FOLKBOAT VS VERTUE
Father & Son slug it out
DOUBLE PARKING
What do you do if you own and love a late-1950s Fred Parkerdesigned yacht? Why, you do it all again of course, even if it does mean a serious restoration…
WORDS NIGEL SHARP
PHOTOS BERTHON BOAT CO
LITTLE THERA
One of the most sensational and controversial yachts of her time, the gaff centreboarder Thera was so unbeatable in her early years that she was banned from all racing. Today, restored, she’s part of Australian history –and still the cock of the fleet
The most sensational and controversial yacht ever to race on Port Phillip.” A bold statement from Bert Ferris, the late archivist of the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron, but few who know the story of the yacht Thera – particularly her first couple of decades – would disagree with it.
Thera was designed by the self-taught Charlie Peel and built by him and his brother on the Railway Coal Canal in Melbourne in 1911. Although he would later design the 50ft-plus (15m+) Acrospire III and Acrospire IV (1923 and 1929 respectively and both still sailing today), Charlie was best known for his smaller, beamy, lightweight centreboarders, probably influenced from his time working in New York shipyards in the early 1900s when such boats were built to the designs of Nat Herreshoff and others. One of his centreboarders was the 1909 Idler from which was developed the 21 Foot Restricted Class, several more of which he designed, and which was the class used for fierce interstate competition racing for the Forster Cup, donated by Lord Forster, the Governor-General of Australia from 1920 to 1925.
Thera was designed to Dixon Kemp’s Length and Sail Area Rule which produced the Rater classes elsewhere. Most of the racing boats on Port Phillip at that time were narrow and deep-keeled, a marked contrast to the centreboarder Thera which became known as a “live ballast” boat with her crew – usually about nine of them – sitting out on the gunwale.
BANNED THEN SUNK
Thera’s first owner was Chas Lucas and in her first two seasons, she had 10 race victories and was placed on 10 other occasions in 22 starts, winning her over £200 in prize money. As a result, the Victoria Yacht Racing Association moved her from the smaller yachts’ class into the A Class.
The A Class owners were no happier racing against Thera than the smaller class owners. In fact, they tried desperately to have her excluded, even more so after her first A Class race, when she won line honours and on corrected time. As a result, Lucas was pressured into agreeing that Thera wouldn’t be eligible to receive any trophies then, at the end of the 1913-14 season, he sold her to Joe White and Dave Cargill. The new owners apparently eschewed the trophy ban and Thera won many more, including the prestigious Association Cup for inter-club racing in five consecutive years.
Eventually, Thera was completely banned from racing and was then out of commission for a few years. In 1929 she was bought by Barney Snider. Two years later while cruising, she was caught by a gust and, after Barry and crew failed to ease the mainsheet quickly enough, she sank in about 20ft (6.1m) of water. Fortunately she was raised relatively easily and continued to sail on Port Phillip. Somehow she was permitted to take part in a race there in March 1932 which she won, but this proved to be her last in her original home waters. She was then sold to Sydney sailor J Carr who was based at the Royal Prince Edward YC and who was known to race her in a regatta on Pittwater at least once. She was soon –probably in 1934 – taken to Perth by Peter Plowman, who joined the Royal Perth YC.
Thera sailing on Port Phillip Bay, probably in 1913
THE SEA MAID’S TALE
American builder Century Boats, on the eve of its centenary, remains little known in Europe, but has always produced boats of the highest quality, like this Sea Maid 18
WORDS GERALD GUETAT
PHOTOS HENRI THIBAULT ARCHIVES DR
BATTLE FOR THE AGES
Father-and-son brokers Peter and Richard Gregson take to the water to see whose boat is better, the younger man’s Folkboat or dad’s Vertue?
WORDS AND PHOTOS NIC COMPTON
A CENTURY OF OCEAN RACING
The club formed to establish the Fastnet as an annual event a century ago, has inspired offshore racing across the world ever since. We look at 100 years of the Royal Ocean Racing Club
WORDS KIERAN FLATT PHOTOS ROYAL OCEAN RACING CLUB OR AS CREDITED