by Bruce Stannard
This is now a classic book! How on earth do you rig a 22-footer to carry close to 3,000sqft of canvas? Well, the answer’s obvious – you get a crew of Australian bluewater bushmen of course! The story of open boat racing on Sydney Harbour is traced back to the mid 19th century in this book. And only in the second paragraph Stannard claims that Sydney harbour, at that time, had more amateur and professional sailors than any other city in the world.
Certainly the feats of their racing have become legend – especially in the 18- footers of the Sydney Flying Squadron, but this book also charts the classes from 6ft (2m) to 24ft (7m), with everything in between. It’s also the story of how working men took up sailing as something of a national sport in Oz, pushing the edge of construction and rig to, arguably, well beyond their natural envelope. It’s the photos of dozens of boats that tell the story and you can spend ages over the details of spars and rigs. And all the while their crew are capsizing happily in shark-infested waters! DH
Published by Heritage Press, 1981 and 2004, paperback, 176pp, £25 www.maritimeheritagepress.com