Page 24 - CYAA Magazine Jan 2018 Issue 41

Classic Yacht Association of Australia

young family to tend, and also lived in the United for Christmas. But as the project evolved, others
States. Still, I got it done. It was a rags to riches became interested. With the help of a close friend
to rags story. A young and ambitious boat who worked as a graphic designer, and the newly
builder, Jacob Bayly Chandler arrived in Hobart established print on demand boutique internet-
Town from Kent, England, in the early 1840s. based printing service, I was able to self-publish
After several years spent repairing whaleboats at a small print run of 60 books. They soon sold out
the Old Wharf, in 1847 he established a boatyard and another 200 books were printed.
at Battery Point next door to that of Risby
Brothers. One of the longest serving builders at It has been seven years since I published that little
Battery Point, between 1847 and his death as a book about the life and career of Jacob Bayly
pauper in 1901 at the age of 79, Jacob Bayly Chandler. In this time my family and I have
Chandler built more than 150 vessels, including moved back to Australia and I have published
whaleboats, fishing boats, river barges, coastal two more books and co-authored another.
ketches and, of course, four steam ferries. Spirited, Skilled and Determined: The Boat and Ship
Builders of Battery Point (1835-1935) was published
I initially only wrote the book as a private family in 2014, and I recently published Industrious,
memento; something personal to give my mum Innovative, Altruistic: The 20th
Century Boat Builders of Battery
Point. In 2016 I was involved in
publication of Mike Swinson’s
Blood, Sweat & the Sea, the
biography of John Muir and the
company he established (Muir
Engineering). I also serve as a
committee member of the
Friends of Tassie Too not-for-
profit organisation, working to
conserve the 21-ft Restricted
Class yacht Tassie Too, built at
Battery Point in 1927 and
recently returned to Hobart
after several decades spent in
Melbourne.

To date it has been a fascinating
journey particularly since from
the outset I knew very little
about boats. It may help that I
am scientist with over two
decades of experience analysing
large data sets. It may be that
the topic is simply of interest to
me. It may be that my family’s
maritime heritage is in my
DNA. It’s likely a combination
of all three and more.
Nicole Mays second cover to cover read and document of record about the Boat
and Ship builders of Hobart
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