This Saturday afternoon (22 Feb), if you’re close to Orleigh Park or walking along the Milton Reach of Brisbane River, you may see more sailing dinghies than usual out on the water. Two long-established local clubs – Oxley Sailing Club and South Brisbane Sailing Club – will be battling it out in an annual event to decide which club retains not one but three trophies.
The oldest of these is the Tristram Shield, which dates back to 1963, when both clubs operated fleets of 16-foot skiffs, a class of dinghy used for racing in Australia for much of the 20th century. From the early 1980s, as the billowing sails of the 16-foot skiffs on the river faded into history, sailors from Oxley Sailing Club competed in Mirror dinghies against South Brisbane sailors in Herons. Today, while Herons remain popular at South Brisbane Sailing Club (you can pick them by the stylized Herons near the top of the mainsail), Oxley sailors are more likely to sail another class known as Pacers. Both Herons and Pacers are designed for a two person crew (often, especially in Herons, a parent and child).
In 2023, the Nose and Tail Trophy was retained by Oxley Sailing Club.
Another trophy up for grabs this Saturday is the Nose and Tail Trophy: an odd name for an odd story. In the year 2000, someone decided to cut an old Laser dinghy into three sections in order to use the middle section as an off-water training device for sailors learning to ‘hike’ – that is, lean out of the side of the boat to balance it. The two remaining sections were revamped as ‘dry bars’ – that is, a place where you can park but not purchase a drink – to be installed in each club. The question of who got the bow section (the nose) and who got the stern (the tail) would henceforth be resolved by an annual contest between teams of Laser sailors from the two clubs. The winning team would claim the ‘nose’ while the losing team would be awarded the ‘tail’. The annual races were to take place on courses alternating between the South Brisbane and Oxley clubs. These days the race is not restricted solely to Lasers, but includes other dinghies of similar size and speed, such as Impulses.
The newest trophy is the John Hynd Trophy for Junior teams, inaugurated in 2022 with a perpetual trophy donated by Oxley Sailing Club to encourage junior sailors. Both clubs use single-handed dinghies for juniors: South Brisbane juniors sail O’Pen Skiffs against their counterparts from Oxley, who sail either O’Pen Skiffs or Optis.
Maybe, after watching the fun of sailing on the river, you or your children may want to be more than spectators in future. Both Oxley and South Brisbane are small, family-friendly sailing clubs that offer training courses for adults and juniors and have sailing dinghies available for hire. South Brisbane SC is located next to Orleigh Park, West End at 68 Hill End Terrace. Both clubs welcome new members; go to www.sbsc.org.au for South Brisbane or https://www.revolutionise.com.au/oxleysc/ for Oxley Sailing Club.
Main Image: Three races in one in 2023: the dinghy in the foreground is competing for the John Hynd Trophy for junior sailors; 2nd from left is a Laser competing for the Nose and Tail Trophy, while the two remaining boats – a Heron and a Pacer – are competing for the Tristram Shield.
2023 Nose and Tail award IMG 8009: In 2023, the Nose and Tail Trophy was retained by Oxley Sailing Club.
2023 Nose and Tail DSC_6586_resized: A junior sailor competes for her club in the John Hynd Trophy event in 2023.
2023 Nose and Tail DSC_6698_resized: A Heron leads an RS400 and a fleet of other boats on the Milton Reach in the race for the 2023 Tristram Shield.
