Came when Jim phoned to tell me he had purchased a gaff yawl from Roger Oats, a boat I had built over a 10 year period, years ago in 1999. Designed and built to legend Edward Burgess “Gentleman’s yawl design” from Boston in America who had designed 3 early Americas’ cup winning yachts, Puritin, Mayflower and Volunteer.
I had sold the boat some years ago to Roger who lived on her in the Brisbane River at Indooroopilly. During the devastating Brisbane flood in 2011 the boats mooring was cut due pontoons breaking away.
At first Roger had stayed on board to fend them off, but was then ordered off the boat by police and soon later a pontoon sealed her fate. With both mast and mizzen torn off by Brisbane River bridges she managed to still afloat, with a hole above the waterline and the bowsprit dangling.
My wife noticed her on the news and I phoned Roger to let him know port authority had her at the mouth of Brisbane River. After Roger had repaired the damage, he moved her to the 18ft skiff club at Bulimba and was happy on the outer mooring until an American yacht dragged anchor and tore off her mizzen. Roger had to repair her again. Eventually ill health forced Roger off the boat after a knee operation. Roger put her up on the hard at Tingalpa and that was the last I had heard until Jim phoned.
Jim had come across her on the hard and said he could not stand to think she would be broken up and was currently repairing her. After a mammoth effort of restoration Jim relaunched her with the new name SWORDFISH. Previously she was named the Jormelia-Jack after my three children Jordana, Amelia and Jack. Along with the name SWORDFISH. Jim’s choice of logo was in my view spot on, a long narrow fish with a big sword out the front. Being 30ft on deck, a 6ft beam, 24ft waterline, 10ft bowsprit, large gaff main and gaff gunter rigged mizzen with 5ft aft bumkin (aft bowsprit) and head sail, the side profile fits the name and logo perfectly. The Swofdfish logo was that of a gutted fish, like that famous on in the “old man and the sea” by Ernest Hemmingway. As Jim completely gutted the interior, of all unnecessary items transforming into an efficient racing sailboat platform.
My first Close encounter with Jim came when he bought her down to sail at QCYC Shorncliffe for the annual Vintage Yacht Regatta. He hunted me down and thoughtfully invited me to sail with them.
I came face to face with Jim for the first time, he was wearing a Pith helmet, the kind you’d wear in Africa during the war. After introductions I was then issued with a red tee shirt with Swordfish on it. Then getting straight down to business, we proceeded the normal rope pulling sail checks, fiddling with rigging and other pre-race stuff.
It became obvious very quickly that Jim had enormous energy and any idea that was touted in idle chatter could quickly in the blink of an eye be put into full scale production. I also noticed his amazing ability to do 5 things at once whilst organising what we are having for lunch. I Later found out this was due to Aspergers or as he likes to put it ‘asparagus.’
Sailing with Jim over 2 days was great fun, his sense of humor and extensiv vocabulary was outstanding.
When I sailed her, I usually sailed the boat with 3 or 4 at most, but I think we had 8 onboard the first race, which proved a classic when the crew were tacking, having to shuffle around masts and booms, and rolling over the cabin with ropes everywhere. Mind one crew member was dedicated to looking after Georgie George the female black labrador.
Jim would disappear below to check the bilge then pop up like a meerkat with his pith helmet on and bark where’s the mark. Jim told me that he was apparently shortsighted, but I put it down to the fact that he was used to sailing around continents, horns and archipelagos a yellow buoy was just too small for him, if had been Cape Horn he would have had no trouble.
Sailing with Jim as skipper meant he kept a close eye on his crew safety was paramount, as well as making sure everybody was relaxed and having a good time, but as soon as you were you’d be required to pull that on, let that out, lean her over, shift your weight forward. Everything was SUPER GOOD AND OF COURSE DRINK MORE WATER was repeatedly announced to the crew on the hot summer days.
One year one of Jim’s mates bought his dog along who was the best behaved of the lot, she had no trouble with tacking and would shift around on queue. With Jim’s crew there was lots of jokes, great sailing stories, constant tactical discussions all at a breathtaking 4 to 5 knots.
Jim is an innovator one year I arrived at the dock and he was lashing a pole to the already 10ft bow sprit so we could run a 18ft skiff spinnaker from Nokia and it worked a treat. After one race we returned to QCYC only to find our spot had been given away so we were relegated to wave break on A finger. Well, we didn’t quite get there after running aground just far enough off the dock to be a pain in the ass.
Jim managed to shimmy out on the bow sprit and leapt onto the dock just at the right time before we became totally bogged leaving the crew stuck with the tide. Meanwhile Jim disappeared, but being a good skipper he returned with a bottle of red and a glass and proceeded to provide moral support from the dock.
Jim’s very generous and loves a good op shop. One year he issued me with a red leather hat that unbeknown to us leaked red dye all over my head so when I got home and took it off my wife burst out laughing, being bald it looked like I had been attacked with an axe. Another year and another op shop purchase I was given a blue and white floral scarf to wear which I now wear as a firm tradition still to this day whenever I’m sailing my Noelex 30 or racing with the flying 15s at Shorncliffe, because it looks SUPER GOOD.
The last time I caught up with Jim he had been working on designs for a large scowbow foiling sailing cat and he showed me some of his concepts. If it hadn’t been for sailing, sail making, Jim could have easily been a rocket scientist or designed space ships but then we would have all missed out. So I am glad nobody suggested that to him.
Thanks Jim it was always a pleasure to sail with you and your crew, it was always a lot of fun and a good time all round…especially passing the newer classic boats, and on time the whole fleet with our SUPER GOOD light air performance and superior tactics.
As always SUPER GOOD!! Daryl Harvey
Daryl is a great man to sail with, relaxed with a great sense of humour. He knows every detail of the mighty SWORDFISH as he built it. I was so glad to hunt him down and connect..and Sail the classic boat regattas together….SUPER GOOD!!
My first Close call……
