Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron is celebrating its 150th year and wanted to honour a three times Commodore’s contribution to yachting in Victoria. Last Sunday Joe White’s ACROSPIRES II (1911), III (1923), IV (1929) and his Tumlare YVONNE (1938) came alongside the RMYS marina. This was a long anticipated gathering of four Charlie Peel designed and built yachts. All credit goes to Peter Costolloe, the Classics race director and historian. He is the diplomatic wrangler who makes things possible.
Mark Roberts, his partner Jo and Border Collie Oreo sailed ACROSPIRE IV or ‘Big Ack’ down from Sydney on their way to the Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart next year. Col Anderson’s Ack III lives on a swing mooring at RMYS while Ack II was brought across from Albert Park Lake nearby. Joe White joined Albert Park YC with Ack II in 1914 when he moved to Melbourne from Ballarat. She was restored to racing condition last winter by the club, supported by generous funding from the Joe White Bequest. The JWB Trustees attended her relaunch at APYC’s season opening in October. YVONNE was returned from Adelaide, restored by volunteers over several years and relaunched in 2022.
For the full Acrospire story see Joe White Continues his Work from SWS in 2024.
Being a Classics community event, the Squadron opened their marina gates (no invitation required). Sailors from around Hobsons Bay, past and current Acrospire crews and their friends were joined by the White and Nurminen families for the celebration. Joe White gave YVONNE to Selim Nurminen, who skippered her to 20 State titles from the 1950’s.
Motor yacht YAROLLA stood north of the marina hosting a large group of spectators to witness the sailing. A frisky 17 knot southerly kept Ack III dockside after an OUTSTANDING sail in the Cup Regatta on the previous weekend. Ack IV is setup for short-handed sailing with only Ant Perri, fresh from his Porto Cervo campaign on MATILDA and the four-footed bowman as crew. Dave Allen’s YVONNE demonstrated the power and stability of Tumlaren to handle the local conditions. This early Knud Reimers was selected as the RMYS one-design by Joe White when Commodore in 1937. To kick start the fleet, JW built two and underwrote several others. Melbourne now boasts a fleet of nine restored Tumlaren still sailing. Ack II sailed with her smaller gunter rig for the first sea-trial. She’s a 25’ live ballast skimming dish designed for lake sailing, not Port Phillip chop. During the restoration, the original shallow drop centreboard was altered to a long swing plate for greater resistance and helm balance. She revelled in the conditions without pumping or bailing.
As an endnote, perhaps Charlie Peel did have a signature. The bow and forefoot line on Ack II at 25’ and Ack III at 50’ are remarkably similar. Pleasing curves are hard to draw and best reused even if Peel was mostly working the overall and waterline lengths to rule.
We’re sure Oreo noticed.
Photography by Mark Ashkanasy, Martin Delves and Peter Naismith
Joe White Poster by Daryl Larcombe APYC