“An Adventurous Life”. Sir James Hardy’s Biography
Book Review by Stephen Robson
Like most keen yachties I have a veritable library of “Maritime” reading. Right back to my first book titled Successful Sailing by Lou D’Alpuget (given to me by my Grandfather in 1974) through to various copies of books on racing strategies by Eric Twiname and Stuart Walker. In more recent years, my collection has expanded into adventures including books by Joshua Slocum and AJ Mackinnon. There also is a smattering of biographies of famous sailors – mainly Americas Cup helmsmen and round-the-worlders.
The toughest part of this assignment is not writing the review – it is picking my favourite book. Its like naming your favourite child boat
But in order to try to be “first” I’ll pick a favorite – it’s the biography written by Rob Mundle about Sir James Hardy entitled “An Adventurous Life”.
Jim Hardy waving with navigator Bill Fesq on his left - Gretel II - 1970 America's Cup - photo © Paul Darling
I received this book in 1994, well before I met the man himself. In 2012, I was fortunate to sail around Cape Horn in a crew of 10 including both David and Bill Hardy. That’s another story, but the Hardy boys and I have been mates ever since. Knowing them both also brought this book to life for me in a unique way. In fact I have now heard many more fantastic stories about a great man.
In 2021, I was invited to sail on Sir James’ beautiful timber boat Nerida in a classic boat race on Sydney Harbour. Sir James had retired from competitive sailing, but came down to wish us well. He was about to turn 90, so I told him I was about to turn 60. He decided to give me some three pieces of advice for my 60’s:
1. Never walk past a public urinal
2. Never trust a fart and
3. Never waste an erection
This was delivered with class and a twinkle in his eye. He then gave us a bottle of wine and sent us off in his beloved yacht. No surprise that was also a cellar on board. This fantastic day’s sailing on Nerida, resulted in the expansion of our timber boat syndicate to include the purchase of Ventura.
In this book, Rob Mundle has done a great job of capturing Jim Hardy’s story. Not only was he a great sailor – with adventures from the Tokyo Olympics, Admirals Cup and of course the America’s Cup – but he was a genuinely good bloke. As a businessman, he gave Australia some superb wines. He was also a great family man as a grandson, son, father and uncle. He was also an excellent sportsman on many levels – but it was through his adventurous life that trod that fantastic line between raconteur and leader. Ultimately this is an excellent yarn about one of our greatest Australians. And the fact that he loved timber boats is weaved throughout his life story. This will always live on through his exploits in International Cadets, Gretel II, Nerida and numerous other timber vessels.
I admit bias, but Sir James was the sort of bloke you just wanted to be around, and this book is the sort of book that you will find hard to put down.
NERIDA’s launch in 1933 at Searle and Sons, in South Australian 1933