3 July 2021 – Once again, it’s been a while between drinks, but here is another well known NSW boat, and this story has a happy ending!
1917 – Noxal – Noxal was built for Graeme Bailey and launched in 1971 when he was 16 years old. It was built for him by his father Murray. In the same year Murray also established the Nepean Sailfish Sailing Club, which set sail on the Nepean River in the summer of 1971/72. The Bailey family at that time lived in a house at Penrith which backed onto the eastern bank of the river.
Graeme and Noxal were a potent combination, winning the Nepean Sailfish Sailing Club championship on multiple occasions and always being near the head of the fleet in state and national regattas throughout the 1970s. Noxal was always hard to beat, and on the river, with its high banks, its current and its flukey winds, almost impossible. Club members, who included Chris Cleary, learnt a lot about sailing by observing Graeme and Noxal in those conditions.
The name of the boat was originally to have been Nogal, a local indigenous word for ‘belonging to me’, but the Penrith paper misspelled it as Noxal in the sports pages, and so Graeme left it at that.
In the early 1980s, after Graeme moved into another class, the boat for a time became a member of the Narrabeen Lakes fleet, then dropped from sight.
Some weeks ago however, the website was contacted by Dan in Tweed Heads, who was on the lookout for a second-hand Sailfish. Almost in passing, he mentioned a Sailfish in Coffs Harbour which he had seen advertised on the North Coast but which had been pulled from sale. It was Sailfish 1917. Chris Cleary got very excited!
He contacted Andy who had advertised the boat. He confirmed that it was Sailfish 1917; in fact it still had its registration disc attached to the transom. He had purchased the boat from a second-hand store in Raleigh, a small village south of Nambucca Heads, where it had apparently sat for over 20 years. Andy had only recently passed it on to his mate Robin. This was unfortunate, but only in the sense that Chris would otherwise have been making room in his garage for a third Sailfish. In fact Noxal has ended up in great hands. Robin is a boatbuilder up on the Clarence River near Ballina and he had recognised the beauty of the cedar deck and the excellent quality of the build. He acquired it with the intention of restoring it for his grandchildren. He is planning to rig a small gaff-rigged sail, but seemed interested in the information that the Sabot sail was the cadet rig used in the class in past years. He sent through some photos of the restoration, and promises more. He reports that at some time in the past a well meaning owner had renovated the hull with a belt sander, leaving some unfortunate gouges near the chainplates. These had taken some careful work to fix. He had also repaired some holes in the ply, stripped the hull back and commenced re-varnishing.
So, that is a boat we have located, and with a bit of luck we will see it on the water again in the not too distant future.
The lesson? They really are everywhere, tucked up in rafters, sitting around in second-hand or antique stores, or down at someone’s holiday house, so keep your eyes open and you never know what will turn up next.
11 April 2020 – Well it’s been a while since we have had anything for this page but here is one for the old hands to shuffle through their memories and see if we can find:
(I told you it was one for the old hands)
Plan number 169 was sold to David Parnaby who built the boat for his eldest son, Oliver, in 1964. Chloe was launched for the 1964/65 season, one of three Australian Sailfish to establish the class at Cairn Curran that season. The name Chloe came from Colonel Pewter’s cat in The Age comic strip of the same name.
The sides and transom were made of a fine piece of cedar reclaimed from a shop counter discarded by the local Dennys department store. The store was managed by Leigh Marriott’s father and Leigh also used this timber in his boat, 842 – Nemo.
Another feature of Chloe was that the nose block was made by laminating pieces of cedar and a pale timber.
David Parnaby made the sails for Chloe and Nemo and pioneered the use in the Australian Sailfish of soft sails (lacking full length battens) and bendy masts. That distinctive sail with the red foot and head plus the ‘porthole’ windows might help in identifying her.
At Chloe’s first Victorian State Titles at Elwood in 1967 Oliver finished fourth in the juniors, placing in all heats except one in which a gear breakage forced a retirement. In the 1968 Victorian State Titles at Beaumaris Chloe finished third in the Seniors behind Leigh Marriott (842-Nemo) and Jack Carroll (818-Ace of Clubs) and second in the Juniors behind Leigh. Towards the end of the video titled ‘1968 Sailfish Victorian Sate Titles’ (posted on this site) there is some wonderful racing footage of these three boats.
In the Victoria vs NSW challenge at Narrabeen Lakes in June 1968 Chloe won the first two heats but was dismasted and forced to retire in the third.
Chloe sailed six seasons at Cairn Curran, competed occasionally at Lake Eppalock and was a regular visitor to the Paynesville Easter regatta.
In 1969 Chloe was sold to Lex Laity of Maldon when Oliver moved to Melbourne for further study. A year later Chloe was advertised for sale in the December 1970 Sailfish Newsreel and was sold to person or persons unknown.
If you have any information on Chloe’s fate or whereabouts please let the website know via the Contact page. It would be greatly appreciated.
3129 – Tomato – Tomato was built for Terry Luchetta by his father, a cabinetmaker, and that skill showed through right across the build. From little details like the edges of the centreboard and rudder being hollowed out and then filled with resin to make them more resistant to dings to the fine work wherever edges met, this boat was a delight.
The plan was sold in December 1972 with the new boat appearing the following year with its distinctive tan/red sail. Terry campaigned Tomato for five seasons before building Tomato II in 1977 and selling Tomato on to Chris Drury from Ballarat. Two years later and Chris had built his Title winning boat Muffin (3390) and so Tomato was sold on to Colin Bilney who sailed it for a couple of years before putting Tomato in a shed.
Chris bought Tomato back in 1994 and raced it for one season at Port Fairy and it was then stored under his house.
In 2016 Chris advertised Tomato, free to a good home, I saw the advert. and recognised the name on the email, so immediately made contact. But I had missed Tomato by three weeks (doh!).
The new owner lives in somewhere in the Greater Geelong area and we would love to make contact, but of course this is not just about Tomato, but about getting in touch with Terry as well.
If you have Tomato we would love to hear from you, drop us a line; and if you know Terry, or if you are reading this Terry, get in touch!
Check out the photo of Tomato at Toronto in 1977/78 at or near the top of the NSW Gallery, you can just see some of the detail work with the inlays on the deck.
Just one more thing . . . Why Tomato? Why the red sail? And why is the plywood hull red cedar? Terry is (was?) a redhead.
5 March 2018 – Well the first entries had mixed success; we gathered a lot of information about Oscar Bullfrog (thanks Peter Stuchberry) although we still don’t now what happened to Oscar or where it is, but we have not heard a squeak about Bounty, so her fate remains a mystery. Remember, this is supposed to be interactive, so if you can add anything at all to what happened to these boats get in touch via the contact page.
This month a slight change of pace, a boat that was a significant contributor to the NSW fleet without ever winning a championship.
1414 – Gus – This boat introduced more people to sailing Australian Sailfish at Narrabeen than any other boat I know of. Plan number 1414 was sold to Ben Castle, then President of the NSW Sailfish Association and Gus was sailed by Ben in the first National Titles at Narrabeen in 1969/70. Gus was pretty flash stuff in it’s day, six batten main, tapered aluminium mast and a varnished cedar hull that looked fantastic.
Gus always seemed to be in use by someone, either the owner or being borrowed, in the fleet somewhere at State Titles and usually around the place at any NSW hosted National Titles, never up the front, but always there.
When I started sailing, Gus was sitting on the racks in the old Green Boat shed and was (just) out of my price range, although I did get to sail her a few times, usually when my own boat was broken. John Dowzard also sailed Gus at one stage and then ownership moved on to Martin Lloyd, then to Norton’s Navy where it was sailed by Darren, Astrid and Warwick in the early to mid eighties. It’s final known owner was Daniel LaForest and after that the trail runs cold.
And here is a bit more about Gus from Warwick Norton:
“In the Lake Mokoan 81’82 Nationals photo on the site you can see the 14 of 1414 on Gus sail. The little kid in the black shirt in the middle of the shot is me standing back with the mainsheet checking out the trim of the sail. On the Pennant for the 81-82 NSW State Title Gus is being campaigned.
Gus provided several of the Norton clan with the opportunity to develop our sailing/racing skills.
Gus started my ‘career’ in sailfishing by providing me with the opportunity to develop my base knowledge and skill set that latter developed on Silent Running and Furyous. Gus may have been getting a bit heavy and showing a few signs of age but even so, with a bit of breeze, Gus could hold it’s own with the other much younger hulls, sails and rigging.”
It would be great to know what happened to her, so if you know anything at all about where she went after the LaForest family, or if you have Gus sitting in your carport, please let us know, this one is a bit of a legend north of the Murray River.
And a further update from Astrid Norton:
“Last we heard about Gus was just after we sold the boat in the early/mid 1980’s.
The people that bought it owned the local Best Western Hotel and never looked after the boat. It was left outside to rot in the weather sadly. We haven’t heard anything since.
Sorry that I can’t be the bearer of better news.”
1 February 2018 – The idea for this new section came about from a discussion with Ray Cross on the beach after the Saturday race at this year’s Inverloch Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta. There are a number of Australian Sailfish out there that are significant for a variety of reasons, they might have been champion boats, they might have been well known boats, they might have been little known boats that made a difference to the class, whatever.
So I thought, wouldn’t it be something to find some of these boats, or at the very least, find out what had happened to some of these boats. Every month or so, we will list a boat with as much history as we can find out or remember. If you know of the boat and can tell some of it’s story, or you have the boat, or know where it is, get in touch to help us build the class history.
So to begin, two boats, one from Victoria and one from New South Wales . . . .
3360 – Oscar Bullfrog – the plan number for Oscar was sold to Ray Cross in 1977, and Ray enjoyed some success in the 1978 State Titles placing second to Peter Coburn who was sailing Ray’s earlier boat, Stanley Crocodile. Ray then lent Oscar to Chris Drury for the 1979 State Titles at Indented Head, where Chris finished third behind Jamie Robertson and Stuart Wallace. Like Stanley, Oscar was a well known boat in the Victorian fleet at the time, but after Ray committed to building 3370 On Target II, Oscar was sold. Tanelorn, 3430 came after On Target II. The latest information we have is that Oscar’s sail, rudder and centreboard were left at the Ballarat Yacht Club boat storage and the hull and maybe the mast were taken to the new owner’s home in Ballarat. We think that the new owner might have been an old school mate of one of the Flynn boys, and we know that Peter Stutchbery tried to buy Oscar a couple of times, without success.
So, the last known residence of Oscar Bullfrog was the Ballarat area, any leads? Are you the person who bought Oscar?
Does anyone out there know what happened to Oscar? Did you at some time own Oscar, or do you know the name of anyone who did? Have a think, and get in touch if you remember anything at all about Oscar Bullfrog.
1250 – Bounty – Australian Sailfish plan 1250 was sold to Neil Bowles from Narrabeen Lakes Sailing Club in 1967. Neil then went on to build one of the classic boats of the class, and the first built to minimum weight in New South Wales. I remember Neil telling me that he spent an entire afternoon at a timber yard going through piece after piece after piece of timber to find the exact right one to make the mast.
Neil dominated the NSW Sailfish fleet for many seasons and was the acknowledged master of the lake, winning two National Titles there (71/72 & 73/74) and at least one NSW State Title (71/72). The results for the 69/70 & 70/71 NSW State Titles are still lost, so that number might yet be added to.
Neil then passed Bounty to his son, Glenn who also achieved success, winning the 77/78 Junior National Title at Toronto and the 77/78 & 78/79 State Titles as well as placing in others.
Bounty was distinctive in appearance with a black hull, red deck and varnished gunwales, and Jack Carroll recently told me he always hated to see that sail number, as he knew he had a battle on his hands if it was around.
By 1980 Glenn had moved on from Sailfish and Bounty was sold to a family over the back fence from the Bowles house in The Esplanade in Narrabeen. She was then repainted a dove grey colour and we believe renamed Pussyfoot, and at this point we lost track of her.
Are you the person who bought Bounty from the Bowles? Or do you know what happened to her? If you can fill in any of the background please get in touch.
And stay tuned for more Whatever Happened To . . . . .
Havachat About Sailfish 