Rushed Research
Last week we had a healthy reminder that SWS readers are both knowledgeable and engaged. Our EDM goes out at 7am every Friday to 4000 readers. By 8am we had over a dozen emails and comments, rightly pulling us up on our shoddy research!
There’s no valid excuse, but a brief insight into the workings of the editorial team explains the errors…. It’s Thursday morning…content is looking a little thin…What’s been happening in the sailing world this week? The Sydney Hobart entries have closed…How can we make that into a story?… A quick scan of the fleet and a para. about each timber entry and “Hey Presto”, a fully formed article!
ERROR NUMBER ONE
SYLPH VI, sailing in the two handed division undoubtably has classic lines. From the board of Alan Payne in the 1960’s, she has her own blog page HERE which goes back 20 years and makes for interesting reading. But she’s not a wooden boat despite her looks. She is 41ft of solid Port Kembla Pine. A world girdling, adventurous, Australian gem under skipper Robert Williams….Yes. A timber Classic…No.
ERROR NUMBER TWO
This mistake, or more accurately omission, is a little more embarrassing as the editors are friends of the custodians of TILTING AT WINDMILLS and should have know better! In an attempt to make amends heres a little background and history on Professor Joubert’s masterpiece thanks to Andrew Roberts.
The 2018 Middle Sea Race
Tilting at Windmills is one of the timber yachts competing in the upcoming 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, entered by owner Sarah Gunnersen Dempsey and skippered by John Alexander. The boat has a loyal tight knit crew who have sailed together for many years in Australia and overseas, including third generation sailing youth of the Gunnersen family. It is nearly 10 years since Windmills last raced in the Sydney Hobart, having competed in the race a previous eight times.
Windmills is a 12.8m LOA timber composite John Dory sloop that was commissioned by Thorry Gunnersen AM (1942-2018) and designed by Professor Peter Joubert AM (1924-2015). She is a modern timber yacht featuring a long trunk cabin, deep cockpit and integrated chainplate-stem-keel structure, and embodies confident bluewater passage making. Joubert was a close friend of Thorry who designed a number of yachts that included the Currawong 30 and Brolga 33 classes and his own former yacht Kingurra. The design of Windmills drew on features of these yachts, also informed by the building of three scale models that were sailed against each other on Albert Park Lake in Melbourne, with elements tweaked before her final design.
Once the design was finalised, Windmills was built by Norman R Wright and Sons in Bulimba, Qld. Her construction comprises a timber end-grain balsa core with hoop pine skin, glass sheathed, with teak cabin sides and deck. She was launched from Wrights boatyard in November 1994 to sail in the 50th anniversary Sydney Hobart yacht race. The name of the yacht draws on the Spanish novel Don Quixote written by Cervantes in the 1600’s, telling the tale of the adventures of an old knight and his sidekick, including jousting with imaginary dragon foes, or tilting at windmills.
Thorry and his daughter Sarah have raced and cruised Windmills extensively in Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Windmills race history includes several Sydney-Hobart and Melbourne-Hobart yacht races, along with the Gosford-Lord Howe, Brisbane to Gizo, Brisbane to Noumea, Groupama New Caledonia, Fastnet and Middle Sea races. Notable results include second overall in the 2003 Sydney Hobart and second in division in the 1998 Sydney Hobart and multiple division wins and placings in the Melbourne-Hobart Westcoaster. Major regattas include Cowes Week, Voile de Saint Tropez and Hamilton Island Race Week.
The boat’s racing schedule has coincided with extensive cruising, including the Pacific Islands, the Australian coast from Great Australian Bight to Northern Queensland, and twice to New Zealand in 2000 and 2003 for the Americas Cup. Cruising in New Zealand included Bay of Islands, Queen Charlotte Sounds, and a circumnavigation of the South Island which featured Fjordland and Stewart Island. Cruising in Europe has included the Baltic east to St Petersburg Russia, the Mediterranean, UK and the Scotland Hebrides, Sweden and Norway. John Alexander, as sailing master during this time in Europe, was a key part of these successful cruises with the yacht often two-up in between hosting of friends and family onboard. The Norwegian cruise was a particular standout as Windmills voyaged north along the western Fjord coast and into the Arctic Circle to Tromso at 70 degrees North. For this cruise, which spanned 4 months and almost 4000nm, Thorry was awarded the Royal Cruising Club’s ‘Romola Cup’ in 2009 for most outstanding cruise of any duration. In its 100th year, it was the first time the cup had been awarded to an Australian yachtsman.
Tilting at Windmills is now based in Cygnet, Tasmania, with recent highlights including attendance at the 2023 Australian Wooden Boat Festival and a successful 2023 Cygnet Regatta.
Here at SWS we are very happy to be corrected wherever possible. The acquisition of knowledge and the opinions that stem from it is an incremental process. The more correct knowledge we have at our fingertips the better informed our attitudes and decisions will be.