After being shipwrecked in PNG in a 70 ft work boat in 1970
and being offered a small island by the indigenous people there to base my 45 ft ketch that I intended building, I had to come back to earth when we returned to Australia and settle for a 14ft fibreglass Canadian canoe.
However paddling soon lost its lustre and I set about making it into a sail boat. It had a 10ft aluminium mast with gaff rig so it wouldn't be too top heavy. I had real sails made up by a sail maker - Main 40 sq ft and jib 15 sq ft.
I built a marine ply floor to spread the mast pressure and marine ply lee boards on hinges to swing back in the shallows. The rudder was made from scrap aluminium and all the sheets and blocks etc were from a ship's chandlers. Cost of manufacture unknown but we didn't care.
We have a large shallow lake nearby and sailed regularly while my daughter was small enough to fit in her seat and work the jib. I couldn't manage rudder, main, jib and lee boards on my own.
We managed some spectacular speeds but finished up one day going end over end with the mast stuck in the mud. Strangely my daughter didn't want to sail so much after that.
These are the only images that have survived from the mid 70's.
Later, I had excursion sails on the ex-Sydney-Hobart Yacht Solo, and the Lady Nelson replica in Hobart.
Crewed on a 7.5 m Farr in several races, then on a 45 ft ketch in an eventful race through the Great Barrier reef, mostly at night, from Port Douglas to Lizard Island. A spinnaker run south to Cooktown was some of the fastest I have ever done in a yacht and we had to set a storm jib to take some of the pressure off the spinnaker and get it in. The owners took the yacht to SE Asia as a live in, where it eventually languished after lacking maintenance during Covid.
My great love of the sea and ships has never been satisfied by long ocean sailing but now I live through the eyes of my hero, Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower, and my model of one of his ships - HMS Medea.
and being offered a small island by the indigenous people there to base my 45 ft ketch that I intended building, I had to come back to earth when we returned to Australia and settle for a 14ft fibreglass Canadian canoe.
However paddling soon lost its lustre and I set about making it into a sail boat. It had a 10ft aluminium mast with gaff rig so it wouldn't be too top heavy. I had real sails made up by a sail maker - Main 40 sq ft and jib 15 sq ft.I built a marine ply floor to spread the mast pressure and marine ply lee boards on hinges to swing back in the shallows. The rudder was made from scrap aluminium and all the sheets and blocks etc were from a ship's chandlers. Cost of manufacture unknown but we didn't care.
We have a large shallow lake nearby and sailed regularly while my daughter was small enough to fit in her seat and work the jib. I couldn't manage rudder, main, jib and lee boards on my own.
We managed some spectacular speeds but finished up one day going end over end with the mast stuck in the mud. Strangely my daughter didn't want to sail so much after that.
These are the only images that have survived from the mid 70's.
Later, I had excursion sails on the ex-Sydney-Hobart Yacht Solo, and the Lady Nelson replica in Hobart.
Crewed on a 7.5 m Farr in several races, then on a 45 ft ketch in an eventful race through the Great Barrier reef, mostly at night, from Port Douglas to Lizard Island. A spinnaker run south to Cooktown was some of the fastest I have ever done in a yacht and we had to set a storm jib to take some of the pressure off the spinnaker and get it in. The owners took the yacht to SE Asia as a live in, where it eventually languished after lacking maintenance during Covid.
My great love of the sea and ships has never been satisfied by long ocean sailing but now I live through the eyes of my hero, Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower, and my model of one of his ships - HMS Medea.
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