SYDNEY HARBOUR 18 FOOTERS

The Sydney Harbour 18-Footers and their development are probably well known throughout most of the sailing world: always seemingly over-canvassed, developing from relatively heavy 19th-century, centreboard boats with lots of crew (some of which, supposedly, had to jump overboard and swim for it at the beginning of a last downwind leg or when the wind went light) to lightning-fast skiffs with just three trapezing crew, in the latter part of the 20th century. But what is much less known is that there is still a fleet of traditional 18-Footers actively racing from the wonderfully-named Sydney Flying Squadron on the north shores of Sydney Harbour.

Sailing races were first held on Sydney Harbour at the very beginning of the 1800s and by the middle of the century boats from 6ft (1.8m) to 26ft (8m) were actively raced in large numbers. Mark Foy was a keen sailor and a wealthy businessman who had founded Australia’s first department stores. He wanted to make sailing races more interesting for spectators, in two ways in particular: coloured insignia on sails for easier identification, and staggered handicapped starts to provide exciting finishes. But the established Sydney clubs would have none of it so, in 1891, he and a group of like-minded people formed a new club, the Sydney