How To See The World in 12 D
Words by Sal Balharrie. Pictures by Mark Chew.
2025 DERWENT CLASS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS // Hobart, Tasmania
The Skippers briefing and El Presidente, Gus Mckay sets the tone.
It’s good to get formalities out of the way. It’s important to set a sense of occasion, loaded with the kind of gravitas becoming of a World Championship event, and so he began:
“You can and will be disqualified for being a dickhead. Do not scratch Mermaid. Given new boats a hard going over. Don’t be last. The line will be short so don’t hassle for angles. Just find yourself a spot. Any questions?”
There were none and the barefoot skippers headed back to their boats which at this stage were one big, rafted up unit of organised chaos – the morning after the night before - on the waterfront in Hobart as part of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival 2025.
It’s a story of resurgence and renewal – both craft and human – 100 year old boats being brought back to life by young shipwrights and a community that is 100% behind them. So there’s no surprise to find Leo Goolden of Tally Ho fame aboard the newly restored MERMAID, bright pink and gorgeous – that’s the boat, we’re talking about.
SIDENOTE – Dockside, Leo took to wearing his hoodie up and sunnies on – the bloke is a freaking rockstar – mobbed and hassled, his Symposium talks filled with overflows rooms and second and third and fourth screens required to satiate his multitude of fans . He pulls a crowd because he’s a cool kid doing cool stuff and so, amongst the ‘D’s he’s found his Tassie tribe.*
The winds are light but the banter, high. A ‘D’ sails up to the transom of the start boat. Is it a sign on? Nuh, have you got any Panadol?
And while we’re waiting for the breeze to fill in, you have to wonder, almost 100 years after a bloke called Webster decided what was needed was a one design class that took kids from dinghies to keel, and the first ‘D’, ‘IMP’ rolled out of Percy Coverdale’s yard at Battery Point, did those guys ever imagine their boats would still be racing in 2025?
At Southern Woodenboat Sailing, we’ve written about the ‘D’s before and we’ll write about them again and again and again. There’s not a club in the world that wouldn’t want the vibe and the energy and the sheer sense of fun that is the full package of the Derwent Class.
And the wind came in and six races were held and later when the crews marched as one to hear the results and there was cheering and general heckling and a finding that 3rd was JANUS, skippered by Ollie Mckay and 2nd UNDINE skippered by Mick Hawes and the 2025 Champion happened to be the oldest in the fleet, a vessel called GNOME skippered by Nelson Brown and long necks were handed about and happiness filled the space.
But there was one much, much more memorable moment. A moment that no one really noticed.
Back on the dock, a kid of about 10 had climbed down and into the blue one. He sat there, quietly, the tiller in his hand, looking around at the carnage that is a ‘D’ after race day - the boat of his heroes - and he looked up and told me, that Cygnet Yacht Club is restoring a ‘D’ for the juniors and he’s going to sail it, and his smile – well that was the true stuff of legends.
*And as you’ll see from the pics – the term cool kids knows no age.