“Some Girls give me jewellery, that I never thought I'd own”
By Rob Hartnett, Custodian of Sabre 855 “Some Girl” –Sandringham YC
The Sabre dinghy class is one of Australia’s strongest dinghy fleets with Nationals seeing over 100 entries and Victorian States consistently 50 plus boats. The Sabre is a 12 foot singlehanded dinghy designed by Rex Fettell in 1974 . Rex is also known for designing the popular Minnow junior dinghy.
SOME GIRL is arguably one of the most iconic Sabres built.
Her sail number of 855 was registered officially in 1979 and she was built at home in Geelong by Max and Stuart Wallace in 1980 with the sole purpose of winning the 1980-81 Sabre Australian Championship in Blairgowrie.
Stuart's father Max, who although not an active sailor, was fascinated by what made yachts go fast and was influenced by such people as Uffa Fox. Max was known to devour all books on boat design from the local library while building SOME GIRL for Stuart. Apparently, they spent many nights at the mast extrusion manufacturers in Geelong sorting through some 60 plus sections to get the right weight and bend.
The result was a very fast Sabre that challenged some of the conventional thinking in Sabres at the time but none the less measured in every aspect.
SOME GIRL has some additional family history. Under the decks many family members had written personal notes about their favourite AFL team and other notes intended to never see the light of day! Another story goes that the boat was near completion when Max realised, he had run out of materials for the centreboard. No problems for the creative Max and a quick visit to his mother’s (and Stuart’s Grandmother) house in Geelong and the removal of her bedroom door while she was out provided the necessary wood for the centreboard!
SOME GIRL went onto win the Australian Championships. After the Nationals the boat was sold, and Stuart started in Lasers culminating in him winning the Laser World Championships in 1987 held at Sandringham Yacht Club.
I had known Stuart since our days in Minnows when he sailed the very fast Captain Matchbox and later in Lasers and then Stuart joined me occasionally for some J24 regattas. In 2022 SOME GIRL was discovered by chance when I stopped in for a coffee at Mt Martha and wandering around the boatyard, I saw her in a rather poor condition, full of water with her decks badly damaged. I thought it is now or never. Luckily the owner was keen to have it looked after and we agreed on a deal quickly.
Tim Heaney from Frecheville-Heaney Boatbuilders in Paynesville was keen to take on the rebuild of SOME GIRL and over the next 18 months all paint was stripped off, a new deck out of gaboon fitted, the stern replaced, the floor re-attached, all fittings removed and replaced. She was repainted as close to her original 1980 build in Storm Grey with a varnished stern and decks.
The boat was finished the night before the Classic Dinghy Regatta in Inverloch in February 2024 and won her first race back in the water after many years.
SOME GIRL then attended the Wooden Boat Rally in Paynesville where she was on display and sailed and recently she sailed at the Cairn Curran Classic Dinghy Regatta finishing second in division to my friend Craig Ginnivan, in his beautiful Finn, Mickey Finn.
Thanks go to Tim Heaney for the re-build, Sly Boatbuilders for ropes and fittings, Ronstan for new equipment and of course Stuart Wallace for keeping a keen eye on the project and remembering the details of a special boat.
In 2025 Some Girl will be 45 years old and is entered for the Inverloch Wooden Dinghy event again.
And in case you don’t know of the Inverloch Classic Dinghy Regatta have a read HERE. And then click on the poster below for details of the 2025 event and entry forms. It will be a dash back from Hobart’s AWBF to make it for the following weekend but rest assured it will be worth it!
