Labour of love

A classic sailing yacht with a Sydney to Hobart connection is back to her stunning best, and about to enter a new chapter of her long and colourful history on Sydney Harbour.
ABC journalist and Yachtmaster Michael Troy reflects on being part of a unique restoration project.

03 December 2019

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It was mid-winter 2017 and Southwinds was back, hurtling across the Sydney heads under full sail in a stiff 25 knot southerly. She still had “it’ as passengers on the Manly Ferry stared as the elegant 26-tonne timber ketch cut through the white caps and swell.

I took the helm and with all three sails set, she heeled over, then settled. I could let the wheel go and she steered dead straight, her ketch rig perfectly balanced by her full-length keel. According to the GPS on my phone we were racing along at over ten knots.

This was the scary shakedown sail when you take possession of a new boat and discover her and your misgivings.

It had taken a team of sailing instructors from the Manly Sailing school to coax Southwinds back to life. The three furlers had seized and the sails hadn’t been used for years. Below decks Harry Potter would have been proud of the ancient marinized Nissan truck engine that spluttered to life only briefly, made a clickety clack sound and then belched a huge cloud of black smoke before making what sounded like a strange death rattle. An alarm sounded that the cabin was filled with carbon monoxide and there was a strong smell of oil coming from the bilge. There would be no mechanical assistance today, just the wind.

All the ancient instruments were dead, as we went old school, sailing her by feel with full sail up. The French and Turkish sailing instructors were in awe. “this is the type of boat we dream of sailing in the Mediterranean”.

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In the post WWII era, Southwinds famous British designer Robert Clark had revolutionised yachting with his Mystery series and Gypsy Moth IV on which Sir Francis Chichester made the first solo circumnavigation of the world. Southwinds was his blue water passage maker, designed to effortlessly travel long distances in comfort.

“Not bad for a seventy-year-old” the young sail instructors declared.

Southwinds was a folly I and five mates could easily live to regret, but as we sailed the seven miles to Sydney for a sparkling performance in front of the Opera House, it was clear she was worth the risk.

A photographer followed us in a sailing school inflatable to capture Southwinds triumphant return to her old stomping ground. Her presence was noted by many on the shore.

We did several circuits of the main harbour, learning how she preferred to tack and gybe.

As the sun set, we headed back across the heads to Manly, confident this partnership would work.

With no motor, we had to prepare for the tricky manoeuvre of sailing onto the mooring at North Harbour without taking out all the neighbours. She had clearly enjoyed this romp and co-operated perfectly, stopping dead on target with a back winding of the sails, content to settle on her new home looking out to sea.

The return of a favourite daughter

In a way Southwinds seems to have chosen us as her new custodians. I owned a Hanse 320 moored at Forty Baskets bay in North Harbour when this exotic neighbour just turned up nearby.

I searched the web only to discover Southwinds had been for sale for nearly a million dollars a few years back. Way out of my league as an ABC journalist. But I was intrigued and set about unravelling the mystery surrounding this 18-metre classic beauty now nestled amongst all the other much smaller yachts at Forty Baskets Bay. Hugh Treharne of Manly Boatshed told me that the last custodian had loved her to the end, of his life anyway.

I rowed out alongside and peered through her windows at the classic galley inside the main saloon which had large brass oil lamps dangling over the dining table. She looked like a living museum but in remarkable condition. An old radar unit seemingly from World War two hung off the mizzen mast and inside I could see the radar screen and a long-distance world cruising HF radio, complete with a jumble of old instruments cobbled together over a mahogany navigational table.

She had clearly seen some serious sea miles. The steering wheel was a work of art and the teak decks weathered but sound.

The old salts of Sydney Harbour all knew of her and wondered where she had gone. Southwinds had been built in Sydney in 1950, circumnavigated the world twice and had entertained the likes of Rudolph Nureyev and the Russian ballet and the Commander of the US seventh fleet. In her heyday she’d been owned by multi-millionaires and hosted wild full moon parties that long-time owner John Hallas the Chairman of Ella Bache said, “had seen her banned from every marina in the harbour and beyond”.

Her early days were even more intriguing as Southwinds original plans and drawings were kept in the British National Maritime Museum in Greenwich museum. Hayes and sons at Careening Cove brought the design to life using Australian hardwoods and highly prized Huon pine planking.

The story goes that soon after being launched she headed off round the world with an internal fit out designed to take two families in comfort with port and starboard family cabins. She was also skippered by a woman which was very unusual at the time and a wooden bath was installed as a practical indulgence at sea enabling her to relax and wash the kids with less water.

She competed in the 1973 Sydney to Hobart as Valhalla, and her then owner D Vanderbent brought her safely into Constitution Dock at 6.37am on New Year’s Eve, the last boat to cross the line.

 It was sad to watch the blue water adventurer sit unloved, tethered to a mooring in Sydney’s north harbour, pointing out to sea but no longer capable of venturing there.

A new lease of life

Her last custodian had kept her in Broken Bay for 18 years, but he died, and the family didn’t quite know what to do with her. His wife eventually put her up for sale at a knockdown price.

A few sailing mates got together, and we hatched a scheme to buy and restore her. We were labelled insane by the local salts and wives of course. We started negotiations and took a first look on board.

At first glance she looked to be in remarkable condition, but we soon learned she was taking water and was desperately in need of much more than a bit of TLC. A lone battery wired to a bilge pump was all that seemed to be keeping her afloat. The boat broker freely admitted the engine needed to be replaced. One shipwright said there were stories she might have broken her timber framed back, a terminal injury.

The navigation table was full of old charts that detailed long voyages to New Zealand and beyond. Sydney to Hobart race plaques were on the wall and the legend of the bath was true. We all took turns to sit in it.

The head or toilet had clearly not been a priority and the cassette player showed the music system had not been updated for a long time. The previous custodian was a hoarder and every cupboard was full of pretty much useless junk, tools and old parts.

Alarm bells were ringing in all our heads that this siren could lure us to a financial shipwreck.

A survey report though found the vessel was in sound condition but would need a couple of hundred thousand dollars in repairs and updated systems and an engine. We threw caution to the wind and made an offer.

The long re-build

After a bit of haggling, she was ours for better and for worse.

A good scrub and clean out revealed a hand-written note with a long list of repairs that had never been done. We formed a chain gang and took turns dangling head first into the bilge to scoop out the oil that had flowed from a hole in the sump.

The motor had blown a piston and could not be fixed. We set about cutting a hole in the roof, so the huge engine could be extracted from below the floor and craned ashore at Davis Marina.

This only revealed a whole host of new problems, way beyond our skills.

Sydney’s marine workforce is set up to service a fleet of plastic boats and Southwinds is made up of curved timbers, steamed into shape with skills now largely forgotten.

After a year of trial and error, we almost admitted defeat, until sailing tragic Sean Langman, the owner of the Noakes Group dockyards in North Sydney came to our aid, or more accurately took pity on us.

We had Southwinds towed to his yard at Berrys Bay for an inspection. Sean remarked he knew her very well indeed.

“I remember the wind in her rigging lulling me to sleep as a boy. My family owned her for a while and as a kid she holds a lot of great memories for me.”

Sean though is a realist and a tough businessman. He warned that a boat like this could easily cost a million dollars to rebuild. Noakes does a lot of yachts from the big end of town and naval work, but for Sean timber classics born and bred in Sydney should be preserved and put back into service on the harbour. He liked our idea to make the boat available for lots of people to use.

Sean said “Southwinds was also an opportunity for our apprentices to work at the direction of our master shipwrights, learning timber working skills that are in danger of being lost when the older guys retire.”

Her masts were taken off and she was shed bound for a 6 month rebuild. Noakes project manager Peter Inchbold took on the task of managing the complex project and coordinated all the trades. We helped where we could, but most of the time had to sit back and trust the professionals.

Two of Sydney’s last master timber shipwrights Gary and Col were recruited to painstakingly shape and replace more than a dozen damaged ribs, repair hull planking and make her secure for another century of life at sea.

They also built from scratch an elaborate butterfly hatch, installed new tanks and installed a new 100 horsepower engine, upgrading all electronics and safety features to a modern commercial survey standard.

The reborn Southwinds was officially launched in late November looking as good as new but won’t be fully operational till the New Year.

She’s a high maintenance girl, but we’ve hopefully got that covered as she’ll be cared for by the Manly Sailing school run by Finn Irvine.

Sailing instructors and the next generation of sailors will be invited to help swab the teak decks and do a bit of varnishing.

Manly Sailing head coach 22-year-old Jessie Lawson said, “the junior trainees are looking forward to having a mother ship and if they behave, they might even get to have a sail on her”.

Jessie is also wanting to use Southwinds as part of her fund-raising efforts for Headspace. “we’ve had a lot of unexplained youth suicides on the northern beaches and we want to get kids away from their screens and out on the water for a real adventure.”

The veterans’ mental health charity Soldier On has a base on nearby North Head and Southwinds will be made available to help in their programs for returned service personnel struggling with PTSD.

Southwinds impeccable pedigree has not gone unnoticed and her magnificent classic lines have attracted a sponsor in the French champagne Laurent Perrier.

Southwinds will be starting her new working life next year… and can be seen on her mooring off Manly in a few weeks…claiming her title as the closest boat to Sydney heads, and the only one with a bath.

southwinds.com.au

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