Eight Bells - Doug Jack
Doug Jack with Kathy Veel. Kettering Tasmania 2023
SWS received an email during the recent Cup Regatta weekend. Subject: ‘the Final Siren’. Kettering local Doug Jack died on the Sunday.
Doug was an experienced Dragon sailor but had a soft spot for the 1933 Tumlaren. He contacted the Melbourne fleet in 2019 looking for a set of plans. Over the next 4 years he built a cold-moulded version in his basement garage.
SWS and the Tumlaren community keenly followed Doug’s steady progress. PICCOLO was launched earlier this year. The sails and covers were finished during winter just as Doug was struggling with his health and independence. With his usual care and planning, Doug rigged his Tum with an 80yo skipper in mind, adding a genoa furler and lazy-jacks to slab reef or quickly drop the main.
The 2024 CYAA Cup Regatta celebrated the fleet of Melbourne Tumlaren with one-design inter-dominion racing. Crews from New Zealand, Queensland, NSW, Tasmania and Victoria drew lots for the local boats and showed off their skills and adaptability.
The Tasmanian reps were Doug’s friends from Kettering YC’s resurgent Derwent Class. They drew the 1938 Charlie Peel built ZEST, a fast boat that hadn’t sailed much in the last 10 years. Rather than complain, the shipwright ‘D-boys’ set about getting her moving on the water and repairing sails and spars between races. Doug would have been proud of their no-nonsense approach.
Doug has entered PICCOLO in the Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2025 in Hobart. Sadly he didn’t get to sail his beautiful yacht but the D-boys will bring her up the river next February to honour Doug.
See SWS May 2024 story on Doug and his plum coloured Tumlare.
And while we are on the subject of Tumlare…
The image from last week showing YVONNE winning the “Interstate and International Invitational” event on Port Phillip, inspired Patrick Otton to write to us all the way from Cape Cod, Massachusetts…
Team At SWS,
I would love, well actually, SVEK would 'love', to be sailing with her sisters again.
Any possibility that a 'southern' group would be interested?Details can be defined.
Thank you,
Patrick Otton
Harwich, Cape Cod, MA USA
Great history, unquestionable provenance and fully restored by the best timber boatyard in the USA (Editor’s personal opinion!). See SWS story from February 2024 on Svek.
Perhaps a logistics expert could suggest costs to ship and clear a 40’ container from Boston to Melbourne with a 2t wooden boat. She’ll probably travel the 9,900Nm via Panama Canal and the Pacific. All other routes via the two capes or Suez are an extra 3,000Nm. That might prompt the adventurous, so why not have a chat with Patrick!