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Geelong lad, Rob Ballard, on oldest ship re-construction! Lateen
board his 23ft. Norwalk Islands rigged, just 21 metres long and
Sharpie 'Route 66', won the 'Corio weighs 70 tonnes. Caravels were
Bay Cup'. 'Route 66' is a trailable used by Bartholomew Diaz around
and was designed by Bruce Kirby, the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 and
based on the traditional oystering in 1492 by Christopher Columbus in
sharpies of Long Island Sound, his 'Santa Maria'! He was
USA. Rob built Route 66 in his accompanied by two caravels, the
garage from a kit! 'Pinta' and 'Nina', both 4 metres
What's a Norwalk Islands Sharpies shorter than 'Notorious'! Ferdinand
you say? They are cat ketch rigs Magellan circum-navigated the world
with the masts supported in
tabernacles which allow for
in 1519 to 1522 in caravels!
Photos and words by
Bob Appleton, OAM
Augustine's orphanage and was built
in the early 1900s in Port Fairy.
simplicity in raising or lowering the
masts for rigging and de-rigging. The
masts and booms are carbon fibre.
The 'Notorious' is Lateen rigged, a
rig that can be seen off the coast of
India and on the Arab dhows in the
The recent display of wooden
boats at the Whyte, Just & Moore
Wooden Boat Festival held at the
Royal Geelong Yacht Club on
th th
March 10 & 11 , really displayed
the skills, care and attention
given to absolutely beautiful
classic wooden boats that
obviously, had been carefully
If anyone wanted a better picture
than that of the twenty three classic
wooden boats lining up for the '4
Winds Marine' Classic Boat Trophy
race, they'd have to search the world.
At Geelong, it was served up on a
platter!
The stately lady, 'Sayonara', said
Built in the traditional way of upside
down on a jig, using hoop pine
keelson, chines and sheers and
gaboon ply frames with topsides and
deck of 9 mm ply with 3 layers of
6mm cross planked for her bottom.
No mechanical fastenings were used
in construction. Now, isn't that a boat
and owner you can admire?!
Suez Canal today! Early history
actually unfolded before everyone's
weather beaten eyes! Built entirely
from reclaimed timber and without
felling a single tree, amateur boat-
builder, Graeme Wylie built
'Notorious' almost with his bare
hands! Notorious was open for
inspection during the festival.
restored and maintained and goodbye in Japanese to the fleet by The judges had a tough job with the The perfect viewing site at the Royal
then, obviously painstakingly leading for most of the race and 'Concours d'elegance'. Considering Geelong Yacht Club enabled every
preened, polished and popped taking out line honours. Never-the- that all the entrants had been built to display to be close to, or actually on,
into their pens by particularly less, a 'wily wolf' named 'Lupa Wylo' quite different standards and quite shore. This made everything easily
patient owners! won on handicap after stealing the different design specifications, the visible to all viewers. Children were
handicapper's heart! judges decided to judge according to not forgotten and their entertainer,
The ideal weather and the perfect 'Lupa Wylo' is a 1936 classic each ones unique qualifications. pirate Cap'n Jack Sparrow had them
setting, assisted by a cast of wooden boat, built in Adelaide of The standard was so high that it enthralled! In the theatrette, local
thousands and a small group of Jarrah & Kauri and has been was decided to award an 'honourable entertainers Colin Mockett and
dedicated volunteers certainly made magnificently restored over a two mention' to a beautifully presented, Shirley Power gave running
this year's Whyte,Just & Moore year period by owners Lilliane Caron 1971 15ft. 'Seacraft SR' motor commentaries to the ancient 'movies'
Wooden Boat Festival of Geelong a & Fabrizio Tassalini. launch, 'Conquistador'. Owned by showing yachting and seaside life in
smash hit! She, 'Lupa Wylo' (not Lilliane!) has Kerry & Noel Palmer, they have used the days of yore. AND of course,
A larger than expected fleet of
wooden boats arriving at the Royal
Geelong Yacht Club during the Labour
Day weekend giving the public a mind
boggling weekend over the two day
festival, 10th and 11th of March
which started with the arrival of
absolute classic yachts over the
finishing line in the Classic & Modern
Wooden Boat Passage Race.
With well in excess of one hundred
craft on display, it was no wonder
that the sleek greyhounds of the sea
were like magnets to the general
public!
The Topsail Cutter 'Sayonara' of
1897 with her 2079 sq. ft. of sail and
'Windward II', built in 1929 are both
classic examples of the class of
exhibits on display.
beautiful bronze winches, traditional
timber turning blocks and an Oregon
mast and boom with stainless steel
rigging.
She, 'Lupa Wylo' (not Lilliane!
AGAIN!) is easily managed by a small
crew under all conditions and she
makes a great long distance racer.
Wooden boats came in all sorts of
shapes and sizes and the two steam
boats choof-choofed around the
marina to the toot of their steam
hooters!
'Firefly 2' has a great description!
She's a Scruffie (my mum used to
call me that!) Marine 16ft day boat
and was built from a kit and modified
a tad. A couple of the frames were
added to make the interior larger
and the decks planked to give it a
little class! She's now about 7 years
old. 18ft long, 6ft wide with a draft of
her to enjoy 6,482 hours of family
skiing! Successfully too, having won
a total of 56 trophies at SSBOC
events which includes family
marathons.
The overall winner of the 'Concours
d'elegance' is unquestionably a rare
and real 'Classic'. She is the 44 ft.
absolute and complete classic,
'Windward II.'
Designed by Norm Dallimore,
'Windward II' was built by Percy
Coverdale in Hobart in 1929 using the
finest Australian timbers, King Billy
pine on Blue Gum frames. She is
roved copper fastened and has a lead
keel. With Oregon Spars, she
measures 44 ft on the deck, waterline
length of 34 ft. 2ins, overall length is
54 ft. 6 ins. Her beam is 10ft. 3 ins.
her draft, 6ft. 6ins. and she displaces
13 tons.
the topsail schooner, 'ENTERPRIZE'!
There aren't many vessels that can
be said to have been present at the
birth of a city. But it was from the
original topsail schooner Enterprize
that a handful of settlers
disembarked on the Yarra River on
August 30, 1835, to begin the
settlement which is now a capital of
around 3.5-million people. Today's
replica Enterprize was constructed in
Melbourne and launched in 1997 to
commemorate that event.
Colonisation was already under way
in Tasmania in the 1830s, and the
schooner brought settlers from
Launceston. Throughout the entire
weekend, the Enterprize was kept
very busy carrying out sea trips.
Onshore, a jazz band entertained
during the afternoons and 'Rock and
In the race,line honours went to Ian approx. 2ft 6ins. Whilst racing was progressing on Roll' with the Hoos Bros got the 'sea
McFarlane's 43 ft. Joubort Black Swan The other 'Tea Urn' (which actually the water, the 'on shore' activities legs' working at night. On top of all
'Kingurra' with the winner on
had an urn beside the boiler!) was were full of surprises. Among the that, boat building displays, featuring
handicap being Carl De Fina's 39ft the steam driven 'Osborne'. Classic highlights and willing to talk boats local boat builders demonstrated
cutter, 'Anitra' crewed by Aaron, boats, classic names! This delightful with anyone were that amazing pair chalking, laminating and steam
Marcus and Elise De Fina assisted by craft is 24ft overall with a beam of 5 of adventurers, Lin & Larry Pardey. bending. Model steam engines
Chris Hewitt. What a line up!! 'Anitra' ft. Built of Western Red Cedar, They have been round the world, east 'chuffed' away to everyone's delight
was built at Triabunna in Tasmania in
1948 with a hull and deck of celery
Queensland beech and Tasmanian
Blackwood she hits a speed of 6
and west-about, against the
prevailing wind south of the great
and extremely high quality model
boats were proudly displayed by their
top pine on spotted gum.
knots with a steam pressure of southern capes and have voyaged makers. With all this at your
100psi. Let's break out the water more than 200,000 miles together on disposal, you MUST put 'Labour day
More races on the beautifully flat skis!! A delightful craft to see and to self-built engine-free wooden boats! weekend 2014' into your diary NOW
waters of Corio Bay resulted in the ride in. In 2010 they were awarded The so you do not miss this incredibly
21ft. 'Nellie Rose' owned by Russ
Watson of Drysdale winning the
Yanmar Marine Corio Bay Couta Cup.
'Nellie' as she's affectionately known
is described as being of the 'olde' salt
Many power boats were part of the
'Navigation Rally' which was won by
'Cadora' owned by Chris Ackerman,
Rear Commodore of RVMYC in
Cruising Club of America's prestigious
Far Horizons Award. Undoubtedly,
the world's wisest wonders of wooden
boat wisdom and they were part of
the Whyte, Just & Moore Wooden
wonderful spectacle of fine
workmanship.
Now, 'Splice the main-brace'!!
variety, quote:- “'Nellie” is a unique Williamstown.
Boat Festival of Geelong. Wow!
little girl with a plumb bow and quite
a fine transom!” The sort of 'gal' I
looked for when I was in the navy!
'Nellie' has a history of once
belonging to the Geelong St.
Herons are the type of yacht that
many of us 'grew up' with and Ralph
Brown's Heron, 'Sarie' was the victor
in the Heron series taking out the
'Norglass' Trophy.
One of the greatest draw cards was
the 'Notorious'. She's an almost
brand new, full-size, copy of a 15th
century caravel and is Australia's
THE WHYTE, JUST & MOORE
WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL
OF GEELONG, 2012
an outstanding success!
TCP NOTE:
The Royal Geelong Yacht Club
stages many other events.
See the web site web site:
www.rgyc.com.au