 19th century – over 250,000 South Australians, or one in five of the population, can trace their ancestry back to, or through the ship. But the campaign also appears well-resourced in terms both of capability (both Roberts and Chapman have engineering backgrounds for instance) and state and private support.
They have costed the logistics of moving the ship at around £1.5 million, with the cost of transport to Australia, at about £700,000, less than that of getting the City of Adelaide off the slip and out of the river in Irvine. They already have about half of that, and are “ready to launch a major fundraising programme once we have control of the ship.”
A prime site in Adelaide has already been earmarked for a display area which would also include the preserved 1883 tug Nelcebee, built in Scotland and shipped out to provide services to the clippers, including City of Adelaide.
Pressure to resolve the City of Adelaide’s situation has intensified with the demand from the owners of the slip where she sits for the return of the site. Scottish Maritime Museum, current owner of the ship, recently called for tenders to ’scientifically desconstruct’ her. However, Martyn Heighton of National Historic Ships has confirmed that none of the tenders to deconstruct the ship met its criteria, and it will oppose any application for demolition. It is shortly due to to evaluate proposals, from both the Sunderland and South Australian campaigns. If the City of Adelaide is to leave the UK it would be subject to an export licence, unless declared to be of no value.