Flotsam & Jetsam 12.9.25
A selection of news that from the last week that we feel is worth sharing. We’d love to hear from you if there’s stuff that needs to be known.
Centenarians Rally and historic display – October 2025
Twenty boats have already registered for this event! I’ll let you put names to these faces!
From the SASC Newsletter…
The Centenarians Rally will be a bi-annual October event which highlights our Maritime and Recreational history with a display of 100 year old vessels that have stood the test of time. Four organisations have joined forces – The Sydney Amateur Sailing Club (SASC), The Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM),
The Sydney Heritage Fleet (SHF) and The NSW Wooden Boat Association (NSWWBA). The ANMM will display the craft for two weeks on their Heritage Wharf from the October long weekend and through to Saturday 11th October school holidays. A Marquee will be shoreside with history displays and practical demonstrations of maritime skills by members of the WBA and the ANMM. Twenty vessels have registered for the event including Ventura, Oenone, Sea Rover, Athene, Utiekah II, Hoana and ANMM vessels Thistle, Jenny Wren and Akarana.
On the morning of Sunday 12th October, boats will leave the Museum and proceed to the main harbour for the Rally hosted by SASC. Yachts and Power craft will participate in a sailpast. Yachts will then go
Volunteers and boat owners who wish to participate please contact any of the four organisations mentioned or directly to the SASC office on 02 99531433 or email office@sasc.com.au. You can also register BY CLICKING HERE
Rule Changes
For those of you thinking of doing some Tasmania cruising this summer you should be aware of the New rock lobster season dates (These dates also apply to giant crab)
2025 rock lobster (crayfish) season open dates:
Waters outside the East Coast Stock Rebuilding Zone (ECSRZ)
OPEN from Saturday 1 November 2025.East Coast Stock Rebuilding Zone
OPEN from Saturday 6 December 2025.
2026 rock lobster (crayfish) season close dates:
Eastern Region (including ECSRZ)
CLOSED from Friday 1 May 2026Western Region (females)
CLOSED from Friday 1 May 2026Western Region (males)
CLOSED from Tuesday 1 September 2026
In Tasmania, seasonal closures help support sustainable fishing—so we can keep enjoying healthy fisheries for years to come.
Some fisheries close for part of the year to:
Protect fish while they spawn (breed)
Spawning is when fish reproduce. If we want more fish in the future, it's important that we help the current fish spawn successfully.
Some fish, like calamari, gather in large groups when they spawn. This makes them easier to catch—and easier to over-fish by accident.
By closing fisheries during spawning, we give these species a better chance to reproduce without being disturbed by fishing.
Spawning closures are aligned to the best available data on spawning seasons. If you’ve seen lots of evidence of spawning outside of a closure period, email fishing.enquiries@nre.tas.gov.au with the species, time of year and location.
Reduce how many fish are caught
Season closures can help prevent overfishing of popular species. By making a species off-limits for part of the year, it can reduce how much gets taken.
This provides a tool to manage catch in recreational fisheries other than changing bag limits or size limits.
Working Boat Revival
It seems that as soon as the AWBF announce “working boats” as the theme for the next festival then every thing around me is about relevant!
Check out this great article by Tom Cunliffe in the September edition of Classic Boat.
“Brixham Trawler Saved: Graduates & Hard Men Revive Vigilance”
The exploits of boats like the trawler Vigilance were the stuff of dreams, but the living memories are all gone now. Thanks to the efforts of Will Stirling’s crew of graduates and hard men, plus a good deal of local memory and money, Vigilance is on her way back to glory, Tom Cunliffe reports.
Way back in the 1970s I was sailing into the Medina River past Cowes when I saw a big grey ketch drying out on the grid. From the decks of my 13-tonne cutter she looked enormous, and the lone figure by the mainmast raised his cap as we swept by, dropping our topsail as we went. In the snug bar of the Folly Inn that evening I asked the assembled what she might be.
Saving a Brixham Trawler. Credit: Stirling and Son
Vertually a Classic
All boats designs are derivative. Nobody started with a truly blank canvas. I love tracing a particular sheerline or cabin top shape or transom angle through different decades and designers, and understanding that yacht design is never an absolute, but always an incremental progression to the unachievable goal of perfection.
So when i heard from Don Goldsmith that he was selling his 46 year old Ocean 29 design, I looked at the pictures he sent and saw a lot of Laurent Giles VERTUE in the shape of this 9 meter sloop. You would have to have a lot of chutzpah to think you could improve of perhaps the most storied small boat ocean cruising design of all time but thats’s what Andrew Shipway decided to do when he designed and built RANGEELA.
Here’s what Don has to say about her…
"Rangeela" is a "Ocean 29". She was designed and built by Andrew Shipway. Her lines were heavily influenced by the Laurent Giles Vertue. Though built in Airex composit foam and wood, with more beam, length overall and taller rig. She was Launched in 1979 in Hobart Tasmania, commissioned by the well known Ocean yacht racer Arthur Blore.
Arthur raced the well known off shore yachts "Animal Farm" and "The Office"
It was quite a surprise that he commissioned an "Ocean 29" a classic smaller Ocean cruising type yacht i think though it's possible the "Vertue" was such a legendary cruising design he had pleasure in owning such a boat. I've owned "Rangeela" for 9 years now and being a shipwright I have delt with alot of the maintenance issues a yacht of this age accumulated. She's now in excellent condition.
Some of what's new is…
New rigging, standing and running.
Near new mainsail, serviced & UV Genoa
Twin running reefable head sails.
Strom jib, trysail.
Fleming windvane.
Inner detachable forstay.
Laid Beach decks.
Bronze fittings, keel bolts, opening hatches.
Bimini with solar pannels.
Large water tanks 360lts.
Diesel tank 160lts.
400 amp hrs deep cycle batteries.
Anchor winch, 40 to 50mts of 10mm chain.
Beautiful teak fit out.
A safe high fwd bulwark & rails.
A long moulded keel aft hung rudder."Rangeela" sails beautifully and really trucks along in ight to moderate conditions and heavy weather she feels solid and sure footed which allows a more relaxed confident passage.
AU $33,000 Contact donandregolds@gmail.com