First, we needed to decide which boat to use. Neither of us had anything suitable, but we both had many years of experience racing 470’s and were familiar with them. There really wasn’t any great discussion about alternatives. Dad suggested it, and I agreed. 470’s also have the advantage of being easily found with great ex-Olympic class boats lying around in driveways and garages across the country.

WELCOME TO MATILDA RADIO a weekly podcast from two mad Australians who gave up living the norm to attempt to live the dream. This episode comes to you from the south coast of Sardinia, under the Roman ruins of NORA. Mark and Sal introduce you to MATILDA their 47 foot S&S Swan while chatting about their five year plan (or eight year, or two year...)

The idea arrived, as the best ones often do, at a cocktail party. It was January 1967, Pacific Palisades, California, when surfer Hoyle Schweitzer and sailor Jim Drake fell into conversation about combining their two favourite sports. Most men would have left the idea where they found it, somewhere between the second and third drink. Not Schweitzer.

Are you are looking for a budget boat with heaps of personality, a great design provenance and a history that you can add to? Are you ok with a couple of weeks over the year spent working on the craft, not only improving her physically but also building a emotional bond with? Are you happy to chat with the people who will no doubt engage you as they are walking down the jetty wanting to know more about her?

I walked up and down the quay at dusk with my camera trying to find the daily reality of fishing at Porto Pino — The techno music ridden tourist beaches are only a few hundred metres away, but the port has a different rhythm, that beats through the seasons, not just for the summer crowds.

No, I haven’t added up the cost of all of this ! Because excitement and adventure only lives on the other side fear. As one gets older, and as a septuagenerian I can say, that the focus has to be on living span and not life span. So lets get on and do what has to be done and have the adventure. The future will take care of itself. 

In a sunny New York City on 20 October 1970 a team of FBI agents scoured the buildings on both sides of Manhattan’s Madison Avenue between 28th and 29th Streets. Questioning shopkeepers, janitors and secretaries, they gave special attention to the offices overlooking no79, a dull 16-storey building on the east side. From early the next morning uniformed police banned all parking on the block and kept pedestrians on the move. They vetted every entrant to no79.

A truely global week of news…Exploring South Georgia, a festival in Albany, Turtles in the NT, Hurrica V in San Fran, and Station Pier back home in Melbourne.

An hour is enough in a place like this. The displays are simple and well thought out. You walk away, not feeling overwhelmed by the things you might have missed out on, but enriched by the values of the sailors who created this history.

A big week of news…Mayonnaise update, Herreschoff info, good foiling, big squid, the Steve Irwin, Tropic Star, Julia Jones, Lloyds Register and much more.

But it’s the last division that we’d like to tell you about today, one that can offer exciting racing, respect for retro style, higher performance than a full-keel classic, and –perhaps most exciting– an accessible way to sail in a fleet that includes Herreshoffs, Fifes, and hundred-year-old icons of yachting history. All without committing to the stewardship of an heirloom or the yard bill that comes with it.

Well, this week we discovered another of his talents with the production of this poster for the CYAA’s November Cup Regatta now entering its 20th year. The CYAA are planning to combine the celebrations with Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron celebrating its 150th anniversary.

One ‘scientific’ thing he said has always stuck with me. “Pigs can see the wind !” “Please explain,” I ask. “My uncle was a pig farmer, and pig farmers know this.” “How ?” I questioned. “ My uncle says they see it like coloured ribbons in the air.” Well ! It was a new one on me. These were the days before Google.; research into such a arcanity was impossible and how would anyone really know anyway

If you have considered putting in an entry, but are feeling a little ambivalent, have a watch of this talk given by the Festival Director Paul Stephanus at the recent Auckland Festival in March. It’s a whirlwind account of the scale and breadth of one of the most successful gathering of timber craft anywhere in the world.

A week after Australia announced its first serious tilt at the America’s Cup in 25 years, it seems a little curmudgeonly to be getting stuck in. But let’s not let the romance of a 43 year old victory divert us from the facts. The racing is boring to watch. It’s unrelatable for the weekend sailor. It’s commercially motivated

If Tetley was willing Victress was less so. He'd sailed at reduced pace in the Southern Ocean. The boat's structural problems were severe. The skins and frames of the starboard hull were threatening to part company, yet the prospect of being fastest man around the world was tantalising.

PETREL history, Hesse for sale, more MALFADA, a lobster launch and much more.

There are about a dozen communities left on earth where people in traditional craft still rely on their sails to carry out meaningful work. They don’t do this for romantic reasons, but because they can’t afford a cheap diesel engine or the fuel to drive it. These working sailing fleets, that were originally responsible for binding humanity into a single ecological and historical system, have, almost by accident, become the last bastion of a disappearing tradition that globalised the human story.

A Reimers restoration, Barangaroo Handover, Vertue News, SA stories and A new Q

It has taken over two years and is an amazing work of art.  We agreed that a conventional varnished cradle was not the way to display the model and we opted for an ‘on the hard at Noakes’ as the most suitable and appropriate approach.