Weekday morning at the Noakes Sydney yard (there is now a second Noakes yard in Tasmania) and the boss’s current grand prix ocean racer Moneypenny and a commercial tug in for a mechanical overhaul sandwich a pair of fragile state-of-the-art 18-foot skiffs
At that stage my daughter had just been
born, and we all lived in a little two- bedroom bungalow near a railway line in Concord West, working 100 hours a week. So to be handed that opportunity was fantastic, great fun, and that began a love affair with something I never actually thought I could do. Ed Powys is another recurring theme
when the conversation turns to skiffs. Honestly he has snapped me in half and put me back together, stomped up and down on me, literally. I have a broken hand from him that I still have to get fixed, and they have both tried to mould me into something that I never was… Because this was something I never realised I had the opportunity to do, or could do. Later I got out of the 18s and into other
stuff, and then came back to the class because my son left school and he said he wanted to give the 18s a go. And so I thought that may be a bit of fun… SH: And what emerged? SL:We designed a boat for three very light people, and played with that for a couple of years. Then Pete [Langman] went onto other things but I carried on, as perversely I wanted to step up the programme. So the last two seasons have been special
for us – some great results and great wins. The last JJs (World Championships) didn’t go as planned but we still cobbled together a fourth, and got a race win. But unfortunately the boat we built had
become somewhat controversial by then, so I’ve since been hauled over the coals by the board about rule interpretations. What
46 SEAHORSE
I think I have done best in the past is to sell the idea in people’s heads that I have built something superior, and that was the case again here. It does look different, the sail programme is great and a totally different look, but she goes! SH: It’s not all about you, though? What is Noakes Youth and Noakes Blue? SL: We had Noakes Youth for years, within the Noakes group. It was a way of investing money in the youth of Australia in various initiatives. To show where it was going we created a division and badged it. I’ve steadily found myself wanting to do more philanthropy, including in terms of environmental initiatives, plus work with sub-cultures within our own culture. And so we labelled our ‘philanthropy’ Noakes Blue. I’d also previously met Yvette Her- itage at Lake Garda, and was impressed with her tenacity – I thought if I gave her a better boat she could show ’em! So we sponsored her for a couple of years. Noakes Youth was opportunity and
choice for young Australians, Noakes Blue is more about breaking down barriers and recognising that we all have idiosyncrasies but we still all contribute… a more concil- iatory approach perhaps. SH:Next up? SL: After Covid I’ve a lot of catching-up to do. The International Canoe Worlds are coming to Lake Macquarie at the very beginning of next year, and I am doing that because those boats really make me giggle. Racing on your own is amazing! To be sailing along and all of a sudden the helm is down and you tack away and you
ask, ‘Who made that choice?’ And that blows me away, all the thought processes and subconscious stuff is whirring away in the background… So I am enjoying that part of me, and as usual I have no problem looking like a complete idiot when it all goes pear shaped! The class is growing here right now and
the trajectory is going to be almost vertical, with people pushing themselves hard while knowing very little. Meanwhile, in 18ft skiff world I just informed the skiff club commodore yesterday that I am defecting to the New Zealand fleet and taking my new boat over there. SH:Wow… SL: I get a lot of support from Mike Sanderson at Doyle Sails and approached Moose and Andrew Lechte to do some- thing different in this class… and they immediately made room in their produc- tion schedule to do that. And that’s nice. A strong NZ skiff fleet is currently sit-
ting in several containers and as you know the Kiwi Cherub fleet is also growing. So right now I would like to go over to NZ and get bashed up by some guys who have done very well in both classes and see if we can at least improve a little. Of course we still have the two boats
here, the Blue and the Youth, and I am talking to the club about what happens to them. Yvette is stepping down and there is another good woman skipper interested. That way if she wishes to sail Noakes Blue we still get to maintain a female skipper in the class. From here it’s all good! Sean Langman was with Blue Robinson q
FRANK QUEALEY
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132
