Commodore Alsop ' s illfated Cutty Sark .
THE CLUB ' S SUCCESS IN AMPOL YACHTSMAN OF THE YEAR AWARDS
This award was first est .~ blished 1963 . RPAYC winners are :
1965 Sir William Northam l 966 Magnus and Trygve Halvorsen 1967 Craig Wtlitwonh and Bob Miller 1973 David Forbes 1975 Kevin Mccann 1980 Peter ( Pod ) O ' DonneU 1987 Colin Beashel
RPA YC members represented nine of a total of twenty-four outstanding Australian yachtsmen who have won ! his prestigious award . In 1987 Colin Beashel won from a fonnidable field of seventeen nominations , including sixteen world champions . There is no need to expaJtd on Colin ' s achievements which have been so well recorded by yachting writ · ers covering the America ' s Cup . But just briefly , he started sailing at the age of seven , woo his first Australian championship at the age of nine and has amassed an impressive array of vict-Orics since then . Possibly he is best known for his activities in 12 mecre yachts and for his win in the World 12 Metre Championships conducted on Gage Roads in 1986 .
THE LOSS OF CUTTY SARK
A dramatic event occurred during the night of 25 May 1974 , wbich was experienced by John Alsop , a former Commodore of the club and a Flag Officer for fourteen years , his long-time sailing companion , Jack Evan , and his son , Tony Alsop . Tbe47 -year-old Cutty Sark was unfortunately lost but the crew were rescued by HMAS Swan .
John Alsop said of his rescue :
I cannot speak too highly of the scamanship of the captain , officers and crew of the destr0yer escort HMAS Swan . Their skill in locating us in a galeswepL sea . the courage of the Navy swimmers who rescued us in the face of 75 · knot winds and l6metre seas aod their subsequenthospitality and treattnelll aboard was sin1ply oulstanding .
I ' ve weathered plenty of stom \ S in 60 years of sailing , but l have never seen or experienced winds or seas like those ! hat night . We must now record aod aoatyse every point that came out of this search and rescue operation for the benefit of future operations .
Few search and rescue operations have ever been run with such outstanding co-ordination between official and volunteer organisations , under conditions of wind and seas seldom encoun1ered off the New South Wales ' coast .
Certainly no rescue operation has created such great interest among yachismen . That fateful afternoon and night the coast of New South Wales was battered by one of the most vicious gales in living memory , a gate which took at lea ~ t six lives , including those aboard the Nimbus II which had been sailing back from Lake Macquarie in company wilh
C1111y Sark , and caused damage to propeny totalling many millions of dollars , more than one million dollars l-0 boats and boating facilities alone .
The following is a brief summary of mat search and rescue operation , written by RPAYC publications committee member Peter Campbell after interviews with John Alsop , Ron Youngman , search master of the Broken Bay Division of the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patr0I . and the captain of HMAS Swan , Commander A . R . Cummins , RAN .
Less than 15 minutes after receiving his orders to put to sea again , Commander Cummins bad estab · lished radio contact with Ron Youngman of the RVCP and with the water police .
Commander Cummins declared a Search Area , with the warship Swan in command . thus placing himself in the position to contr0l and co-ordinate all search ac tivitie ~ ea . air and land .
In the meantime , Ron Youngman had maintained radio contact with Cutty Sark , advising John Alsop to conse . rve his power by keeping transmissions to a minimum . He also kept a listening watch for any further signals from Nimbus II .
Aboard Curry Sark , the crew had dropped the yacht ' s jib and lashed down what was left of the ripped mainsail . They then went below . leaving the 47-year-old sloop riding easily ahuU , making an estimated one knot ahead and two to leeward , sufficient to clear Norah Head .
Despite a battering from winds of 75 knots , and seas 50-W ft high . Swan was approaching the area south-east of Norah Head by 2100 hours . The Opera · tions Room had assessed this as the area of highest probablility in wbich the two yachts might be found .
190