Flamingo
Launch Date : 1959
Flamingo was built in 1959 for Peter Cole by John ‘Darkie’ Griffin
at Pittwater - not by Jeff Clist as had previously been believed.
Jeff Clist had worked on her during the mid-sixties, the job being
to fully spline the hull as the original planking was working
heavily as the boat is
quite lightly built.
Peter Cole sailed her with reasonable success from the RSYS until
his heavy involvement with the first Australian America’s Cup
challenge dictated that he sell the boat – probably in the very
early sixties. Geoff Twybill, along with some partners, bought her
and campaigned her very vigorously from the RSYS, racing against the
30 sqs and the 6 metre classes. At this stage she was relatively
disadvantaged by her modest class-dictated sail area, and the rig
size was increased by moving the forestay forward and raising the
hounds, as well as lengthening the boom. This significantly
increased the sail area, but undoubtedly put much strain the hull
during hard racing and probably contributed in large part to the
need for splining.
Geoff and partners continued to race her until the early seventies
when business interests and young families took precedence and
Flamingo was moved to Pittwater where, by Geoff’s admission, she
“went downhill a bit”. The starboard chainplates had pulled out
during a race and a temporary repair effected, but when Geoff was
approached by a buyer in Lake Macquarie, he and the partners sold
her.
Flamingo stayed in Lake Macquarie for some years (early nineties
approximately ), when she was bought by guy called Peter.
There is no record or memory of his full name). He sailed her in
both Sydney, then Brisbane and then back in Sydney, from the
Amateurs Club.
From there she was purchased by Chris Morris.
Leaking heavily
he had Rob Tearne look at her and he found that as is
common with these and 5.5s, the mast step pressure was separating
the floors, frames and garboards from the keel. Rob replaced
sections of a couple of planks either side, put in a couple of new
floors, and sistered some cracked ribs. He also rebedded keel bolts
and repaired the cockpit coamings.
Flamingo was recently
Purchased by Renowned sailor Richard Winnings, who has intentions to
continue her racing career on Sydney Harbour.
Flamingo has some great photos taken at the time Geoff Twybill owned
her. The two of her sailing down Sydney harbour past Bradley’s Head
were featured in Seacraft Magazine at the time.
She
is also lucky enough to have a copy of the plans supplied to Peter
Cole by the designer, Harry Becker.
She is also a vessel with a sister ship of the same name on the other side of the world.
Beam 2m 6'6"
Draft 1.2m 4ft
Previous Owners
Geoff Twybill
Chris Morris
