V a l e t e
OSE News
issue 4: april 2015
Michael Harrison
(f, 1955-1960)
i learnt my sailing whilst at teddies in the
1950s – taught by a friend of mine,
Keith
Beaver
(f, 1955-1960), who kept his GP14
on the river at the teddies ‘sailing club’, just
upstream from the trout.
of relevance to this magazine is my sVoD
(seaview one Design dinghy) – old rhubarb.
one of the characteristics of the sVoD
class is that whilst every boat has to be
identical, the colour scheme of the sails is
completely optional – making for a very
colourful sight on the water. it is also how my
dinghy came to be christened old rhubarb –
the colours of which make great-looking sails!
a few years back a small group of
seaview yacht club members decided to
hold a sVoD regatta in Kiel, Germany.
emboldened by the success of this, it was
decided to hold the next overseas regatta
a bit further from home – so why not in
sydney, australia?
the base for the regatta was to be
rushcutter bay, home to the sydney
olympics sailing competition. by chance
at that time one of my sons (
Peter
Harrison
, f, 1983-1988) was working in
australia and his apartment overlooked
rushcutter bay – so for me this was
an opportunity not to be missed. over
several days many ‘races’ were held in the
magical setting of sydney Harbour – in
front of the opera House, under the
bridge and out to the Heads – where the
ocean swell made our little dinghies feel
very small!
it seems that all the dinghies and yachts
in sydney harbour have white sails - so
the unusual sight of all ‘those strange little
Pommy boats with colourful sails’ attracted
so much attention that the fleet and old
rhubarb appeared in the local press and on
australian tV!!