The Classic Yacht Association of Australia, held its first ever race on 11th October 1997. Twenty Four years later, this Sunday around 20 boats will start race one of the 2021/2022 CYAA Summer Series.

I feel myself go white just as Greg texts me an image of MARCO POLO still on its mooring but submerged almost down to the gunnels.

Cheoy Lee yachts have legions of fans and associations around the world. They are always advertised as a Cheoy Lee Robb or a Cheoy Lee Rhodes etc. and devotees are prepared to pay a premium. So what’s going on?

As I later found out, this was the first boat built in Australia by a young Danish shipwright Anders Johansen, who, after teaming up with his uncle John Hald, built more than 30 yachts over 8 or so years in Sydney in the ‘60’s

Len Heffernan was a champion 18ft skiff skipper, designer and boat builder of the 1950s and 60s, who changed the style of the Sydney 18 footers in the early 1960s, but never gets the recognition that he deserves.

The Sydney to Hobart over 628nm has been sailed annually since 1945. The race was Covid cancelled in 2020 and there is a real possibility of no race in 2021. While waiting for a decision, SWS speculates about State based “on water matters” and possible alternatives.

As we move towards the 2021-2022 season, it’s a good time to remember how the ‘League’ began and how the original club administrators generated the enormous public support that has endured.

By 1963 things were getting professional with the CYCA getting graphic artists on board. The winner was still there on the cover but groovy fonts and relaxed super-graphics were in vogue. By 1967 the “Opera House Effect” was in play.

We were one of 747 boats in the Douarnenez Festival and won the Marco Polo award for having travelled the furthest. We were treated like rock stars.

The Regatta is open to any yachts that have competed in a Sydney-Hobart race pre 1976 and a few other Classics by special invitation.

In 1963 after rounding White Island , we had some fresh headwinds , and after one very noisy crash off a sea , we hove-to for the night , sort of slept. Next morning , we cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast, and in moderated conditions got underway again.

The wind strength increased all night until in the vicinity of Bustard Head lighthouse it topped 100 knots. Our last remaining canvas, the Spitfire jib was hoisted, and KINTAMA lay ahull. The crew exhausted, replaced the storm boards, piled into the soaked bunks and fell asleep

In one season alone Coles made sixteen Channel crossings in COHOE, but her most famous voyage was the 1950 Transatlantic Race from Bermuda to Plymouth.

"If you can remember it, you weren't there", a phrase often used in connection with Woodstock, but equally applicable to the infamous Auscrew parties of the Admiral's Cup era of offshore racing

It’s amazing that yachts which require so many crew, so much expertise, not to mention so many dollars to run them, have become such a flourishing class in Europe and the USA.

Most sailors know Knud Reimers’ Tumlaren sailed in Australia since 1937. But it’s just one boat in a huge folio of successful designs over six decades. Here’s a look at Reimers and his boats.

“I have included a photo taken from leeward just after the start with MORNA leading the fleet, SAGA is just to windward of her, but further to leeward and astern of MORNA is a staysail schooner with a wishbone rig on the foremast.”

It’s hard to believe it, but in England, the Classic Yachting fraternity is slap bang in the middle of its biggest week of the year.

Australian sailors have always respected their New Zealand neighbours. With a population of only 4.8m, NZ holds the America’s Cup, have long pedigree with both ocean racing and dinghy design and a healthy tradition of maintaining their yachting heritage.

“But sailing is a pursuit most fascinating, varied, and exciting, in which women can become absolutely proficient, requiring no particular muscular effort or physical strength, only quickness of judgment, and a knowledge, which can be acquired by practice and the opportunity. So any woman wishing to shine in a delightful little world of her own would do well to emulate Miss Pritchard.”