Brainchild of keen sailor Jock McConnachie, ably assisted by Dudley Isaacs, himself a proud owner of 14 wooden boats, it took place in very pleasant weather on the lawn normally reserved for the parking of sailing dinghies.
Informative notices were attached to many of the displayed craft and there was some real history standing on the lawn. Bernard Parkes, one of the clubs' founding members displayed his Goodricke Dinghy named Tenacity. In 1924 George Goodricke imported some 16 foot clinker built dinghies, which became known as the Goodricke Class. He founded the Goodricke Trophy which became for dinghy sailing what the Lipton Cup became for keelboat racing.
Another famous Knysnarian, Halvar Mathiesen, built the state of the art, Seasprite which proved to be the boat to beat. After World War II, rules changed and Impudence was built of lap-strake spruce on ribs of light Japanese oak.
Fastenings were kept to a minimum and it sported lighter wooden centre-board and rudder. It won the Goodricke Trophy five times for Knysna. In the mid 1950's Frank Spears began to build dinghies of cold moulded plywood, and in 1957 Vivace won the Goodricke for the University of Cape Town Yacht Club. These developed into the famous Spearhead class, one of which, owned by Dudley Isaacs, was on display and also raced about during the sail-pass after lunch on Saturday.
Other famous wooden dinghies on show were the Redwing and the Knoetze class. Two wooden boats which attracted much attention were 'double-enders' built by Chris Edwards at the Knysna Haiko boat works, of the Drascombe Peter design, based on Welsh fishing boats. Spirit of Ireland owned by Alan McVitty, and Pipe Major Steve Collins' beautifully restored The Gael were a popular pair, and the only boats of their design in South Africa.
Another boat which attracted much attention was a replica of a River Thames Steam launch of the type popular in the early 1900's, complete with overall canopy and funnel. Owned by Chris Nightingale and named Perseverance, her boiler is fuelled by paraffin laced with diesel, takes 20 minutes to built up steam, and her twin cylinder steam engine drives her at a maximum of 4 knots. She can be seen from time to time on Island Lake or Swartvlei.
The sail-pass, scheduled for 14:30, was postponed until 15:45 to allow the wind to die down a little. Owners of historic boats were reluctant to expose 80 year old sails to the brisk wind blowing at lunch time. The historic Knoetze crewed by Alaisdair Fraser and Colin Mathiesen was the first to sail past and salute Commodore Jim Parkes. A number of the other boats, notably the Drascombe Peters and Dudley Isaacs' Spearhead were also on the water for the salute.
On Sunday, September 30, the boats that were seaworthy took to the water again and sailed down the lagoon to drop anchor and beach at Featherbed Bay.
Commodore Jim Parkes of the Knysna Yacht Club took the salute by the historic Knoetze dinghy crewed by Alaisdair Fraser and Colin Mathiesen.
