My first meeting with Argyll was in January 2004, after helping a neighbour of the MacArthur’s moor her at the Bulls Cruiser's fuel jetty, during a summer storm. It proved to be an expensive yet highly enjoyable meeting. 

History of Surfboats in Australia.

One of the most uniquely Australian images are the famous shots, that most readers can recall of bronzed surf boat crews around Sydney in the early to mid 1900's.

Whether it was the sweep in control at the stern, batting their way though a huge break to rescue a hapless swimmer fighting in a rip, or most likely the image of a wooden surfboat and crew taking a huge back shoot down a wave. These are the evocative images of Australian surf boats that featured in news reels and media. 

Hinemoa was built by Chips Gronfors in 1938 for Newcastle optometrist Major Clem Walsh at Marmong Point Lake Macquarie. Clem Walsh was member of the Lake Macquarie Yacht Club and wanted a fast cruiser-racer for Lake Macquarie.

This article documents the construction of the 'Maid of Martha' a classic wooden motorsailer ketch built by Alec Lacco assisted by his son Rod. The work on the boat commenced in 1968, in the front yard of the owner John Bowen on the corner of Ailsa Street, Mount Martha. In this rare compendium of images, documented and recorded by the owner and his family, you can follow a week by week progress of the boat building. Classic Wooden boat are priveleged indeed to become the custodians of this historical record.

This is a story that has a happy ending. 'Tarna' Tumlaren no 91, the third Tumlaren to be built in Australia in 1937, was effectively rescued from deriliction by James Frecheville and Tim Heaney in 2005. For those readers with a historical bent...(no pun intended) we have included information on Tum history in Australia. The Tumlaren or Tumlare (as it is pronounced in Sweden) class originated from a design brief from a Scandinavian by the name of Bent Kinde, in 1936. 
He commissioned Knud H. Reimers, a 27 year old boat builder to design and build the boat.
He wanted the boat to be simple and cheap to build, be able to handle rough seas and have an easy to manage rig, that was simple to sail.
The first Tumlaren from Bent’s drawing board was, ‘Aibe’ Tumlaren No.1;  

In the early 1920s, and for more than the next three decades, there was a class of classic wooden yachts in Australia that sailed in every capital city of every state in keen competition. The 21 foot Restricted Class was for many years the premier racing yacht in the country, and sailed in hotly contested races each year. 

And yet, there are relatively few modern Australian yachtsmen who would know much about the class, and fewer who could recognise one of these boats. Indeed, it may be safe to say that most would not have even heard of the 21 foot Restricted Class.