8:40 PM Thu 25 Dec 2008 GMT
Built in 1932 of Huon pine from Tasmania, the gaff-rigged Maluka of Kermandie has been lovingly rebuilt by shipwright Sean Langman.
Langman is better known for his high-speed ocean racers, the 66 foot lightweight flyer variously known as Xena/Grundig and AAPT and more recently with Wot Rocket, the cross between a sailing skiff and a sailplane, built to break the 50 knot speed record.
The 9.1 metre Maluka of Kermandie is representing the Port Huon Yacht Club in southern Tasmania, where Sean and a partner own the Kermandie Marina and Kermandie Hotel.
A gaff-rigged Ranger cutter designed by Cliff Gale and built for Sydney brothers George and William Clark, Maluka has seen plenty of sea miles in her 76 years. She completed a 3,400 nautical mile cruise to Cooktown in 1933. Then in 1934 the 'Lucky Clarks', as they became known, sailed across the Tasman Sea to Lord Howe Island, surviving a cyclone on the return voyage.
In 1935 Maluka was hit by an East Coast low during her first attempt to cruise to Hobart and she ran aground on the rocks at Cape Conran on the Victorian coast near Marlo, at the mouth of the Snowy River. Later the following year, having repaired her damage, the Clarks set sail again. In total they took 5 days 12 hours of actual sailing time to complete the 628 mile passage from Sydney to Hobart.
Langman estimates that the 2006 restoration of Maluka took 15,000 man hours to get the boat into the water. A carbon fibre mast went in and the interior fit out was completed in Australian red cedar.
Restorations were finished in December 2006. There was a small change made with a 100mm bow extension to ensure the boat was long enough for the Sydney to Hobart race minimum length.
 | The elegant Maluka - Crosbie Lorimer |
Then Langman sailed her south to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Maluka's original owners successful Sydney to Hobart voyage.
In the 2006 Rolex Sydney to Hobart race, the little 30-footer averaged 5.7 knots, taking almost twice as long as the 30 metre line honours winner Wild Oats XI, to make it to Hobart. She was at sea for 4 days and 14 hours and was the first boat under 9.5m LOA to finish. In fact, Maluka was the smallest boat to compete in the race and she finished a very respectable eighth overall in the IRC category.
This year Langman, heading south on his 18th race to Hobart, has high hopes for his yacht. 'We are going for the big prize,' he said of the prestigious Tattersalls overall handicap honours.
Langman continued 'the purpose of entering the race is finishing the race, and that's my priority. The last time we took her down in '06, the boat was rated pretty arbitrarily.
'She was IRC rated, as if she had a modern square top mainsail rather than an
old-fashioned gaff mainsail, which is what she of course has.
'She was measured underweight because the crane lifting her was beyond capacity, so we didn't get the full weight.
'This year we have re-weighed the boat and re-cut the sails.
'The spinnaker I took down last time was from an old gaffer and it was too big and unstable. We've trimmed it down and re-measured it.
'I sent a whole lot of photos of the boat to the IRC rating office in the UK. I said be real, this is a 1932 gaff rigged cutter, it hasn't got a square top mainsail, it's got a gaff mainsail and just because gaff mainsails are big in the girth doesn't mean that they're square top mainsails.
'So the rating has lowered a little, but personally I feel given what the boat is, it should even be lower.
'But we now have a much better chance. Mind you we rate the same as Ian Kiernan's Sanyo Maris (the classic yawl-rigged, timber-hulled Tasman Seabird class yacht launched in 1958).
'We've basically got to beat Maris on the water. She is six feet longer, so we've got a bit of a race within a race.
'The conditions, as they stand now, to me are looking like a medium boat race. I would expect the 50-60 footers to be right up there.
'After one day, the big boats are going to be well over 100-150 miles ahead of us. So we're sailing in totally different weather conditions. The chances that we cop a southerly are more than odds on. They (the big boats) can have a window, or conversely they could have a southerly that we don't even see.
'It's always interesting when you're so far apart, you may as well be on the other side of the planet doing a time trial or something. It's sort of like having a cycling team pursuit and someone throwing a whole lot of glass on one side of the track.
'But we are looking forward to the challenge.
'Basically I bought Maluka to sail her in Tasmania, so when we did the race in '06 it was really a delivery of sorts, as well as re-enacting a trip that the Clark brothers did 70 years prior. We did that, and then I settled into having the boat in Tasmania.
'However Bill Gale, the son of the original designer, was pretty keen to sail the boat. I brought her back to Sydney for Bill Gale to sail in the Ranger World's, and after that we kept following in the Clark's footsteps. We did the voyage out to Lord Howe Island and back, which I wanted to do in the original spirit with no lifelines and all that sort of stuff.
'We went up to Lord Howe for the Classic BBQ last year, then turned our attention to what we wanted to do next. I thought I'm really keen to get Maluka down to Tassie, and not having a maxi boat anymore I thought let's do it again.
'Sailing south on this boat in 2006, I learnt that my love of sailing is still there.
'The sailing that we love to do, for those of us that pushed off the beach in Mirror dinghies or Sabots, that feeling that we had of enjoying our equipment and enjoying the sport . it's still there.
'In 2005 I took down a fully automated canting keel 90 footer to Hobart, Nicorette, the world's most awful boat and you can quote me on that. It's the most horrible boat I've sailed in my life. I've got nothing against using canting keels; I've got something against just pushing a button and doing it. Sailing that, for me really lost the spirit of what it's about.
'So Maluka is pure joy by comparison; I cut my teeth on gaff rigged boats. Even bending the mainsail on reminds me of being a kid, so it's just that whole enjoyment thing.
'Sport is supposed to be about enjoyment. When you turn it into a profession it loses a bit of a the purpose of why you do it.
'The thing I like about sailing Maluka particularly, is no one's being paid and what I like about that is I know the people are there because they want to be and enjoy the experiences, like I do.
'For all that, I can just go sailing and enjoy the challenges you face doing the Rolex Sydney to Hobart, the challenge that faces you taking the oldest boat in the race, the challenges of having a gaff rig and the challenges of having six people cramped in a little boat. We'd prefer to sail the boat with three, but six is the rule so we have to work around that.
'She can be a bit of a handful in a serious seaway. The worst sea I've been in thus far was going to Lord Howe Island. I got violently seasick, not to the stage that I was completely incapacitated, but it was the first time ever in my life that I took seasick tablets. She can bob around a little bit. We put a lot of effort into keeping the water out of the boat.
'We've a modern Lewmar fore hatch, rather than the traditional timber one. It doesn't leak.
'Our whole emphasis is to keep water out of the boat, because water sloshing around in a tiny boat just adds to the discomfort. It means that it wears you down because you've got to bail the boat down. We've got a dodger; you don't see dodgers on boats.
'If a dribble comes down the main companionway it's too much.
'I've also had the benefit of modifying the boat a little . her rig from original, because I've read all the Clarke brother's logs from the '30s. And they didn't sail her as a cutter until right at the end when they learnt that they needed to get the jib off the end of the bowsprit because of the massive lee helm.
 | Maluka at sea - Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 2006 - Crosbie Lorimer |
'Reading all their stuff and reconfiguring the rig so that it's better balanced has meant that it's easier to set up in a seaway. The beauty of those two brothers is that kept fanatical journals and all of those journals are at the National Maritime Museum.
'You can go into the little room with your gloves on and pour over everything, which is just fantastic, because the museum has kept everything in order.
'That's been very helpful to me. You read it like reading a novel that you're in these storms with the guys. I haven't been in 60 knots in the boat yet but
I've been in 40 knots.
'We think we could do this year's race in four days. Roger 'Clouds' Badham's routing looks like we could get to Tasman Island in three and a half days, which would be quite nice.
'We did it in four and a half days last time; we shaved a day off the Clark's time. I'd like to think we can do it in four days.
'For me, one of the great things about this boat is its Tasmanian heritage.
'Like a lot of Sydney to Hobart sailors I've been to Tassie a lot of times, but I never really spent much time out of Hobart. A few years ago I drove south and really fell in love with the Huon area and then the Kermandie Marina became available for sale. With a partner we formed Port Huon Marina Pty.Ltd. We bought the Marina and we've been developing that over the last three years. During that time the pub adjacent to the marina became available, so we bought that as well, it's the Kermandie Hotel.
'It's on the Kermandec River, which flows into the Huon River. To remind you of the French-Australian history, Bruny d'Entrecasteaux was the captain of the Esperance, the ship that sailed around Tasmania looking for another French sailor La Perouse, and his first mate was a bloke by the name of Huon de Kermandec.
'So you've got Bruny Island on d'Entrecasteaux Passage, and the Huon and Kermandec rivers.
'I was quoted recently as being half a Tasmanian. I really call it my spiritual home. I love Sydney life, but Tasmania is my escape.
'So this Boxing Day we are setting out to take Maluka of Kermandie to her spiritual home too and as fast as we can!'
 | Maluka prepares for the start - Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 2006 - Crosbie Lorimer |
by Rob Kothe
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