A Historic Race

When his long-lost family yacht was found on Gumtree, Billy Barry-Cotter found himself at the start of an adventure

When his friend Peter Jenkins found the derelict hull of the Katwinchar

, Bill Barry-Cotter had no idea of the adventure he was about to go on. At the Maritimo yard, it took a specialist team two years of painstaking work to restore this 115-year-old, 32-foot yacht to beyond its former glory. In fact, they restored it to Category 1 race requirements, which will allow it to take part in the 75th Rolex Sydney–Hobart race.

Standing beside it at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, proud owner Barry-Cotter told me it had been a challenging project, but he had been greatly helped by the team formed for the job. “Katwinchar was notable for being a very different style of boat, with ketch rig, and very fast compared to others around at that time,” said Bill whose father Frank had sailed it when he was a boy. Frank owned her for five years from 1960 when he sailed around Pittwater and Sydney Harbour.

“I'd been searching for the boat for years, so it was good to finally locate it lying on a mooring at Hexham near Newcastle, in a very dilapidated state,” said Bill.

The experiences on Katwinchar when Frank Barry-Cotter owned it encouraged Bill to become an apprentice boat builder and then go on to start some of Australia's most iconic brands: Mariner Boats, Riviera and finally Maritimo.

ENGLISH BUILT

Built by Ricardo Gilbey Watney of Watney Brewery fame near Gloucester, England in 1904–5, Katwinchar was named after his children Katherine, Winifred and Charles. Given its brewery heritage, it is appropriate that it will be sporting the branding of the Black Hops Brewery on its spinnaker for the Hobart. Black Hops is a boutique brewery on the Gold Coast and a tenant in one of Barry-Cotter’s commercial properties.

It was in another of Barry-Cotter’s properties, his modern boatyard at Hope Island, that the complex restoration took place. There, Maritimo general manager of operations Phil Candler and his team led by Steve Cox harnessed the skills of heritage boat specialist Ian Harris, master craftsman Andrew Caz, along with apprentice Joshua Seaton and Barry-Cotter's brother Kendall, who brought sailmaking expertise. “We looked for the most highly qualified staff to work on Bill’s labour of love,” said Candler.

Legendary Hobart sailor Michael Spies will be the sailing master in the Rolex Sydney–Hobart race, while brother Kendall will skipper the 32-footer. “We'll be competitive as we can, unless we get tired and put into a pub like the original English blokes did when they tried the Hobart,” said Kendall.

LUCKY HEATHER

The three men who sailed Katwinchar 14,000 miles from England in 1951 to begin a new life in Tasmania were Eddie Mossop, Dennis Tanner and Bill Bartlett. They departed the Bristol Avon river in the southwest of England without any prior ocean-going yachting experience. Instead, they stuck a sprig of white heather on the saloon bulkhead for good luck.

They safely navigated the Atlantic, then the Pacific via Panama before reaching Australia to arrive in late 1951with only a few canned victuals left. After 196 days at sea, they put into Sydney exhausted. Their food shortage was ironic, given two of them were professional fishermen and they had dragged lures the entire trip yet never caught a fish.

However, their November 1951 arrival was timely, as it allowed them to compete in the fledgling Hobart race, started in 1945 by fellow Englishman Sir John Illingworth. During the race they were blown eastward by a 60-knot gale off Maria Island on Tasmania's east coast, forcing them to abandon the race. They motored inshore using their converted Austin 7 car engine, and then to Hobart via the sheltered Dunally Canal. Eventually, their boat was sold to Frank Barry-Cotter.

CLASSIC RESTORATION

The Maritimo team fully stripped the double ended wooden hull, took the deck off and started with a bare shell.

“We then did a full measure of the whole boat, put it through our design software program and found that it was already the most efficient design for a boat of that size and weight so only modifications to the keel and rudder were done to comply with stability requirements,” said Phil Candler.

The restoration involved replacing the rotten English Oak used in the stem, keel and sternpost. It was then rebuilt to as close as the original, particularly using that same timbers that were first used. All the planking on the hull, which is Canadian cedar, is original. The wooden shell was then sheathed in fibreglass and inside during my walk through I noticed glassed ribs, all beautifully finished in two-pack paint.

Originally a centre-boarder, the hull was remodelled to incorporate a fixed bulb keel, which allowed compliance for Category 1 requirements and added stiffness. The original rig's wooden spars were replaced by new tapered keel-stepped alloy masts and a bow sprit was added. The sail plan continues to use a symmetrical spinnaker, but the advantage with the ketch rig is of course the spread of canvas across the hull. This includes a mizzen staysail as well, so light airs would favour Katwinchar. “But we are happy for a variety of conditions,” said Michael Spies.

Electric winches are also installed but won't be used in the Hobart race. They are awaiting their handicap but are hopeful of a competitive number so they can compete with several other classics such as the S&S 34 Komatsu and the larger Fidelis. “Katwinchar puts her rail right into the water, so it will be a wet ride to Hobart, and so far we've had her with full sail in nearly 35 knots, which was a tough test,” said skipper Kendall Barry-Cotter.

HOBART RACE

Winning a Sydney–Hobart is the holy grail of Australian racing, so having a successful sailing master in the tall shape of Michael Spies means the Katwinchar team is serious. Spies memorably skippered the record-breaking Nokia in 1999 and has campaigned on some of the most successful modern racers including the TP52 Ichi Ban and others.

“We'll be pushing fairly hard,” he told me while showing me around the saloon on Katwinchar. Surprisingly spacious, thanks to the tall doghouse and fairly deep hull, there are pipe cots forward and two quarter berths to accommodate the six crew. Among them is Olympic sailor Scott Kaufman and local identity Robert Case, along with navigator Murray Spence. Among the pristine woodwork done at Maritimo, is a neat fold-down navigation table with a B&G plotter above it. Beneath the companionway is a small generator set, and the galley on starboard sports a large microwave.

Despite being shore crew for the 75th Hobart, Bill Barry-Cotter shared his business philosophy with the Katwinchar crew: “Never give up and just keep on going no matter what setbacks you have!”