Vittoria’s classy touch to Sail Port Stephens
Amid the gleaming white fibreglass boats racing en masse at the Commodores Cup, stage one of the two-part 10th anniversary
Sai Port Stephens, is the classic timber boat Vittoria cutting a wide path through the gentle Nelson Bay chop.
Built for the late and great Victorian yachtsman Lou Abrahams, the Sparkman & Stephens (S&S) 42 design is a head-turner
among the record cup fleet, and owner/RPAYC Member Alan Reece is enjoying pushing the beauty around the bay courses in the
15 knot average sou’easters.
A bundle of hand-written and typed letters now in Reece’s possession describe how how Abrahams wrote to S&S requesting a
minimum handicap rater for the 1971 Admiral’s Cup. He learned they were working on a 42-footer for a Lord in the UK and the
designers suggested the two owners share the design cost, which they did.
Vittoria was built by Cec Quilkey in cold-moulded Oregon four
diagonal planks building up to a hull thickness of one inch. It has
an 8.8 tonne weigh-in but is only 30 feet at the waterline, thanks to
the easily identifiable and fine curved S&S bow.
The boat’s first Sydney to Hobart race was only months after its
launch in 1970 and its best performance in the famous bluewater
race would be that race, fifth outright and seventh on corrected
time. The boat went on to compete in eight more Sydney Hobarts,
the last in 1978, plus the inaugural Sydney to Suva race in 1976.
On the way back to Australia the boat accidentally hit and was
then rammed by a cranky Sperm whale, smashing the rudder and
sending the crew limping into Brisbane port for repairs.
Reece is only the fourth custodian of Vittoria and he knows with
ownership comes a responsibility to preserve his piece of yachting
history. “The previous owner did a beautiful refurb in 2010. Wood-
en boats soak up money...I’m yet to feel that pain.”
Now living in Pittwater on Sydney’s northern beaches, Vittoria is out racing weekly. It won the classic boat division at the 2017
Australia Day regatta and is doing the rounds of wooden boat shows, where invariably someone remembers Vittoria or wants to
share their story with Reece of when they crewed on the boat sometime in the past 47 years.
“The enjoyment is the type of boat and meeting people through it, everywhere I go there are connections,” Reece says. “It’s
beautifully made and I have to keep it nice. It does have mod-cons including electric winches so I can sail it short-handed, which
makes it more usable.
“It goes well in big seas, steers like a car and doesn’t smash like the new boats, and I’m aiming to use it as much as I can; that’s
what owning a boat is all about.”
By Lisa Ratcliff
2.4mR Nationals Wrap Up
A close result for the 2.4mR Nationals held at RPAYC over Easter. With Matt Bugg and Stephen McCullum both on a final score of
15points, but on countback the first place going to Matt Bugg.
Second thus was Stephen and third place on 26 points was Mike Leydon.
Congratulations to all sailors on a well contested series.
Other awards were made to Bob Willis, Peter Geeves and Jill Connell.
The masters trophy was awarded to Colin Brown.
We wish all those going to Holland for the 2.4mR Worlds the best of luck, your boats were loaded yesterday for the voyage.
Look at the“International 2.4mR Class Association Australia” website for results and a link to the World titles in Holland.
We await the return from Geelong of our State sailors in the HANSA Nationals. A phone call from Alyse let me know of her third
place in the 2.3 singles. More news soon.
Again thanks to all concerned who made the 2.4mR event such a success. Volunteers, Alfreds Club members, the 12 Competitors
and YOU.
By Allan Jones
Young 88 NSW Championship
Congratulations to RPA member Simon Grosser
and his team on ‘Young at Heart’, for winning
the Young 88 NSW Championships on scratch
and 2nd place on PHS.
The event was held on Pittwater during April
22-23. They shared similar conditions to the Old
Timers on Saturday dealing with the dropping
sea-breeze. Sunday was yet another sunny day
with light winds which made it difficult to navi-
gate which gave the home teams a slight advan-
tage. Fellow club member Stephen Ellis and his
team on ‘Agent 88’ took 2nd place on Scratch.