Page 79 - Mark Chews Forty Two Australian Wooden Sailing Boats Sept 17 2020

ARCHINA was built in NSW in 1933. She is an ocean racing yacht from a design by
Cecil Boden who was one of Australia's first Australian born Naval Architects and
practiced in Sydney from the 1920s until the late 1980s. For some of this period he
was a senior Naval Architect at Cockatoo Island.

Built by James Hayes and Sons in Careening Cove, she was launched with some
fanfare due to her size and style.

She crossed the starting line in the first ever Sydney Hobart race, but withdrew early
on in the strong conditions that the yachts encountered.

The Sun Newspaper reported on December 29th 1949 “SYDNEY, Friday:– This
afternoon the first ‘casualty’ of the Sydney Hobart yachting race was reported. It
was the ARCHINA, a 52 ft. Bermudian ketch, owned by Mr. P. Goldstein, which was
observed to be in distress off Montague Island. A ship which rushed to the scene
later reported that the crew was safe and would try to continue in the race. At 4.45
p.m. the ARCHINA was seen anchored 20 miles from Montague Island. Late this
afternoon the yachts again struck bad weather south of Twofold Bay, with a southerly
gale blowing in gusty squalls at never less than 23 miles an hour, and at times
reaching a velocity of 50 miles an hour.”
She is raced in six Sydney Hobarts races overall and in 1948 it won her division.
There are reports that she was originally rigged as a yawl and the converted to a
ketch. After a substantial restoration project ARCHINA also took part in the Sydney
to Hobart 1994 50th anniversary race.

It still sails on Sydney Harbour and is said to be in excellent condition.

CYAA Magazine Issue 43 September 2020 Page 79