After two years of planning thirteen Couta Boats travelled from Melbourne along with two crews from Perth for the 2022 Sydney Harbour Gaffers Regatta.

Here at SWS we are big believers in safety. But we wonder how sailors are meant to learn to handle bad weather if they are never given the opportunity to experience it while racing. Whatever your feelings about the pros and cons of abandoning an ocean race, the admiration for the first crews in this historic race can only be enhanced by such a decision.

The boats themselves are the sculptures…. but sometimes too much “trickery” shouts “look at me, the clever photographer” rather than look at this image and understand a little of what it is like to witness this awe-inspiring sight.

Given the development of user friendly measurement handicap systems over the last few years I think the time has come for one of the Australian or New Zealand Classic Yacht fleets to trial a system based on actual data rather than performance.

Les Voiles de Saint Tropez marks the last event on the Mediterranean racing calendar and is heralded as one of the most prestigious regattas in the world. In its 24th year, the regatta will take place across two weeks from September 24 to October 8

The race for both vessels was fraught . TE RAPUNGA had to beach their yacht in the Bay of Islands, due to extensive leaks. They recaulked as necessary, floated off and continued the race. They won the race from NGATAKI , who arrived nearly two days later, after weathering a horrendous storm passing through Bass Strait.

The adventure was beginning and it was nothing like what I anticipated. Years, months, and days of prep work were forgotten. We just wanted to make it through the evening of squalls and then the Gulf Stream safely reminding ourselves that this trip was our vacation time.

Ed is tough but considered, practical but romantic, exacting but inclusive. If more people were like him, sailing would be a better sport.

While these timber yachts sail majestically on, most of the hot new fibreglass boats in the class of ‘72 have disappeared off the radar.

There was plenty of gambling action on Bradley’s Head with bookmakers mingling among the crowd.  Unlike the bookies on the ferries, the Bradley’s Head bookies also had plenty of warning if the police were seen by one of the punters.  

In many ways it was like a traditional four-day Sydney Hobart Yacht Race squeezed into just three hours.

Rob, a talented and successful Mullet boat sailor had a chat with us about how and why he ended up as the new custodian and what his (exciting) plans are for the future.

The first Race for the “Rudder” Cup will long be remembered by Australian yachtsmen. There were only four starters for the imposing voyage across Bass Strait, and the size of the task was calculated to interest even longshoremen.

SWS is continually shuffling pieces around a Tumlaren history puzzle. It’s gumshoe work to cross reference clues and sift fact from bar-fiction.

This was a weekend to celebrate the boats and the shipwrights who maintain them. The willingness to share information, answer questions and put in for each other is the way. While we like to sail well, winning races has small interest for this classic community.

The Kettering Wooden Boat Rally 2022 – if you didn’t happen to make it, here’s what you missed. Welcome to a place where you can smell the wood shavings. Here varnish is thick, history alive and passion is real. Old boats are and always have been, a way of life in Tasmania. Old boats don’t come to Kettering to die, they come here to thrive.

Despite most major sports events being cancelled in New Zealand, the Mahurangi Classic Yacht Regatta took place on Saturday in picturesque Mahurangi Harbour - about two hours sail north of Auckland.

With the 100th Australian 18 footers Championship scheduled to be sailed on Sydney Harbour from February 5 to 13, it’s a good opportunity to reflect on its history and acknowledge the contributions of designers, builders and competitors from NSW, Queensland and Western Australia since the first event at Perth in 1912

The careful mathematical figures and many pages of design details, displacement ratios and sail area plans give a picture of the meticulous planning that he did before a yacht was allowed to be built.

The fleet developed from a competition run by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron during the late 1940s. They wanted to build a fleet of yachts that would perform well in local conditions and satisfy both the serious sailor who wanted to go racing as well as the family that wanted to go cruising.