Development of Lightweight Sharpies in NSW 1975 to 1985 By Rolf Lunsmann, May 2007 The ten year period from 1975 to 1985 saw rapid and dramatic technological development in the Sharpie class. Known in 1975 as the Australian Lightweight Sharpie and firmly established as one of Australia’s most prominent and popular restricted development classes, the boats changed over that period from being exclusively plywood hulls with soft rigs to largely a fleet of full composite construction hulls with high tension, fully adjustable rigs, very similar to the boats that we see sailing today. The many individual changes and developments that led to the transformation came from the strong, competitive fleets that were sailed in all the States and Territories of Australia. Many significant developments were Crescendo VII (N35) winning the Nationals for NSW for the generated in South Australia where Robin first time in 1966 in the hands of Robert Thompson, Ian Haselgrove, the most prolific boatbuilder in the Peden and Chris Buckingham. (Photo uncredited) class, worked with the local fleet on the progressive development of glass hulled timber decked boats and in Tasmania where many of new rigging control systems emerged, but it was New South Wales that first saw much of the innovation and many of the breakthroughs in hull and spar development. The article attempts to chronicle some of those developments. The predominant thinking among top Sharpie sailors in NSW in the mid 1970s was heavily influenced by the success Mark Peelgrane had achieved in winning three consecutive National Championships between 1971 and 1973. Peelgrane had sailed a plywood boat Eleanor Rigby (N35). Eleanor Rigby had been built in 1966 and in its first season, sailing as Crescendo V11 and steered by Robert Thompson, with builder Ian Peden and Chris Buckingham as crew, had won the Nationals for NSW for the first time. These four major victories developed a near cult status for the boat and NSW Grant Simmer at the helm of Ship of Fools in Perth 1977. (Photo Australian Sailing) sailors desperately sought out similar hulls. Despite development of the first practical fibreglass Sharpie in 1975 by Robin (Macka) Haselgrove in South Australia, in NSW, backyards and garages were being searched for old Peden hulls to be restored for racing. A number of top skippers managed to find the prized Peden hulls and raced them with success. Edgar Roe won the Nationals in 1974 in Roeboat (N42) and in 1976 in Ostara (N35), Julian Golding finished second in 1976 in the University of NSW boat Mach 1 (N38) and then took on a remarkable dual 470/Sharpie campaign in Perth in 1977 in Upyz II (N39). Even into the late 1970s Peden hulls dominated the top end of the NSW fleet. Phil Durham acquired Tantivy (N37) from Sydney University, Graham Wallace with Geoff and Penny Dilworth purchased Mach 1 (N38) from University of NSW, Stuart Sommerville acquired Roeboat and renamed it Ophelia, Tony Love purchased Ralph House’s boat Houseboat (N50) and renamed it Hot Tip. In Canberra Ken Farrell was sailing Cheetah (N41) fast enough to win the NSW State Championship in 1980. The most successful of these Peden restorations was that of Grant Simmer who rebuilt N56 as Ship of Fools and sailed the boat to two National Championship victories in Perth in 1977 with Geoff Grover and Don Buckley and Sydney in 1979 with Geoff Grover and Greg Johns. Their sails were from Lee Sails, cut by sheethand Geoff Grover including the new, larger symmetric spinnakers that were introduced to the class in 1977. By the time of the Sydney nationals in 1979 there were still many of these ply boats, now up to 13 year old, with the old double digit, state based sail numbers, sailing competitively along side new ply and new fibreglass hulls carrying the new national sail numbers by then up to over 580. In 1978 Andrew Hun from Tasmania created technological breakthrough for the Sharpie class with his boat Dynamo Hum (T597) which won the Nationals held at Largs Bay in South Australia. Dynamo Hum was not only a fibreglass hull but also used the added stiffness of the hull construction to carry high rig tensions to tighten the forestay and reduce forestay sag. High rig tensions were not possible in the older ply boats. In response, two Sydney sailors Julian Golding and Geoff Comfort, working independently, each developed new fibreglass hulls that could take high rig tensions. Their boats for the 1978/79 season were documented by Bob Ross in his Australian Sailing article in 1 Andrew Hun’s Dynamo Hum represented a major November 1978. breakthrough when it won the Nationals at Largs Bay in 1978. (Photo Uncredited Australian Sailing) Golding’s boat, built with Mark Philips from Dinghy Sports, featured a fibreglass foam sandwich hull, with an innovative single moulding for the centrecase, centrecase support and front bulkhead. On the original boat, Heart of Glass the hull was finished with ply decks but later boats that season featured the first foam sandwich fibreglass decks on Sharpies making them the first all fibreglass boats in the class’s history. The 1 Ross, B., Australian Sailing, Yaffa Publishing, Sydney, November 1978, p28 hull mould had been produced by the NSW Sharpie Association a few years earlier in an attempt to develop an early solid glass Sharpie. Julian Golding’s first fibreglass hull featured a Julian Golding’s first fibreglass sharpie with single moulding for centrecase, frames and Needlespar mast and Seahorse sails in 1978. bulkhead. (Photo Bob Ross). (Photo Bob Ross). Golding, who was campaigning both a 470 and the Sharpie, started importing Parker 470 hulls from the UK, along with, Needlespar masts and Seahorse sails. He found in the Needlespar range, a section that worked well as a very flexible Sharpie mast. The Needlespars featured a specially tapered separate top section, produced through a sink drawing process, which was then bonded into the main tube, a practice that was new to Australia. The main tubes were typically 60mm diameter with 1.8mm walls and 2.3mm walls in the tips. They proved to be fast and popular. The first Comfort fibreglass Sharpie had an Stuart Sommerville used one of the flexible infamous “crew killer” alloy space-frame. Needlespars on Ophelia when he finished second to (Photo Bob Ross). Grant Simmer in the Perth nationals of 1977 showing great windward speed in the process. He also managed to demonstrate the fragility of the spar bending one in one of the windier heats. Comfort’s first boat, also built for the 1978/79 season was more radical. The hull was constructed in foam sandwich from the same NSW Association mould but the deck was aluminium and the boat featured distinctive “crew killer”, square section, aluminium framing to support the centrecase and rig loads. Christened Thirty Knuckle Shuffle (N607), it initially sported a very small section mast but this was soon replaced with a more conventional section. Julian Golding at the helm of N691 Goldilocks and the Free Wares (Photo Bob Ross) Neither of these two boats proved instant winners. Golding worked to progressively develop a full production all fibreglass boat with a number being built over the next couple of seasons, N621 for Sydney University and N623 for Gerry Clarke, Punk (N659) for Steve Gosling and Million Dollar Bill (N661) for Bill Haughton. A Night at the Opera (N693) was also built as a shell and centrecase for Ross Tilsed who finished the boat off with a ply deck of his own. There may have been others. At the Hobart nationals in 1980 Golding’s own boat Rock Lobster (N660), showed outstanding speed but misadventure, breakages and misfortune left them well down the final placings. A year later, the last of the Golding Sharpies, Goldilocks and the Free Wares (N691), sailed by Golding with Steve Quigley and Will Finlay finished in the top ten at the Port Melbourne nationals in the highest nationals placing for one of these all glass hulls. For the same nationals series Geoff Comfort’s boat had been fully rebuilt with the aluminium deck replaced with a more conventional foam sandwich glass deck and the boat fully re-fitted and re- rigged. The boat was re-named Forty Knuckle Shuffle to mark the added involvement of Phil Durham in its development. With Durham steering, Comfort on the sheet and Al Soars up front, the boat performed creditably at Port Melbourne without being truly competitive. The Port Melbourne nationals in 1980-81 marked a turning point for the NSW Sharpie fleet. Apart from Golding the NSW Sharpie fleet performed dismally with the next highest place being Steve Gosling who placed in the 20s. In response a number of crews made a determined, collective decision to improve their performance. This involved new boats, a new sail development program and most radically, a change in sailing venue. The long standing home of Sharpie sailing in Sydney had been Mosman Amateur Sailing Club but the Club’s racing area on Sydney Harbour had become progressively more crowded with yachts, ferries and 18ft skiffs on a Saturday afternoon. So much so that in the view of many of the Sharpie sailors it did not allow reasonable tight tactical racing and boat development. A group of crews within the fleet went searching for a new venue that could offer more open water, less disrupted breeze and less traffic. They settled on Sutherland Shire Sailing Club (SSSC) at Kurnell on the south-eastern corner of Botany Bay where they started a Sharpie division at the commencement of the 1981/82 season.