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

Three well known books came across my desk this week, rescued from years of likely abandonment on an Op Shop shelf. They are all acknowledged as historical classics in the Sailing genre, but it’s interesting to see how much of the content remains relevant today and how much becomes just quaint outdated anecdotes.

Maritime experts are convinced they have confirmed the final resting place of Captain James Cook's ship, Endeavour, after 22 years of searching.

This day was different. There was a current tsunami warning

as a result of the enormous volcanic explosion and eruption in Tonga.

People were advised to keep clear of the shoreline and be aware that

there could be strong currents and unexpected eddies.

In 1941, the ashes of a master mariner from Massachusetts were scattered at sea over the shipwreck of his schooner in Port Phillip Bay. The site is the mile wide reef extending off Point Cook just 7NM from Williamstown. He had sailed from Cape Cod to Sydney arriving in 1938.

It seems to me that wooden boat owners, perhaps more than others seem to understand that rushing is not always good, and that good preparation provides rewards that aren’t available to those who stick to the shiny marinas springing up around our coasts.

“If you love and cherish her you can learn to draw sweet melodies from her and she will carry you through all the scale (Beaufort scale) of gales and calms, for she is based on well proven principles”

The Ocean Cruising Club exists to encourage long-distance sailing in small boats. A Full Member of the OCC must have completed a qualifying voyage of a non-stop port-to-port ocean passage, where the distance between the two ports is not less than 1,000 nautical miles.

Sailing the southern Pacific Ocean in 1769, two of history’s greatest navigators drafted a remarkable map. One was the British explorer Captain James Cook. The other was Tupaia, an aristocratic high priest from the island of Ra'iātea, who had joined Cook’s expedition in Tahiti.

The ARGUS began taking on water. Seeing our strife, a neighbouring vessel, also crossing Lake Alexandrina, homeward bound,  began following, collecting our cargo, just as quickly as it was being jettisoned.

For generations teak has been the gold standard for boat decks. But mounting concerns about the over-harvest of old-growth forests and advances in recyclable synthetic alternatives have given today’s boat buyers legitimate options and plenty to think about.

“My goal is, first and foremost, to become the youngest person to row across the Pacific Ocean.”

In many ways ocean racing has become a monoculture. To succeed you must be skilled and tough and rich, but for most owners with a realistic chance of victory, the broader values, ambitions and motivations of the founders of the event have disappeared amid the ruthless need for a trophy.

Not one to sit around, Phil was working on her hull that afternoon. Within two days the cabin top and interior fittings were removed, taken to the tip and a bare hull remained.

The wind fell away, stalling the ship in irons, the limp sails useless in the dead calm. The prevailing southwest current and a long swell relentlessly drifted GENERAL GRANT shoreward, then to her doom.

James was a trailblazer, a fighter with great determination and vision. From a young age he followed his passions – to roam the hills – for fair politics – for intelligent women – to sail the seas – to prove the Polynesian double canoe an ocean worthy craft – to become a Man of the Sea.

I am not a “marine professional” - I’m a pharmacist – but I do know what I like. And I love timber boats. Today, having bought two old timber boats and advised a number of friends, I’ve learned a thing or two about the purchase process and becoming the custodian of a piece of maritime history.

She was the very first of the environmental and peace vessel to go to sea. In 1958, a crew of anti-nuclear weapons activists set sail aboard her in an attempt to interpose themselves and the boat between the U.S. Government and its atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

TUP is on the Australian Register of Historic Vessels. As just over half of their 36 yachts were folkies, they are in many ways H & J’s “signature” boats, and they were probably responsible for the largest number of the class in Australia

I love this film for many reasons. It shows a strong and yet vulnerable woman, telling us about her life, working in a patriarchal society. It’s stunningly filmed. It resonates with the music of Africa, and it happens to be made in a part of the world that I’m closely connected with in my life outside boats.