Do you remember Middle Harbour when ?1966-70

[bearmcnally]

Middle Harbour in the late 60's early 70,s How Middle Harbour has changed ! both Charwin Castle and Hasltrom's House "Fig Tree House " and private zoo are now no longer .

cheers Bear

[Dolphin]

How many bears did Sir Edward Halstrom have in the Zoo. -1?

[storm petrel]

Bear,

I remember Middle Harbour and the main Harbour very well over this period.

When my father left the RAN in 1964 he took a 'civy' job as the Navy's Port Fueling Officer for Sydney Harbour and he stayed in the job until he retired in the early 80's. The job came with a house above the oil wharf at Chowder Bay (East of Clifton Gardens in what is now national park)and that is where I grew up - with a bedroom that overlooked the Harbour from South Head to Fort Denison. From my window I could see straight across the start of the Sydney to Hobart and the old Catalina's used to take off in front and rattle my window as they flew overhead (as did the clang of large ships dropping their anchors at night). I was 10yrs old when we moved there, but the best thing of all was that you could run from the house to the water's edge in about 2 minutes. My brothers and I explored every bit of the harbour through our teens in all manner of craft - from home-made canoes to a range of sailing skiffs. Heck, I have swum across the harbour (South to north) twice and paddled across it on a surfboard three times. Mind you, it was a lot less busy then. We used to camp on the water's edge and live off the sea for a week at a time in the holidays. You probably couldn't even light a camp fire on the rocks now without someone fining you!

When I started surfing(when I was 13) there was only one set of lights (at Condamine st Balgowlah)between my home in Middle Head and Manly. There wasn't even lights at the corner of Miltary rd and Spit rd. My brother use to try to break his record of 12 minutes from Mosman to Manly in his Beetle whenever we went to the surf, which from memory seemed to be about twice daily.

At Mosman Primary School one of my best mates was Jack Earl's grandson and it was not long before Jack allowed me to tag along on his boat and over a period of about 10 yrs Jack taught me the finer points of keel boat sailing - I do not think I could have had a more patient and encouraging teacher. While we sailed on the Harbour he would vividly describe what it was like in the 30's and 40's - how much bigger it was and how few serious yachtsmen there were about in those days('none of those tupperware boats' then) and he would sometimes sketch other boats and the water. Jack passed away quite a while ago now, he was a great yachtsman, a real gentleman and a fabulous marine artist. One of his painting (he gave it to my wife and I as a wedding present) takes pride of place in my house and I think it is one of my most prized possessions. It shows Suzy J (CYC19) under with full spinnaker under North Head.

I sailed over to the Basin a couple of months ago and stayed with Jack's grandson. Storm Petrel was pretty chuffed to be moored next to Jack's last boat - a beautiful little Yawl called 'Smoky Cape' which Ben is now owns.

So yes Bear, I remember Middle Harbour and the rest of the Harbour in the 60's and 70's very well - indeed as if it was yesterday.

Cheers,
Mark

[Swift]

Jack Earl was a legend, Mark you were fortunaate to have known him. Coincidentally , recently I was reading something on drogues.. the discussion was on the importance of holding the stern down so that it is not lifted by the oncoming wave, thereby retaining directional stability. I recalled a different opinion, someone saying... maybe Ian Kiernan.. that Jack Earl taught him not to to tow warps from the stern but a bit further forward, the sheet winches being a good place. The reason being that this would allow the stern to lift to the following wave and therefore avoid getting pooped. Sailing is full of contradictions.

Anyway, I remember Middle Harbour. When I was a boy I used to go fishing in the upper reaches at Fullers Bridge, this was the late 50' s early 60's, this was before the new bridge was built and they still had a netted bathing pool. We used to stand on the sand banks, sometimes almost waist deep, catching bream and flathead. In 1963 an actress named Marcia Hathaway was paddling in water less than 1 metre deep further downstream at Sugarloaf Bay when she was attacked by a shark. I remember her boyfriend saying that he stood with his legs spread wide apart and the shark between them punching the shark as it tried to drag his girlfriend into deeper water. Unfortunately she did not survive.

This attack is indelibly imprinted in my mind. I continued fishing at Fuller Bridge - on and off - until the late 70's but never again waded in the water. To this day I will jump off the boat for a swim anywhere else in the harbour, but never ever THERE. That attack was 48 years ago and it was just bad luck, I can't recall another one there since, although there have been a number of attacks in other parts of the harbour and in Parramatta river, I know it's not logical but I just can't help but think that there's some big scary things in the deep water of Middle Harbour.

[storm petrel]

You are right, Jack used to tow heavy warps from the sheet winches when things got out of hand on Maris. Maris was a 36' kauri, Alan Payne designed, yawl rigged, Tasman Seabird that Jack had made in 1958, named after his daughter and sold to Ian Kiernan in the early 70's. Tasman seabirds have a long drawn out stern that would have been well suited to this. One of Jack's paintings showing the sort of conditions requiring this type of action can be seen at: http://www.jockmuir.com/foreword-2.html

I am not sure if Jack used the same technique on the gaff rigged ketch(Cathleen Gillett now in the Maritime museum in Sydney, named after his beautiful wife) he sailed in the first Hobart and later around the world but I will find out. As to the Hobart - The way he always told it was that he was having a drink with mates from the newly formed CYC and discussing a cruise to Tasmania they were planning when Illingworth, who was visiting from England, said 'lets make a race out of it'. He always blamed the alcohol for the decision.