Our Past

“The First Marblehead Championship”

by ARYA HISTORIAN Steve CREWES

The first clubs in this country were the Model Ship and Power Boat Club of South Australia and the Albert Park Model Yacht Club of Victoria, these clubs affiliated with each other about 1964/5 and an event for Marblehead's was arranged between them.  We know from writings in ‘Model Boats’ and ‘Model Engineers’  Magazines that these clubs were looking for others in Australia who were sailing model yachts.

Some of the boats at this first event had some interesting history behind them.  One of the early ones was South Australia’s,  John Smith’s KA 3,it was called  ‘Jacqueline Koenig’.  Bertie Littlejohn drew it, he was a very prominent English designer from the 1940s to 70s. This boat started out as a private design in 1962 for Graham Reeves, a well known vane /radio skipper from the Bournville club in England. This particular boat was designed after the Littlejohn “Elusive” but with added weight (23.5lbs).  Graham’s boat was built by Joe Meir in 1963 and was called ‘Wendy J’  with the English registration number K 1395.  Littlejohn called this new design the ‘Restive’ and the boat missed out winning the English Nationals by ½ point in 1963.  Graham and his boat were shown on the cover of Model Boats in 1971.

About 1963/4,  John and Mavis Smith left the Bournville club in England and migrated to Australia.  Graham gave them a drawing of his ‘Restive’, as a parting gift and they also took with them another Marblehead called ‘Thea’.   ‘Thea’ was built in about 1955 and was first registered in 1962 with the English registration No K1346.  This ‘Thea’ became KA1, the first Australian registered Marblehead and was owned by Mrs Mavis Smith, of South Australia.  ‘Thea’ was a Littlejohn ‘Elusive’design, which was designed  some years before the ‘Restive’.

The line up for the first Australian Nationals in South Australia was  J. Smith,  R.Carter, G.Middleton and P.Lesty, for South Australia. For Victoria were J. Dailey, Neil Romeril and Ian Romeril. The Commodore of the Albert Park Model yacht club Keith Romeril, the father of Neil and Ian,  helped the O.O.D,  Mrs Mavis Smith with running the regatta, the scorer was P. Middleton.  This Championship was held on the Patawolonga River near the Adelaide Airport. The day started with heavy rain and 35 to 45 miles an hour winds, mainly from the West. The course running North to South for 380 yards and about 30 yards at the narrowest part of the river.

This was what the locals say is an ‘interesting course’. There was a ‘dog-leg’ in the course to be sailed.  If one liked to live dangerously or brave was enough, you could try to get your boat to just shave the point of the bend in the river.  To the rest, it was tack up the river, then put a gye on the vane or get your mate to tack the boat off the far shore.  For one to really get a win on this course, your trim had to be spot  on.  The course wasn’t much of a problem this day for the wind was doing its darnest to crush any excitement left in these hardy fellows.

At the lunch break the Crows (South Australians) were in front with the Cabbage Patchers (Victorians) not far behind. The wind abated somewhat after lunch but the damage had been done,  almost half the competitors had sustained heavy damage so the O.O.D decided to call it a one-day event.

John Smith came first, sailing ‘Jacqueline Koenig’ in a sail off with the 16 year old Neil Romeril from Victoria.  Now the Romeril brothers each sailed what was called by some as a ‘Albert Park Model Yacht Club One Design’. This was a type of chine Marblehead, this one called ‘Playtime’ (KA14) was somewhat unusual for a chine boat, for the chine was rounded up at the front sections of the hull and I was led to believe that a Ron Jeanneret gave the design to Albert Park club.  I saw this boat several times when I raced in Melbourne in the early 70’s and  Neil had a habit of coming 2nd in events,  Nautilus (KA2) owned by George Middleton was modified from a Bill Daniel’s design. Flamenco,  KA 4,  raced by R.Carter was from a Hollom design. The Flamenco was a multi chine boat and was a serious contender for one of the fastest down-wind.  It was a new design and probably just been finished before the race.  KA 8, ‘Tawarri’ was a Daniels design, raced by P. Lesty, who sailed with SARYC until his death last year (2002).

The winner received his first prize of the ‘Winged’ Mercury trophy. This trophy stood about 18” high and was given to the Australian Model Yachting Association by the Bournville club in England  to encourage Vane M racing in Australia and a set of sails from the legendary yachtsman and sailmaker of those times, Rolly Tasker, which John Smith promptly gave to the 2^nd place getter, Neil Romeril of the Albert Park Club in Victoria.

There have been some interesting twists and turns to the little story associated with this ‘legendary’ Bourneville Marblehead trophy. I saw it when I went to sail in my first M Nationals in 1969 in Canberra. It was presented to the winner; it came complete with magnificent carry-box, which was a work of art in itself. This trophy, we were told by the late George Middleton of the MSPBC of SA was donated by the Bournville club for Marblehead racing in Australia. Initially it was raced for in the MSPBC (The club that formed the Australian Model Yacht Association), with vane 36Rs. The MSPBC decided, with the Bournville Club’s approval (the donor) to put it up for racing vane Ms in Australia in 1964. Now I make no bones about this trophy, it is beautiful...! John Smith on behalf of the Bournville Club presented this trophy when he arrived in South Australia.

The Bournville trophy is still in existence and has never been raced for in almost thirty years. In fact a copy of the  ‘deeds’ of this trophy have been given to this organization (ARYA) by the Bournville Club in the UK (2002), with a letter that Mr. Middleton wrote to the Bournville club in 1964. I have been told this trophy was sitting in a garage in South Australia, now, since 1974.... Sad really, that a wonderful historical trophy could end its days like this. The ARYA Historical person would acccept a gift of this trophy if it were offered.

Now shipmates, it would be a rich prize indeed if anyone found this and those two marbleheads, ‘Jacqueline Koenig’ (KA3) and ‘Thea’ (KA1), for they would probably be worth a good sum these days. If anyone knows about these two boats let me know please.

… And now an update, well the unthinkable happened, the Association’s Public Officer, Trevor Jeffree went and retrieved the trophy in Adelaide in August 2002.  To obtain this trophy, we had help from Alan Dawson,  Ken Dobbie,  Graham Reeves and his Commodore at the Bournville club in England,  Russell Potts, President of the Vintage Model Yacht Association (UK) and a few other people and Stephen Crewes your Historical Officer. I had a lot of fun piecing  all the information together in the first place.  Information was got from archives of the Australian Model Yachting Association and the Bournville Club and the Vintage Model Yacht Association of the UK.  Finding this trophy started with a chance meeting between Graham Reeves and myself at the 75^th Annual Regatta at Marblehead near Boston (USA) some years ago when Graham asked me to find it again.

Now, dear reader, I don’t want you to think the trophy was just lying about somewhere, it wasn’t. A lot of work was done to secure this valuable piece of Australian Model yachting history. The last winner of the trophy was the late Ron Dunster (1922- 2003) of the Canberra club.  Ron was a past President and Life Member of ARYA and a past Secretary of Greenock Model Yacht Club in Scotland.  He had the trophy taken from him, many years ago.