Tell us Your Story

As the Australian Sailfish nears its 70th anniversary we would like to hear from you. All of us that have owned, or do own, one of these ‘funny little boats’ has a story to tell about how it came into our life.

Some of us have been messing about with the Sailfish for many years, some of us have only built a Sailfish in the last 9 or so years, doesn’t matter, it’s your story and we would love to hear it. And if there are photos to go with that story, then even better.

So put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard, and share your story with us.

To start things rolling, and to give you an idea of what we are hoping for, here is the story of Michael and Australian Sailfish 1742, with thanks to Michael for the story and the photos.

Michael and Australian Sailfish 1742

I had just commenced Year 11 at Yeppoon State High School in 1971 when I determined to build a small sailboat – a Sailfish to be exact, after seeing an article about the class in a boating magazine while recuperating from a fairly major health scare in the latter half of 1970.

I learned to sail in Sabots with the Keppel Bay Sailing Club (KBSC) and had watched my father build a number of small boats (motorised dories and passenger ferry shuttle dinghies) under the family home in Ben Street Yeppoon, Central Queensland. These builds often necessitated help from the young me – stoking the fire for the steamer to bend stringers, ‘manning’ the dolly for the roving of the copper nails used to fix the marine ply sheeting to the stringers, gunwales etc. The workshop under our house had few power tools, save a drill, a belt sander and a large bandsaw. So even at 16 years, I could handle most woodworking tools with some degree of practiced skill. (Manual Arts in High School also helped with this early training).

After receiving the plans in the mail (these were the days of an order with a cheque in the post, then waiting with anticipation to receive the goods), I set about clearing a workspace under the house, this would be quarantined for the Sailfish project for the next 6 months or so. Next I ordered the required timber from the timber list enclosed with the plans. Cookes Building Supplies was chosen as dad already had a working relationship with ‘old George’ Cooke as a consequence of the many boat projects already completed by Prior and Son.

The one plan (Sheet 1 – Frames) that survives today from the 1971 build shows the tell-tale line of small holes along each frame outline, made by a pastry wheel borrowed from mum’s kitchen. The build of Sailfish 1742 took place whenever I found time away from the demands of Year 11 school, cricket practice and play (and then soccer as winter arrived) and the otherwise busy life of a teenager in the early 70’s. Building the hull proved fairly straightforward, with the detailed work around the centre-board housing being the most challenging. Only high quality Monel nails were used in the build where fasteners were called for but most were simply to hold a join while the epoxy glue dried. The spars required some outside assistance. The mast (16ft long?) and boom were each made from two pieces of straight pine each, with a semi-circular groove cut in one edge of each piece, for the sail track for the luff and foot of the single mainsail. The work on the spars was carried out on the long timber benches of a family friends fruit sorting shed on their farm just north of Yeppoon. Once glued and clamped together, the mast and boom were then shaped to the required oval cross section, tapered lengthwise, completely with hand tools – planes and spokeshaves. There was a small mountain of pine shavings on the floor of the sorting shed by the time they had finished work on the spars. This wasn’t the first boatbuilding experience for this shed and it would be far from its last.

George Manders of Brisbane supplied the sail and bamboo battens.

Editor’s note: Manders sails were very much the top Sailfish sail of the late ’60s and early ’70s and when you look at the photos below you can see how really well that sail is setting up, a lovely deep draft with the draft in exactly the right position all the way up, and lovely firm leech which is nonetheless exhausting nicely on the reach.

Stainless steel wire and fittings for the standing rigging and suitable high quality ropes and fittings for the running rigging were sourced from Brisbane. Fortunately a fellow member of KBSC had a suitable swaging tool that enabled dad and I to make up all of the necessary connections.

I made the centreboard, rudder and tiller, with tiller extension myself, from more timber from Cookes in Rockhampton. Dad was a ‘disciple’ of the benefit of using epoxy glue for timber joins that needed to last and so we exclusively used two-part Araldite for all of the boat building the family did. Seat-belt webbing straps were used for the footstraps that were fixed to the deck on about a 15 degree angle to the centre-line of the boat. There were two sets of these straps on each side, one for the skipper, and one for crew which happened occasionally.

By late winter of 1971, Sailfish 1742 was finished and ready for her launch and maiden sail. The Causeway Lake was a popular sailing and swimming venue back then and it was there the family and friends headed for the official launch. At first all went well, but as time on the water went on, the Sailfish started to worryingly pitch and yaw irrespective of wind influence. Back on shore it was discovered that there was now a LOT of water in the hull.

1742 launch day [Prior family album, Causeway Lake, late 1971]

Causeway Lake, launch day [Prior family album, Causeway Lake, October 1971]

As usual, click on any of the above photos to see a larger version.

So we drained the water out via the bung on the transom and spent the rest of the day just sailing the Arafura Cadet catamaran.

With the Sailfish back home investigations revealed the source of the leaking hull – quite simply with Dad away at sea, I hadn’t been sufficiently diligent with the construction of the centreboard housing. So it was back to work, this time with both father and son, with the sander, some fiberglass for the underside, and more Araldite topsides and inside the housing to fully seal the hull to a watertight finish. Some touch up work followed and Sailfish was ready for take 2. This time she now sailed as expected – beautifully. And as anyone who has sailed these or similar small sailing craft quickly learns, it is entirely possible to stay dry during the inevitable capsizes and righting, through nimble manoeuvring from deck to top of exposed centre-board and back to deck and away again as if nothing happened. Nothing to see here, only a very fast craft and a ton of fun to sail.

Island Head Creek, north of Yeppoon [Prior family album, Island Head Creek, January 1973]

Location unknown [Prior family album, mid 1970s?]

And again, click on any of the above photos to see a larger version

Sailfish provided a lot of enjoyment over the ensuing decades, with the only breakages being the odd sail batten and a lost tell-tale from the top of the mast in one of the early tip-overs in the Causeway Lake, which was growing shallower in parts as more and more sediment made its way from surrounding farming into the man-made lake.

I have lost touch with my Sailfish since giving it to a fellow enthusiast about 25 years ago but hope it is still giving sailing thrills. These days I am retired and still building boats – only much smaller, drafting plans of boats from Yeppoon’s fishing industry past and then building 1:25 scale models of those boats.

Model of Kestrel [Prior family album]

Model of Joshua Slocum’s Spray [Prior family album]

So there you are, that’s the story of Michael and Australian Sailfish 1742. Now, what’s your story? Because we really want to hear it as we move on to celebrating 70 years of the Australian Sailfish.

Share this: