Australian Classic 10 Foot Skiffs; What about the other view?

Pete from the New South Wales 10 footer fleet emailed to say that he noticed that I only posted photos of the 10 footers going upwind. To rectify my omission, he supplied some photos of the 10 footers running offwind with their (ahem!) normal day-to-day spinnakers.

















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Australian Classic 10 foot skiffs; More photos

I get a kick out of this class. How they shoehorn three grown adults into a ten footer and then pile on scads of sail is my kind of crazy. Plus, class rules stipulate that all boats must be clear finished. I've posted before on this class (search over at this link ). From the class website, looks like they're launching two new hulls for their season so they must be attracting even more crazies. I've found more photos off the Internet (click on photo to enlarge).












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Seahorse Magazine waxing lyrical about Classic Dinghies; What's Up With That?

Seahorse magazine, that esteemed English "yotting" publication known for featuring breathless articles on the latest carbon fiber this, and carbon fiber that, or very serious, convoluted, colorful CFD analysis by some big, bad designer of current fame, had, of all things, a picture of of one of the reproduction Australian 18 foot skiffs in the February 2011 issue. The caption read as follows;

"There is now a thriving historic 18ft skiff scene in Australia with fierce competition and entries from several of the different Commonweatlth nations ............... In fact, historic small boat racing seems to be on a roll everywhere right now - there is only so much white plastic anyone can take."

I would like to say "No sh*t Sherlock" but let's be nice, and congratulate Seahorse magazine on finally spotting a trend that this blog has been on top of for a while. It may be the greying of dinghy racers that is driving this trend but there definitely is exploding fleet racing in everything from the our local historic classes, the Chesapeake 20 and Log Canoes, to the Salcombe Yawls in England, to the Rainbow keelers of Holland et al. I'll be starting a series soon featuring current gaffer and gunter classes that are still going strong.

And let's go to the videotape..........

Historic 18 foot racing...........


And here are some pictures of the certified "Loonies" of the Historical crowd; the Australian Historical 10 footer skiffs (yes, that's right 10 footers with three crew) that are raced in Brisbane and Sydney. (As always, click on the image for a higher resolution display,)





A YouTube video on the Aussie 10 footers can be found here.

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Header Photos from previous posts

Some blog housekeeping for myself. I wanted to document the header photos I've used in previous posts, before I started labeling them as header photos. For a slideshow, click on the first photo.

A Sandbagger off Annapolis Harbor...........

International Canoes on floating docks, New York Bay, Sugar Island...........

Classic Moth start, Midwinters, Boca Ciega Bay, Gulfport Florida......

Classic Moths on the downwind leg, Boca Ciega Bay, Gulfport Florida.....

Australian Historical 10 foot skiffs rigging on shore.........

Header Photo: "Wee Georgie" Aussie Historical 6-Foot Skiff

Australian Historical Skiff

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Bruce Stannard

The previous header photo was of the "Wee Georgie" a 1988 reproduction of the Aussie 6-Footer Historical Skiff Class. Aussie Robert Tearne built her and she is shown on the dock sporting her light-air rig with a boom at least over 2 times the length of the boat and a bowsprit approximately 10 feet long (3.19 meter). Talk about being over-canvassed. The 6-footer class takes the cake for being the craziest of the crazies!

There is a second reproduction Aussie 6-Footer, the Balmain Bug, built by Ian Smith in 1994. Balmain Bug has been sailed regularly since about 2015.

The history of the Aussie 6-Footers, quoting from the seminal book on the history of the Aussie skiffs, Bluewater Bushman by Bruce Stannard [1981];

"It is believed they were first built at Balmain in the 1890's and although they were first conceived as children's boats, there is no doubt that they demanded the strength of three men who were courageous, good swimmers and had the strength and agility of circus acrobats...They carried a staggering 1000 square feet of sail including a main, jib, topsail, spinnaker, ringtail, and even a watersail. [Mike Scott, over in comments, defines watersail as..."hung below the main boom to catch that extra drop of wind.....almost drooping in the water....hence the name....!] With so much sail up and so little to support it, it is hardly surprising that the 6-footers spent a lot of time "in the gutter"....

The class peaked during the early 1900's, attracting numbers because it was the cheapest way to go racing. Here are some photos of the early 6-footers sailing around 100 years ago. [Found on the Net]

The original crews sailed the 6-footers upwind with the bowsprit plowing a furrow in the water; probably the only way they could balance the whole package upwind.

Now for photos of the modern 1994 Smith reproduction 6-footer. A picture of the "Bug" off-the-wind in a fresh breeze, shortly after being launched. Looks like the crew is trying to get to the back of the bus when reaching but, alas, there is no back of the bus.

After ten years out of the water, the "Bug" was relaunched in October for this year's Balmain Regatta.

A quote from crew Campbell Reid:

"Even though she is based on a design close to a century old you can see how for their time these boats were pretty high tech...She will bury her bow in the blink of an eye but we were impressed at how seaworthy she was and were really happy that we could get upwind pretty well. In the six foot division of the historic skiff fleet at the regatta we think we are a serious threat.

 The precarious crew position Campbell Reid finds himself on the foredeck/bow may be the most comfortable one in drifting conditions. [The next two photos pulled from the Balmain Sailing Club website.]

Stick two grown men into a 6-footer and the scale becomes obvious. A 6-footer becomes a true "micro" dinghy.

The obligatory GoPro video shoot from this years relaunch. The bowsprit is so long it gives a perspective of a much larger dinghy. The 6-footers, like her bigger historical cousins, sported canvas lee cloths in a vain attempt to keep the water on the outside


A more recent 2015 video of the Bug including flying a good size spinnaker without driving her under. (Came pretty darn close though!)



And the videos keep on coming. A 2017 video of the Balmain Bug.

• Click here for other posts on Australian Historical skiffs.
• For a sketch of a possible rig if you wanted to make the 6-Footer a classic singlehander, click here.