Western Australia's 18 footers history
by Frank Quealey 11 Jun 2025 10:13 BST
Western Australia's participation in the Australian 18 footer scene has been an on-off situation between the 1890s and 2013 but its impact during the early years of the class demands that it is remembered today by all 18 footer supporters and enthusiasts.
Thanks to Andy White's well documented article on the first era (1890s to late 1920s), published on The Open Boats www.openboat.com.au/west-australian-18-footers.html and Robin Elliott's excellent 'Galloping Ghost' history of 18 footers up to 1965, plus observations of later championship competition involving WA sailors and events, this is a summary of the Western Australian 18 footer history.
There were 18s such as Olinda (originally from NSW) and Yelkie (locally built) in WA during the 1890s, but a small fleet of 18 footers didn't begin racing until the early 1900s.
The early boats differed in hull shape and rig; most were 8ft wide, although Olinda was 6'6". They had crews ranging from 6-15 men, depending on the strength of the breeze and the amount of sail being carried. Working sail area varied a lot; in 1903 Yelkie was measured at 320sq ft and Aeolus at 600sq ft.
In addition to the main and jib working sails, these boats set topsails, ballooners, mast-head and peak-head spinnakers, ringtails and, sometimes, water sails.
Racing was sponsored by Mounts Bay Sailing Club, Perth Flying Squadron and the Perth Eighteen Footer Sailing Club. Most races were staged on the old Bricklanding course, which started and finished at Mill Point near the clubs. Some races were held in Freshwater Bay.
In 2006, the Perth Flying Squadron contacted the Sydney Flying Squadron with the idea of holding an interstate challenge, and offered to put up a Challenge Cup trophy for the winner.
Rules were framed between the two clubs and the first of the regular interstate championships was held on the Swan River on 26 January 1907. Ted Tomlinson's Aeolus, which was built in Perth in 1904 by Thomas & Perry to a Billy Golding design, thrilled the locals when she beat the legendary Chris Webb's Australian II by 1m11s.
It was the only joy for the Western Australian teams in the Challenge Cup series. Chris Webb reversed the result in Sydney in 1907-08, then defeated Chris Garland's Cygnus at Perth in 1908-09. When Webb (Australian II) won the 1909-10 event in Sydney by more than two minutes, under the rules whereby if you won the cup three times you kept it, her owner 'Watty' Ford was awarded the Perth Inter State Challenge Cup.
Chris Garland contested three of the four races which made up the Perth Flying Squadron Challenge Cup, finishing 3rd with Swan in 1906-07, and 2nd in Cygnus in 1908-09, which were both sailed on the Swan River, Perth. He contested the fourth race of the Challenge Cup, again in Cygnus, on Sydney Harbour in 1909-10 and was unplaced.
In the 1911-12 season, Mark Foy unveiled a new interstate trophy, the Mark Foy Challenge Cup.
The inaugural race for the new trophy was sailed in Perth in 1912 with four boats (Eurus, Aeolus, Robin and Westana) representing WA against NSW's sole representative Nimrod, and produced a wonderful finish which gave Chris Garland's Westana an official winning margin of five seconds.
Mele Bilo, the most famous Western Australian 18 footer of the first era, 1890s-1920s.
Garland took Westana to Sydney the following season (1911-12) and finished second to Billy Dunn's Kismet on Sydney Harbour, then was unplaced with Eileen in Sydney during the 1920-21 season.
Obviously disappointed by the outcome, and unable to buy one of the local NSW boats because of the interstate rules which required that each boat had to be built in the state she was representing, he commissioned Jim Hall to build him a boat from moulds supplied by Sydney's Charlie Dunn.
The new boat, named Mele Bilo, was launched and began racing in November 1921 before representing WA in the Mark Foy Interstate Challenge Cup, on the Swan River in January 1922.
Three boats from WA and two from NSW lined up for the race start at Mill Point, South Perth, which is also recorded as the 1921-22 Australian Championship (there was only one race to determine the Australian champion in those days).
Witnessed by thousands of spectators, the race was sailed in a moderate south-westerly breeze over the Bricklanding course. Mele Bilo won from Kismet and H.C. Press, both from NSW, but one month after the championship was totally destroyed in a fire which gutted boat sheds that also included other classes.
A new boat, Mele Bilo II, was built to replace the original and was launched in November 1922. She won two State championships but was unplaced in three Australian championships in 1922-23, 1924-25 and 1926-27. The latter was the last WA interstate representation of the era.
There had been extensive media coverage, enthusiastic supporters, spectator ferries and bookies to take the bets, but it was claimed that the 18s had become too expensive to build and maintain and the first era of Western Australian 18 footer racing came to an end in 1928.
It was another 50 years before Western Australian had 18 footers back on the Swan River, Perth which was the beginning of the second era. The small WA fleet was then represented again at a major 18 footer championship when Andrew Crisp skippered Parrys on Sydney Harbour in the 1979 World Championship.
The class in WA received another boost in the following season when Mounts Bay Sailing Club hosted the Australian Championship in Perth. There were nineteen entries for the championship; twelve interstate teams raced against seven locals.
While the locals were less competitive than the top interstate boats, local skipper Richard Court certainly created the highlight of the regatta with a design initiative which pushed the class to a new level.
There had already been an awareness about working with hull widths. John Winning and Stephen Kulmar had used small extension racks, during the 1970s, but it was WA's Richard Court who arrived at the 1980 Australian Championship, on the Swan River with a big square frame on two traveller tracks that he tacked from side to side.
Court's equipment looked pretty 'clumsy' and he experienced trouble, but when he didn't capsize he was much faster. Experienced NSW competitors realised that tacking was slow and manageable, but gybing was difficult and possibly dangerous with this sliding structure but, despite this difficulty, it was obvious that the concept was inevitable and a much more practical method of 'wings' followed immediately.
Over the next few seasons, Andrew Crisp gradually improved his equipment with sponsorship support from Kevin Parry and the Parrys skiffs won five consecutive WA Championships and had very successful regattas at the 1981 and 1983 worlds as well as the 1982-83 Australian Championship which was again hosted by Mounts Bay SC and raced on the Swan River, Perth.
Crisp's best result was a very good 6th place in the 30-boat 1981 World Championship fleet, which included entries from five Australian states and territories as well as New Zealand, USA and UK.
Highlight of the second era of WA 18 footer participation was the hosting by Mounts Bay SC of the 1987 World Championship. Five local boats competed against the best teams from NSW, Queensland, Victoria, New Zealand and USA in the 25-boat fleet. Chesty Bond won the regatta and produced a new 18 footer record at the same time.
Due to many classes contesting their nationals on the same area, race times were allotted to the various host clubs to prevent congestion, and the 18s were allocated four early morning start times.
Trevor Barnabas believed he would need a big mast to take full advantage of the expected light winds in the morning-start races. The result was a #1 mast on Chesty Bond, which measured an incredible 45ft above the waterline. It was the tallest single mast ever carried on an 18ft skiff.
When the last race was sailed in light and shifty wind, Chesty Bond took the lead immediately and set up an incredible lead over the rest of the fleet. The mast repaid the team as Chesty Bond went across the finishing line with a winning margin of more than 10 minutes.
Unfortunately, that regatta marked the end of the second era for Western Australian 18 footers.
It was another 23 years before the third, and so far final, brief era for the west 18s was a reality. A few older boats were sent from Sydney for a small cost to help establish a new fleet and were randomly distributed to five skippers prepared to spend their money and time on the program.
There was minimal competition from the group at the Giltinan Championship and it was Grant Rollerson, who had spent several seasons sailing his own Slam skiff in the League's Sydney fleet (although he carried the Mounts Bay SC name on the hull), to wave the WA 'Black Swan' flag.
Rollerson's four Slam campaigns netted four top-10 overall placings between 2008 and 2011; the best result was 3rd behind the tied Gotta Love It 7 and Thurlow Fisher Lawyers - a great result for the team.
While there is no activity at present, the State's drive in the early years of the 18 footers history was a significant part of the establishment of interstate competition in the sport.