Flotsam & Jetsam 05.12.25
Some sailing related stories that piqued our interest from around the web and the world.
Designing and Building a Modern Cruising Dinghy, Small & Capable - John Welsford
The AWBF continues to release the recordings of the Symposium items from earlier this year. It’s a great initiative and this month’s offering is a beauty.
“A dinghy cruising resurgence is upon us! Perhaps it’s due to the increasing costs of owning larger boats, or the romance fuelled by books like Swallows and Amazons and Those Snake Island Kids, or the fact that cruising dinghies can be built by anyone with moderate woodworking skills in their backyard… John Welsford is a small boat designer with ten generations of boat building under his belt. John has been building small boats and exploring the New Zealand coastline from an early age and now has over 40 designs to his name with thousands having been built and sailed all around the world. John describes his role as: "A creator of dreams. Really, that’s the aim of a designer of small recreational boats." Watch renowned small boat designer John Welsford, in conversation with Matt and Ben from Small Craft Tasmania as they discuss the sophisticated art of designing a capable cruising dinghy, and what to look for in choosing a design to suit specific needs.”
It’s just twelve weeks until the Paynesville Classic Boat Rally
The 2026 Paynesville Classic Boat Rally and Maritime Festival was officially launched on Wednesday 5 November 2025 and more than 50 invited guests gathered at the Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club to learn about plans for the upcoming Rally. Announced at the launch was a major drawcard to attract even more people to Paynesville for the Rally weekend – the inaugural Gippsland Lakes Boat Show – hosted by the Boating Industry Association of Victoria
Another announcement made at the Rally launch was that the tall ship, Enterprize, will make her way from Port Melbourne to the Gippsland Lakes to participate in the 2026 Rally. This 27-metre vessel is a replica of the original ship that brought the first European settlers to Melbourne in 1835. The Enterprize is a topsail schooner, constructed using traditional materials, skills and tools. She was launched in 1997 and was the first square-rigged, commercial sailing ship to be built in Victoria in 120 years.
Read the latest newsletter HERE
SALMO needs saving
Some readers may remember our story and the wonderful video about the Vertue SALMO. Well, what we thought was a happy situation for her back in 2023 has apparently now become desperate.
Roger Robinson, the keeper of all things “Vertueous” write to us from the UK.
Salmo is now in the greatest peril of her life! She's apparently owned by a guy who has botched her up with some dodgy repairs and now she sits in a marina near San Diego, I think. One of my local spies on that coast sent me a message recently "Yes, Salmo, there was a little kerfufle on Craigslist recently. I think a broker even is trying to sell it. It sounds like it’s on its last legs."
If anyone wants a cheap, historic and bluewater capable design… this is your chance! Contact Roger
Scientists begin exploring £16 billion treasure-filled shipwreck
Researchers in Colombia have begun exploration of a shipwreck filled with massive amounts of treasure. The San José ship was sunk in 1708 by Britain's Royal Navy near the city of Cartagena in South America. The ship, carrying one of the largest hauls of valuables ever lost at sea, is thought to be worth around £16 billion in today's money! Gold, silver and emeralds are believed to have been on the ship – but there has been debate over who will claim the treasure.
The San José was an old Spanish galleon, which is a type of large boat with huge sails and lots of different decks.
Galleons were used for sea battles during the 16th and 18th Century, or for carrying items to trade with other countries. The San José was carrying gold, silver, gems and jewellery to Spain's king to help pay for his war with the British, but it was sunk soon after leaving South America.
It's thought the ship was carrying eleven million gold coins!
Read on courtesy of the BBC HERE
An Army Boat Auction
You know we love a good auction here at SWS. There’s not much detail on this one but here are the nuts and bolts.
The vessel is a converted round bilge ex-military tow vessel built in Australia in 1946.
The current owners have owned the vessel from December 2013 and have completed multiple refits and an ongoing maintenance program on the vessel since the purchase. The vessel has a round bilge displacement hull which is longitudinally planked above in 50mm hardwood over 70mmx38mm laminated ribs set at 220mm centres. All accessible planking joins are fitted with butt pads and all planking is copper nailed and roved. The deck shelf and
sheer clamp measure 740mmx45mm. Three longitudinal stringers are fitted, these measure 150mmx50mm and the keelson averages 250mm. Three timber watertight
bulkheads are fitted below the floor and decks. Substantial solid wood knees are fitted. The deck is longitudinal planked in 38mm hardwood over 75mmx150mm athwartships deck beams fitted at 600mm centres. The decks
have been covered with externally laminated marine ply.
Online Auction: bidding to commence on Friday, 12 December 2025 and will end on Thursday, 18 December 2025 at 2pm AEST
LOA 13.71m Beam 4.26m Draft 2.13m
6 Cylinder Diesel Engine 190 HP. Approx 600 Hours since Rebuild.
Fuel Capacity 1200 Litres in 2 Aluminium Tanks. Water Capacity 500 Litres.
Solar Panels, Victron Battery Controller. Hot water System. Electric Davitt.
Spacious Saloon Galley Area. Large aft deck. Near New Fridge and Freezer.
Underwater Hull and Keel Copper Sheathed. Recently Antifouled and Painted.
Double Bunk in main cabin. Toilet and Shower. Near New Reverse Cycle Air Conditioner.
Cruise at 7 Knots Top Speed 9 Knots. Approx 9Ltr per Hour.
Near New Aurora RIB with 15hp Suzuki Outboard.
For a full list of specifications, photos and an inspection contactTodd Anderson - 0409 630 733
Email: todd@marineauctions.com. au
The VICTORIA - The first circumnavigator
How would you go with the trivia question… “Which was the first ship to circumnavigate the world?”
Until I visited the replica of the VICTORIA currently on disply in Valencia a few hundred yards from where we are wintering, I too would have failed miserably.
In 1519, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, sailing for Spain, set out to find a westward route to the Spice Islands (the Moluccas). He commanded a fleet of five ships and about 270 men. After crossing the Atlantic, the fleet explored the treacherous passage at the southern tip of South America—now called the Strait of Magellan—and emerged into the vast ocean Magellan named the Pacific.
The voyage was long and brutal; disease, starvation, and storms killed many crew. In 1521, Magellan was killed in the Philippines during a conflict on the island of Mactan. Command fell to Juan Sebastián Elcano, who decided to continue westward rather than attempt an impossible return across the Pacific.
In 1522, after crossing the Indian Ocean, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, and limping back across the Atlantic, only one ship, VICTORIA, returned to Spain with just 18 survivors. This made Victoria the first ship ever to circumnavigate the globe, proving that the Earth could be sailed around and that the world’s oceans were connected.
This replica was built in Spain in 1991. Previously, a long process of historical research was carried out, directed by Ignacio Fernández Vial, the ship’s designer and builder, to design the shape of the ship and define its characteristics. An exhaustive study, based on documentary sources, chronicles, nautical treaties from the 16th century and iconography of the era, allowed to accurately reproducing the original ship’s main dimensions, spars, sails, and equipment.
In order to commemorate the first sailing around the world and to disseminate the labour of Spanish discoverers, this replica of the NAO VICTORIA started in 2004 another trip around the globe starting from Seville. Up to 26,894 miles were covered during 2004 to 2006 visiting seventeen countries. The replica of the Nao Victoria was the first historical replica to circumnavigate the Earth.
Ambassador of the First World Tour, symbol of Spanish maritime history, floating museum and training ship, in the last ten years, the NAO VICTORIA has sailed thousands of miles, has visited the main ports throughout Spain, Europe and the USA., and has had more than six million visitors worldwide.
Surviving the Stormy Christmas of 1927: Lady Daphne’s Miracle
A ripping yarn By Dick Durham in this month’s free article from Classic Boat Magazine.
An impression of the storm, inspired by a Roger Finch drawing
A Christmas tale might involve sacrifice, survival and the odd miracle, but rarely all three. Dick Durham tells us the story of Lady Daphne in the stormy Christmas of 1927.
The open hearth of a sailing barge’s stateroom is as good a place as any to put cheer into skipper and crew on Christmas Day, unless, that is, you are driving through an English Channel blizzard, as Lady Daphne. On passage, light, from Weymouth in Dorset to Fowey in Cornwall, that Christmas night, she was caught out in a north-easterly gale.
Lady Daphne was about to join an unfortunate roll-call of vessels in trouble over the festive period, as The Daily Telegraph reported in their 27 December, 1927 edition, with headlines that need little explanation: Country Swept by Arctic Blizzard, A Wild Christmas.
Read on HERE