The differing but complementary roles that Olin and Rod had within S&S were another of their great strengths. Olin would muse over hull shapes, keels, rig proportions and their relationships with the appropriate rating systems while Rod oversaw the development of structures, deck layouts, rigging schedules and detailing.

In a sunny New York City on 20 October 1970 a team of FBI agents scoured the buildings on both sides of Manhattan’s Madison Avenue between 28th and 29th Streets. Questioning shopkeepers, janitors and secretaries, they gave special attention to the offices overlooking no79, a dull 16-storey building on the east side. From early the next morning uniformed police banned all parking on the block and kept pedestrians on the move. They vetted every entrant to no79.

The phenomena of designers distorting the functional shape and appendages of a yacht to gain a rating advantage is not a new one.

Given the difficulties in travel and transport over the last few years, the festival organisers made a cleaver decision for 2023, to highlight Australian designers and builders and with the release of the full program on line, we can now see how they are intending to do this.

A completely intuitive designer, Uffa Fox, trusted his gut feelings about what made a boat fast, seaworthy, fun to sail and safe.

Wally Ward was perhaps the last truly ‘amateur’ designer to have one of his boats win the Sydney-Hobart race and also one of the most successful designers to use the metacentric shelf principle.