Flotsam and Jetsam 26.09.25
Exmouth Gulf Marine Park
The Exmouth Gulf Marine Park will protect the enormous stretch of coastline adjacent to Ningaloo Reef. (Supplied: Blue Media)
Plans to protect a globally significant marine habitat off Western Australia's coast have been announced after decades of advocacy by conservationists.
The WA government announced on Friday that a new marine park would be created encompassing the entirety of the Exmouth Gulf.
Adjacent to the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef, the gulf spans mangrove wetlands, coral enclaves, whale and dugong nurseries and one of WA's most productive prawn fisheries.
The Exmouth Gulf is often called a "nursery" for humpback whales on their journey north. (Supplied: Blue Media)
48th annual Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival
Some early imagery from last week’s 48th annual Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival indicate that it was a resounding success. If any of our readers have first hand accounts we’d be delighted to publish them!
Northwest Maritime reports that it was nothing short of extraordinary. Fog, rain, or shine—you showed up. For three days, the waterfront came alive with boats of every shape and size, lively docks, packed presentations, music and dancing, and the kind of community spirit you can only find here in Port Townsend.
Now that the sails are furled and the docks are quiet again, we want to take a moment to reflect and to say thank you.
Photos by Luc Schoonjans, Mark Cole, Elisabeth Mention, Carole Huelsberg, Nora Phillips, Tim Murray, and NWM Staff
More Australian Stories in British CLASSIC BOAT Magazine
Another great article by friend of SWS Nigel Sharp in this months edition
Norman R. Wright & Sons: 100 Years of Boatbuilding & More
Norman Wright – South Pacific, whose hull is covered in hessian which is soaked with water a couple of times a week. Credit: Nigel Sharp
It was in 1909 that Norman Wright founded his boatbuilding business near Breakfast Creek on the banks of the Brisbane River. It was a well-chosen site as it was close to a tram route between the wealthy suburb of Ascot and the city of Brisbane, allowing businessmen to call in on their way home from work and talk to Norman about their boating requirements. The first boat that Norman built there was a small gaff cutter called The Superb, a centreboarder to allow for the shallow waters of nearby Moreton Bay.
Sunken Sparkman and Stephens-CAIRDIAS
From the Maritime Executive
The U.S. Coast Guard has set up a unified command to respond to the sinking of the historic yacht Cairdeas near Bremerton, Washington.
Cairdeas is a classic 34-meter yacht built in 1943 at the Fellows & Stewart Yard, and according to private databases she was designed by the famed naval architecture house of Sparkman & Stephens. The wooden-hulled vessel had been a familiar sight around the Northwest coast for decades and had been restored may times, but had reportedly fallen into disrepair in recent years.
Cairdeas had a history of resurrection. In her heyday, under charter to Warner Brothers for movie work, she hosted some of the biggest starts of the era, including Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson, according to a retrospective published in the Anacortes American in 1994. She burnt to the waterline in 1973, but was restored with an aluminum superstructure. Two decades later, in 1993, she sank while she was moored on the Fraser River in British Columbia, and her classic interiors were destroyed by flooding and removed. She was restored once more and resold to continue her career.
Under current ownership, the yacht had sat idle for some time in Sinclair Inlet, according to local reports, and had been declared abandoned by the state in 2023. It ran aground last year in a windstorm, then sank completely last weekend.
Resting on the bottom in Sinclair Inlet, Cairdeas is a spill risk, and the Coast Guard has responded accordingly. About 2,600 feet of boom has been strung out around the vessel, and divers are installing vent plugs to stop any discharge. The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund has been tapped to pay for the immediate response; typically the owner is billed for the pollution abatement expenses after the fact.
2025 Six Metre World Championships
With a dedicated Classic Division, it’s interesting to keep an eye on the 6 metre World Championship currently underway at Centre Island in Oyster Bay, New York. But first a bit of background on the class.
The 6 Metre class , originated from the International Rule established in 1907 to standardise racing yachts while allowing for innovation in design. The “6 Metre” designation doesn’t refer to the boat’s length—in fact, most are around 10–11 meters—but rather a formula-based rating derived from factors including length, sail area, and hull shape. This rule encouraged designers to balance speed, stability, and seaworthiness, resulting in sleek, elegant yachts that became iconic in early 20th-century racing. The first 6 Metres were launched in the 1910s, quickly gaining popularity in Europe and North America as competitive yet manageable racing boats.
The class reached its golden era in the 1920s to 1950s, attracting top yacht designers like Olin Stephens and Gustav Estlander, whose innovations pushed the limits of hull design and sail efficiency. 6 Metres were featured in the Olympic Games from 1908 to 1952, cementing their status as a premier racing class. Even after being dropped from the Olympics, the class maintained a devoted following, with active fleets in countries such as Norway, Sweden, and the United States.
Over the decades, 6 Metre yachts evolved significantly in both hull and rig design. Early boats were often heavy and full-keeled, favoring stability over speed, while post-1920s designs embraced lighter, more streamlined hulls, fin keels, and larger sail areas to maximize performance under the rating formula. Designers experimented with overhangs, beam width, and mast placement to find the fastest combinations within the class rules, leading to boats that were both elegant and highly responsive under sail. In racing, 6 Metres are known for their tactical demands: despite their moderate size, they are sensitive to weight distribution, sail trim, and sea conditions, rewarding skilled helmsmanship and teamwork.
From a press release on the current world Championship
Race one completed but race two abandoned due to dying wind at 2025 Six Metre World Championships on Long Island Sound
In the Classics the 1931 S&S designed Jill of Alessandro Maria Rinaldi from the YC Costa Smeralda proved that she’s not just a pretty girl. A solid start in the middle of the line set her up nicely to lead at the first mark and she elegantly defended from there. But behind her it was like snakes and ladders. At the first mark it was the young team of Cameron Wallace aboard Ca Va (1938) from the Royal Victoria YC that led the chasing pack, closely followed by His Majesty King Juan Carlos’s Bribon (1947) from RCN Sanxenxo, with Greg Stewart from the San Diego YC sailing Sprig (1930) fourth and Louis Heckly’s Fun (1937) from YC de France fifth. But it was all change on the second lap, where Fun dug deep, did a great job with the shifts and sailed impressively fast to finish second, with Bribon a very close third, Ca Va fourth and Spring fifth.
Third placed Reigh North was particularly pleased with their performance aboard Sting. “The wind was good when we first went out and then it was slowly dying as the day went on. They got the first race off and we had maybe 7-8/9 knots of breeze, it was shifty, and you had to play the current and we did that well, and we’re confident in our boat that it’s going well, so we were happy with where we ended up today. We love the Six Metre Class, and we love it when all the boats get together to race. They are just incredible boats, they are so powered up, and they move and the technology and the design effort that goes into them, and they’ve stood the test of time. Some of the Classics out here are 100 years old and they’re still racing on the water today. And the level in the class is very very high. We’ve got some of the top people in the world here so it’s fun. It’s nice rubbing shoulders with them.”
After racing Louis Heckly summed up their day saying, “We are lucky to have our first race in, which opens the Championship and already we are able to see the big guns and a couple of teams that can pretend for the world title this year. We have not had such a bad start for the whole season, until today, but we managed to go on the good side of the course and make it OK at the end, so we were quite happy to end up in second from ninth position on the first leg. I think it is amazing to see this one class with two divisions coming together on the same racecourse. It’s such a pleasure to see 100-year-old boats playing just as hard on the same racecourse as boats that were built this year.”
And from New York to Cannes
Photo Stephane Conte - RR showcase
After four exceptional editions, the 47th Régates Royales de Cannes are once again looking very promising this year. The storms that raged over the weekend are now behind us, and the weather forecast is superb, typical of Cannes on this first day of autumn.
On Monday, September 22, the 32 Dragons kicked off the competition in the East harbour in a breeze that slowly but surely picked up to 20-25 knots, creating choppy waters under a bright sun. This heavy 9-meter keelboat with a tapered hull, designed in 1929 by the Norwegian Anker and nicknamed “the sailboat of kings,” is extremely technical to trim and climbs into the wind like a spider climbing a wall. It has long attracted the cream of the regatta, including many former Olympic medalists and European and world champions. After two superb races, Germany's Dirk Pramanin took the lead ahead of the British Dragon led by Klaus Diderichs and Martin Westerdhal, with Italian Diego Negri, former Star world and European champion, as tactician... Gérard Blanc, president of the International Dragon Class... and treasurer of the Cannes Yacht Club, is delighted: “Not only do we have a very international fleet, but we also have ‘champagne sailing’ conditions with wind and warm seas for this first day of racing. It's no surprise that many sailors love to come and compete in the Régates Royales. They are welcomed like royalty at the YCC... and I'm delighted!”
Among the 12 MJI boats, legendary America's Cup sailboats from the 1980s, which raced in the western harbor, the match was exciting in a shifty wind, oscillating from northwest to southwest at around 20 knots. Danish sailor Jes Gren Hansen on Kiwi Magic, finalist in the Louis Vuitton Cup in 1987, leads after two races, ahead of South Australia led by Yann Deplace and French Kiss – Christophe Babule, Marc Pajot – which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary in Hyères with most of the original crew.
Tomorrow, the nine other Big Boat series will enter the fray at Tofinou. Jean-François Cutugno, president of the Cannes Yacht Club, is understandably delighted. The village on the quay is already packed for a Monday, and “sailing” from one point to another is like leaving a stadium after a match: “We have nearly 140 boats, some of the most beautiful in the world.” He taps on his weather app: “The week is shaping up to be exceptional once again with dream weather. I see nothing but sunshine and moderate winds, ideal for racing. The stars seem to be aligning. What more can I say!”
Perpetual Guardian 2026 Classic Yacht Regatta- Dates Announced
From the CYANZ—The flagship classic racing event of the summer will take place from Friday-Sunday 6th-8th March 2026
The 3-day regatta hosts a delegation of CYA AU representatives and is the scene to some truly magical sailing.
Hosted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, the Regatta opens with the skippers briefing on Thursday night. Over the following 3 days the classic yachts compete in 6 races, gather at the RNZYS for 3 daily prize givings and a End-of regatta buffet dinner on Sunday night.
The RNZYS Quarterdeck restaurant becomes Regatta HQ for the duration of the Regatta, While a selection of racing yachts are hosted in the 'Regatta Village' (MRX berths) and can be admired from the restaurant's viewing windows at the daily prize giving. The CYA is proud to welcome annually a delegation of CYAA representatives who take part in the racing. The event culmunates with the official Regatta Prize Giving and presentation of trophies, held at 1930 hours on Sunday.
