VS 15ft SKIFF SAILING
  • Home
  • News
    • NOR's & SI's
    • Calendar
  • States / Trav 2019-20 Results
  • Nats 2019-20 Results
  • Official Forms
  • Nats Results 2019
  • States Results 2017/18
  • Nats Pics 2019
  • Travellers Results 2018-19
  • TBS Repairs
  • Season Results 2017/18
    • Travellers 2017/18
    • Nats Results 2017/18
  • Season Results 2016/17
  • Season Results 2014 / 15
    • Nats 2014 Race Times
  • Nats 2016 / 17 Pics
  • Specs
    • Col's Mast Bend Data
    • SFC Repair
    • Ol Yella Refit
  • For Sale
  • VS History
    • Trophies
    • Lest We Forget
  • 70th Reunion Pics
  • Media
    • Gallery
    • Nats 2015 / 16 Pics
    • Nats 2015 Pics
    • Nats 2014 Pics
    • Nats 2013 Pics
  • Contact
  • Links
  • States Results 2018-19

Charles Sparrow - VS Designer - RIP

Picture
Charles Sparrow was born in the United Kingdom in 1906 but  completed his  schooling in Sydney after a short period in New Zealand. His  coming of age  roughly coincided with the Great Depression, when work for trainee  and  qualified naval draughtsmen were hard to come by. When not struggling to  make a living around Sydney during which time he worked in the Drafting Office  at Cockatoo Dock, helping prepare drawings
for such ships that were still  being built, to working on the Captain Cook at  Morts Dock and producing
drawings for mudguards for Holden bodies pre-war, Charles Sparrow, was a keen  sailor of small  yachts.
"I occasionally sailed in the open 12 footers of the Vaucluse  Sailing Club with Mr Sil Rohu. He owned a gun ship in Castlereagh Street in the city and lived on the waterfront at Vaucluse.  He knew how water sports appealed to young lads and wondered if there might  not be a need for a safe and exciting, easily sailed small yacht,  that could be built at home by, perhaps, a boy and his father. Such a boat might be skippered
by one lad with another as forward hand and it would need to be unsinkable and be able to be righted by the crew without help".
Sil Rohu suggested to Charles Sparrow that he might be the person to design such a craft and Sparrow soon produced a preliminary design of a boat which was  completely decked in except for a small well, big enough for  two pairs of  boys’feet. The plan gave the size and shape of seven frames and the tuck and the  shape of the stern, and a jig frame. The jig frame was built from  6in by 1.5in planks, slotted at the position of each frame. The slots were cut at different  depths so that when the made frames were placed in their allotted spaces, the  shape of the hull was automatically fixed and was ready for attaching the keel,  chines, planking and so on.
"The first boat built was Splinter and she was built by the  members of the newly formed Vaucluse Amateur Sailing Club and was then  thoroughly tested. A few minor adjustments were made and final drawings were  then prepared for sale. The first boat built to the modified plans was Chum and  she was owned by Sil Rohu and was launched in August 1931. Chum is now in the keeping of the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.
"We showed off the VJ Sparrow at the first Aquatic Show in 1933  in Sydney which was held by Nock and Kirby’s and I still have the  small leaflet
which we handed out at the show. It was a very successful exercise, even in a  Depression.
Complete details were furnished with each set of plans sold, together with a list of materials covering every single piece of timber in the boat, including fastenings and fittings. At that time the completed boat was  expected to cost five pounds  seventeen shillings and sixpence and the sails about three pounds five shillings! I donated the plans and the specifications to the Vaucluse Junior Amateur Sailing Club for their use, with any revenue earned to go the Club’s future development of the class (this was at a time when Sparrow was desperately trying to earn enough money to keep himself GA).

We had hoped that boys once they reached the age of 18 would go  onto sailing the larger, open boats, that were so popular on the harbour, in all
sorts of sizes. We eventually found that this wasn’t happening so, in 1936, I designed an adult version of the VJ. This was known as the VS oraucluse Senior. She was designed upon the same lines as the VJ but was three foot six inches longer and had a cockpit that was big enough to allow two lads to sleep in it, using the sail over the boom to make a tent.
The VS quickly caught on. Soon after the war 100 of them were built in Sydney and were shipped to Japan for use by the Australian Occupation
Forces. With the growth of the two classes a need arose for a new clubhouse and larger facilities. A site was found in Marine Parade, Watsons Bay,
which is where the Vaucluse Yacht Club now stands. The new club was officially opened by Sir Eric Harrisson (then Postmaster General) on 28 October 1939.

Picture
VS 2099 (timber hull and beautiful) "Charade" from the Vaucluse Yatch Club in the seasons of 1970/1971 and 1971/1972

Proudly powered by Weebly