Pointing to a top spot in history

ANOTHER chapter in the marvellous story of boatbuilding at Battery Point will be unveiled in Hobart next week.

A book covering the boats built and their builders working at the many commercial yards operating at Battery Point during the 20th century will be launched at a function at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania on Wednesday.

The enterprise is a story in itself because the book is partly the result of a small group of people interested in the Battery Point boatbuilding history meeting regularly over the past three years to exchange information and create a Facebook group, which at last count had grown to 570 members.

From this raw material has come a book by author Nicole Mays, formerly of Tasmania now living in the US, who has strong personal links to the Battery Point boatbuilding story.

Titled Industrious, Innovative, Altruistic: The 20th Century Boat Builders of Battery Point, the book profiles and pays tribute to wellknown boatbuilders, their yards and the many vessels they built.

The book also lists employees of the 12 commercial boat yards in operation, as well as recognising several amateur boat builders in the area.

Hundreds of men were employed in the period and more than 470 wooden boats built, as well as 3000 fibreglass dinghies, 250 aluminium dinghies and 10 fibreglass runabouts.

The legacy of the 20th century boatbuilders continues in the yards still operating in the area, as well as the more than 115 wooden vessels still in existence.

These include such notable vessels as the 21-foot restricted-class yacht Tassie Too, built by Charles Lucas and Chips Gronfors in 1927 and now back in Tasmanian waters after many years in Melbourne; Landfall, a Sparkman and Stephensdesigned yacht built by Percy Coverdale in 1935 and also now back in Tasmania; the Erica J, an eight-metre yacht built by Max Creese now based in the United Kingdom; and the famous yacht Westward, built by Jock Muir and now moored in Constitution Dock and owned by the Maritime Museum of Tasmania.

Nicole Mays’ first book was the story of her great great great grandfather Jacob Bayly Chandler, a Battery Point boatbuilder from 1847 to 1901.

Her second book was called Spirited, Skilled and Determined: The Boat and Shipbuilders of Battery Point 1835-1935.

Last year she was involved in the publication of Blood, Sweat and the Sea, a biography of John Muir and the company Muir Engineering that he established.

Members of the public with an interest in boatbuilding at Battery Point are welcome at Wednesday’s gathering starting at 6pm by phoning Greg Muir on 0418 120 210 or emailing gregmuir @live.com.au AN inside look at cruising in Indonesian waters, as well as information on joining a cruising rally to the area next year, will be the subject of a special presentation in Hobart tomorrow.

All are welcome to the talk at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania to be given by visiting Indonesian Raymond Lesmana, organiser of the Sailing 2 Indonesia from Cairns Rally, which starts in June next year.

His brief visit to Tasmania is being hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Tasmania.

Mr Lesmana has been organising rallies in and to Indonesia, in conjunction with the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and the Island Cruising Association, for the past 16 years.

Tasmanian cruising yachts have joined interstate and New Zealand yachts for past rallies.

For inquiries about tomorrow’s presentation, please contact CYCT Commodore Andrew Boon on 0400 651 532. EARLY bookings are urged for an important school holiday program on the whaling industry of the past, and the urgent need for whale conservation in the present.

The program, organised by the Maritime Museum of Tasmania, will held from January 22-24.

Its title carries the message “Whaling made Hobart rich, but protecting whales makes us all richer”.

MMT spokesman John Wadsley said many people had recently enjoyed the sight of a huge whale swimming off Kingston Beach south of Hobart.

“They are beautiful creatures which rightly should be protected, and each year in spring and summer we are seeing more whales returning to Tasmanian waters,” he said.

“However, times were not always so good for whales.”

The program acknowledges why the whaling industry, when more than 30 boats operated out of Hobart, was so important in the past, but also how important it is to learn what can be done about whale conservation in the present.

The sessions run from 10am to noon, and bookings can be made by phoning 6234 1427 or emailing john.wadsley @maritimetas.org