Vessel : Larool

Launch Date : 1954

The 30 square metre yacht Larool was built in Pittwater to a design by Knud Reimers, for Keith Dalton an avid Sydney sailor with an ambition to show that Australian craftsmanship could match anything seen in the 30 squares imported from Europe after WWII. She was built from north coast cedar for lightness and monel frames for strength. And her mast was deck mounted on monel bridge that is as elegant as the big one. With her original bending wooden spar, she could be easily tuned to the full range of wind conditions that are experienced on Sydney Harbour.

Keith soon put his ambition to the test by challenging the Swedish built "Teal", which had been imported in 1950, to a series of match races. What sight that must have been with the two varnished flyers going head to head with Sydney's two legendary skippers of the day, Archie Robinson and Bill Solomon's alternating helming the boats in order to see which one was the true champion. Bill and Archie later mentioned the outcome " Larool was the overall winner after some fiercely fought duels in all conditions."

At the time the current owner Tjerk Dusseldorp was a 9 year old boy learning sailing from his father on the Blue Bird Zeehaen which he had hand crafted in our front yard over a 2 or 3 year period.

Occasionally he and his father would see Larool fly past Zeehan on the harbour and he dreamt of one day owning such a boat. That day came sooner than expected, because Keith fell terminally ill with cancer, and reluctantly had to part with her, and so began his 50 year love affair with Larool and 30 square metre boat sailing.

Tjerk Dusseldorp has had experiences most only dream of. We are lucky that he has offered to share his memories with us,

"I remember the day we came to sail Larool from from her mooring at the CYC to Middle Harbour where we then had our mooring. I remember counting all the sail bags in her shore locker, ranging from a fully battened cotton mainsail, to any number of jibs and genoas, and what I was told was the first set of synthetic dacron sails to have been imported to Sydney. I also remember my father, on our very first outing, very nearly sideswiping another moored boat, having forgotten the 3 metres of stern behind the tiller position!

"Now I'm a 64 year old, and with half a century of memories of exhilarating racing and sailing friendships, from the time when there was a fleet of some dozen 30 square metres on Sydney harbour enjoying great racing as part of the RSYS Division 1, and then, later, for a short time as our own class where we contested the "Cock of the Harbour" trophy culminating in an annual championships over the Easter weekend.

Then for many gentler sailing years we just enjoying the unique features of this unique design which was launched in Sweden one hundred years ago with the aim to provide top performance sailing with cruising comfort all wrapped up in a set of classical lines that I think look even more beautiful today.

Tjerk (Jack) Dusseldorp.

Click here for the gallery of Larool

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