Page 27 - Mark Chews Forty Two Australian Wooden Sailing Boats Sept 17 2020

I love this boat because she sits at the centre of a famous sailing triangle that is Nowadays the yacht races and cruises regularly both in and around Sydney Harbour
Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia. and also offshore. In recent years she has raced in regattas in Sydney, in Auckland,
and sailed offshore with voyages to the Solomons, Queensland, New Zealand and
Australia’s sailing connections to Scandinavia reach back to the legendary Norwegian
Tasmania. She has completed more than 15 voyages to Lord Howe both in the race
Colin Archer (1883-1921), who spent his formative years farming in Queensland.
from Gosford and in the last several years for the Lord Howe Island Classic Yacht
Then of course there’s the Halvorsen Family and this link is continues with FIDELIS
cruise.
and Reimers (who also designed the Tumlaren,) The New Zealand corner of the
triangle is more obvious! Check out AKARANA. FIDELIS is one of those yachts with 200,000 ocean nautical miles of sailing that
FIDELIS, originally an out and out ocean racer from New Zealand, made a significant still turns the heads of those who see her on the water…
contribution to the continued rivalry between the two countries that started with
RAINBOW and RAWHITI in the early 1900s.
Her racing career began with a line honours win in the Auckland to Suva Race of
1966. She then made her way to Australia to enter that year’s Sydney to Hobart
yacht race. FIDELIS did more than just get the gun in her inaugural Hobart – she set
a new race record margin with a time of 4 days 8 hours and 39 minutes.
The February 1967 issue of Seacraft Magazine had the headline 'KIWI FLYER
SHOWED US HOW ' "Splendid performance of Auckland's Swedish-designed 61-foot
flyer FIDELIS was a surprise to Australian yachtsmen and a great joy to her skipper
Jim Davern and New Zealanders generally...". FIDELIS won line honours in a rare
light weather race, finishing 17&1/2 hours ahead of the next yacht, BALANDRA.
Despite this large margin and having been over 80 nautical miles ahead at one stage,
FIDELIS was not able to win the rare double, the small Sydney yacht CADENCE came
through under spinnaker over a day later to win on handicap.
FIDELIS renewed the close links between Australia and New Zealand that were at
their strongest during RAWHITI's time, and it even shares a similar triple-planked
kauri construction.
Building on FIDELIS's performance, another wave of New Zealand boats came across
for subsequent Hobart races and achieved more ocean racing success.
During the eighties FIDELIS was altered extensively with hours of shipwright labour
transforming her from a stripped out ocean greyhound into one of the fastest and
most comfortable classic yacht passage makers. The additions of a roller headsail,
self tailing winches and up to date navigation equipment transformed the boat. Ten
years ago a further update refixed the keel, smoothed the hull and laid new teak
decks.. The addition a year or so later of a carbon mast completed the transformation
but not the look or feel of the yacht.

CYAA Magazine Issue 43 September 2020 Page 27