Clinker Cup Report 2025
Words and general photogaphy by Jim Woods- Custodian of MARGARET PEARL and BEVERLEY.
Gallery Images below by Emma Phillips (Click to Enlarge)
Huey (or whatever God of wind and waves you subscribe to) again put on a fantastic Good Friday for the annual Clinker Cup at Sorrento.
The late summer weather was perfect for an on the beach gathering of small clinker-built craft.
Fourteen boats attended this years event which was again convened by Emma Phillips and Chris Johnson of the Wooden Boat Shop at Sorrento.
It's a delightfully informal and un-serious get-together where boats and their stories are the main game. That's not to say that the personnel attending aren't serious players. Wayne Parr, Tim Helliwell, Chris Johnson and others from the Wooden Boat Shop are all experienced professional shipwrights who brought their own small vessels. Rob McIntyre is as enthusiastic and knowledgeable as any boatbuilder could be who doesn't living from the craft. Rob has built 10 or more small vessels in his workshop on the banks of the Yarra River in Kew and participated for the first time this year with his Iain Oughtred designed McGregor canoe yawl which was constructed by Rob in 2024.
The provenance of the vessels is broad and ranged from those rescued from a demise in someone's backyard to the highly designed and refined tender to Storm Bay built from specially constructed Huon Pine plywood.
The chat on the beach was all about boats and the adventures that they bring. Many of the participants had recently returned from circumnavigations of Tasmania for the Australian Wooden Boat Festival. So there were plenty of stories of miles made, bays visited, seafood captured or collected, culinary delights and beverages consumed. World events seemed far away and Orange Donald didn't rate a mention.
The Clinker Cup is not just about the chat on the beach. There is a rowing race and a sailing race. And, as we all know, when the word "race" is mentioned - even in such a collaborative and friendly group as this - the desire to perform appears.
Beverly, 15 foot Ian outfit Acorn design stretched to 17 feet by her builder Rob McIntyre, was the red-hot favourite in the rowing race. She goes like lightning in a straight line but is not so keen on a change of direction. Sam Phillips the race officer for the day set a rowing course with a couple of turns which was not to Beverly's advantage. The first mark was a commercial vessel on mooring perhaps 200 m offshore. Beverly was first there but Chris Johnson, rowing the aptly named Nippy cut in between the commercial vessels mooring chain and stem and made sufficient ground to be ahead on the second leg. It was a two horse race at the second mark which was the centenarian couta boat Muriel. Nippy went around first with Beverly cutting a very wide arc. But on the straight-line run to the finish, Beverly overcame her rower’s age handicap and managed to maintain her unbeaten record.
By the time that the sailing race was due to start, the seabreeze had piped in and was blowing about 15 kn from the south-east down the Sorrento Channel. With the tide flooding, the chop was standing up making the conditions tricky for small craft. A few of the older hands (your correspondent included) decided a reef or two was necessary. The course was a Le Man's start from the beach, out through the moorings to the port mark on the outside of the Sorrento Channel; taking this mark to port required a sphincter-tightening gybe; before a downwind run into the tide and chop and then around the old boiler and beat back to the beach.
There were a few hookups between the vessels at the start which allowed for a group of four to get ahead of the pack. The predicted difficulties at the gybe mark eventuated with at least one crew in the drink and a few others with plenty of saltwater on the inside of the vessels. At the leeward mark, the pack of four was still in close contact but Wayne Parr in Minnie sailing with Jimmy Granger and Wayne's young son Orion held off the challengers to take the chocolates.
MINNIE-the Victor!
The day finished with a delicious pot of marinated mussels in the Phillips family boat shed which serves as the clubhouse for the Clinker Cup.
Highlights of the day included Anthony Johnson in Frostbite having about 10% of the volume of water in the boat as he did last year; Rob McIntyre keeping the canoe yawl upright and moving quickly around the race course (it's like trying to sail a water ski); and Orion Parr collecting the Clinker Cup.
But the overriding highlight for your correspondent was the fact that this event was organised by a group of younger enthusiasts. So many wooden boat events are run by older gentlemen. Not so for the Clinker Cup. The organisation is evenly shared between males and females in their 20s or early 30s. All strength to their arms. See you next year.
Jim Woods