An Odd Chap’s Boat
Peter Mander in JEST with Rolly Tasker’s FALCON IV to windward off St Kilda beach 1956 Olympics.
“Rolly Tasker was about my age – mid-twenties and size say twelve and a half stone. I always thought him physically elongated from the shoulders to the top of his dark head, but he had plenty of brain in between. He was an odd chap. He talked easily yet liked to be away by himself, completely aloof from the contest bunch. He was quite sure what he said was right, in an assertive way that brooked no contradiction. I had the impression Tasker was so sure of himself that he didn’t have it in him to see himself ever in the wrong. Indeed he had the reputation to back it. He had been Sharpie champion of Australia for some years.”
So wrote Peter Mander in his book “Give a Man a Boat”. At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, in Heavyweight Sharpies, Peter Mander and Jack Cropp from New Zealand ended up winning gold with silver going to Rolly Tasker and John ‘Huck’ Scott in controversial circumstances. FALCON IV was disqualified after a rooky port starboard incident in Race 7. Photo below shows the Sharpie medal ceremony in the Catani Gardens outside RStKYC. President of the IOC Avery Brundage presents silver to Tasker and Scott. Mander and Cropp stand behind in the gold medal position.
If you like a ripping sporting yarn, you can read about it below. (click to enlarge) But an Olympic mishap is not the point of this article!
The point of this article is to let the wooden boat sailing community know that the boat in which Tasker competed, has finally been found in Adelaide and desperately needs saving. Tony Jones from SWAN RIVER SAILING DINGHY HERITAGE ASSOCIATION takes up the story.
We have an opportunity to secure two important boats for our archive of sailing dinghies. They are FALCON III and IV, the 12 sq meter Heavyweight Sharpies, used by Rolly Tasker and Huck Scott to win the silver medal at the 1956 Olympics. They are a rare and important find and we require funds to purchase, transport and restore them using skilled craftspeople. Peter Mander’s JEST is currently being restored. The English bronze medal boat CHUCKLES is restored and sailing in the UK. Only FALCON needs to remount the podium.
Tasker died in 2012, leaving a long legacy to WA yachting and sailmaking. Two years after Melbourne, he won the Flying Dutchman world championship in his home-built FALCON V. The FD was nominated to replace the HW Sharpie at the 1960 Rome Olympics. From early days, dinghy sailors around Australia instantly knew his boomerang sail logo. Tasker opened a loft in Hong Kong in 1961, taking advantage of a cheaper but highly skilled labour force. From the 1990’s he built large lofts in Phuket Thailand that still operate today. His series of SISKA yachts were well known in the Sydney Hobart and WA offshore races. In 2008 Tasker funded and built the Australian Sailing Museum in Mandurah WA. The museum could not secure private or State support after Rolly died and was closed.
FALCON IV currently stored in Adelaide
Tony estimates that the cost of purchasing, transporting, and stabilising the special craft would be around $25,000 They could then become part of the amazing Swan River Dinghy Collection, which is exactly where they belong given Tasker’s West Australian roots.
If you are in a any position to help financially with this worthwhile project, please contact TONY JONES directly.
Tony also provides some background on the Dinghy Collection
We have been collecting Swan River Sailing Dinghies for the past 30 years in an ad hoc but sustained manner. Many of these are historic such as winning significant races or being featured in the Olympics.
We also place a significant value on the age, provenance and class of dinghy and how it contributes to overall collection and as the interest in our work spreads, we are being offered boats from throughout WA and interstate. As a result, we now have some 50 boats ranging from canoes to rowing shells to skiffs.
For the past three years we have been an incorporated body holding regular meetings and restoring the boats where we can with limited voluntary labour.
We have an informal membership of over 120 members mostly sailors and lovers of the sailing craft and the Swan River including some of WA’s leading yachtsmen and women including members of the America’s Cup crew and the Olympics.
Many have indicated a willingness to donate to our organisations however, until now the financial costs off collecting, storage and restoring has been freely met by Tony Jones the Chair of the body applying for the grant.
Our initial request is to grant us the funds to restore 2 of the most famous wooden sailing dinghies in WA sailing history. They are the Falcon 12 sq meter Heavyweight Sharpies used by Rolly Tasker and Huck Scott to win the silver medal at the 1956 Olympics. They are a rare and important find and need skilled crafts to do the work.
The longer-term vision is the secure funding to restore all the boats to museum standard and establish a home to exhibit them.
We are hoping that, in time, we will have a museum on the river to house the collection but it will also offer a living interactive experience demonstrating and teaching boatbuilding skills and to celebrate the sailing history of the Swan River, the people and their rich stories. There are facilities in other Australian states, such as Tasmania and countries overseas that already undertake such activities.
