Features
My First Ocean Cruise – Sydney Harbour to Pittwater
by Shue Time to Tick off My Bucket List! Sailing to Pittwater has been on my bucket list since 2018. I was on a Qantas flight from Brisbane to Sydney. My seat-mate pointed down at the water patches out of the window when the…
Touring South Australia with Cygnet 20 Tide Rider
In November 2020, Mark and Kathy Stringfellow embarked on a 26-day trip from the Central Coast in NSW to South Australia with their Cygnet 20, Tide Rider. In October 2020 the border with South Australia was opened. This gave us the chance to visit…
Sydney-Hobart backwash
After more than a month during which the dockside pundits all made their various pronouncements about the controversial protest against Celestial in the 2021 Sydney-Hobart, two of the people most directly involved have now had their say. David Salter reports. Retired RAN Rear Admiral…
Don’t Fall Overboard
Noel* and Jackie Parry have spent many years sailing around the planet and inland waterways in a variety of sailboats and motorboats and they now offer the benefit of their experience in a series of courses via their SisterShip Training Emergency…
Gretel
Will the proposed restoration of an Australian Icon be a pipe dream or a fairy tale with a happy ending? Bruce Stannard poses the $3.6 million question. In their best-known children’s story, Hansel and Gretel, the Brothers Grimm drew upon the Baltic…
A Wilderness Story
One hundred and 20 years ago, on April 29, 1901, 19-year-old John Stannard and his three mates arrived at their bush camp on the banks of the Jane River, a wild tributary of the mighty Franklin, deep in Tasmania’s rugged south-west wilderness. Starting from…
Painting an Old Sailboat
In early 2020 as Covid set in I took the opportunity to paint a boat that I had recently purchased. The boat was a 28-foot, 1972 (I think) Northerner which was the predecessor to the very common and popular Compass 28 and then Compass…
A long lockdown can lead to mould & mildew
Above: Hopefully this is not what awaits you when you get to return to your boat. By Mal Riley Covid has affected many sailors. I was told how lockdowns have caused problems for Hamilton Island Race week with boats berthed at Hamilton Island and…
The Golden Era of 18ft Skiff Racing
The 1970s is often referred to as the ‘Golden Era of 18ft Skiff Racing’ as it produced large, competitive fleets at both the Australian 18 Footers League and Sydney Flying Squadron, a strong, fleet at the Brisbane 18 Footers Club on the Brisbane River, and an…
Shipwrecks of Truk Lagoon
While some battles of WWII like Pearl Harbour, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima are famous, the battle of Truk Lagoon is less well known, writes videographer Max Gleeson. Truk or Chuuk Lagoon as it is now called was given to Japan as…
The not-so-great divide
David Salter ponders the development that has changed how we acknowledge performance in the sport of offshore racing. There is a neat compound word in the German language – luftpause – meaning “a brief pause in which to take breath”. The regrettable cancellation…
The Spirit of Sailing and The Sea
A collection of interesting and evocative quotes compiled by David Salter This glorious unpredictability of sailing David Salter – Reflections: Three Score Years (2020) “There is so much to like about sailing. It demands a unique combination of skills – physical,…
