Mervyn (Merv) Davey Bio...

Merv Davey

MERVYN DAVEY

Mervyn Davey joined the CYCA in 1945, the 25th Member. He served on the Board of Directors for a number of years before becoming Rear Commodore 1947 and 1948 and Commodore from 1949 to 1951 and again in 1957 to 1958.

Merv was elected to Life Membership of the Club in 1961 and in 1962, was appointed Secretary and continued in that capacity until 1971 when he became the full-time Sailing Secretary.

Along with the Board, Merv was responsible for the acquisition in 1951 of the small boatshed at Rushcutters Bay as the first CYCA Clubhouse and was one of the guarantors for the loan; the first marina in 1952 and the building of the addition to the Clubhouse in 1958, the marina extensions in 1960 and the completion of the new Clubhouse building in 1965 and the acquisition of the adjoining boatyard and marinas in 1968.

Merv designed and supervised the construction of his 44-foot yacht “Trade Winds” which was the first modern ocean racing yacht constructed of steel in Australia. He skippered her to wins in the 1948 Montagu Island race and the 1949 Sydney Hobart race.

As a highly qualified engineer, Merv was also well known for his measuring skills and was a leading exponent of the RORC rule and the development of the IOR rule in the 1970s. A very principled man, he was Chief Measurer for the Australian Yachting Federation and represented the country on the world rating Councils.

He was described by the highly respected yacht designer Olin Stephens as “a brilliant young man who was a credit to the CYCA and Australian yachting”.

03/1947 Merv Davey proposes that lifelines are made compulsory. Proposal defeated.

09/1947 AGM elects Commodore Peter Luke, Vice-Commodore Charlie Cooper and

Rear-Commodore Merv Davey. Drafted constitution accepted by members.

09/1948 AGM re-elects Commodore Peter Luke, Vice-Commodore Charlie Cooper and

Rear-Commodore Merv Davey.

02/10/1948 Founder’s Cup race shortened to omit Bird Island from the course to allow

yachts to compete in RPAYC’s inaugural RORC ruled Montague Island race.

CYCA yachts, Merv Davey’s Trade Winds and Hal Evans’ Moonbi finish first

09/1949 AGM elects Commodore Merv Davey, Vice-Commodore Charlie Cooper and

Rear-Commodore Fred Harris.

26/12/1949 5th SHYR commences with 15 entrants. Phil Davenport’s Waltzing Matilda

won line honours (John H Illingworth Challenge Cup) and Commodore Davey’s Trade Winds won the Tattersall Cup.

09/1950 AGM elects Commodore Merv Davey, Vice-Commodore Fred Harris and Rear-Commodore Brig. AJ Mills.

26/12/1950 6th SHYR with 16 entrants. First overseas entrant since Rani, from Hawaii,

Bachelor’s Wife. Stan Edwards’ Margaret Rintoul won line honours (John H

Illingworth Challenge Cup) and Colin Haslegrove’s Nerida won the Tattersall Cup.

Editor (Correction, should be Austin Edwards. Stan Was Austin's son.)

Note, Merv Davey crewed on Margaret Rintoul as skipper in the 1950 race.

09/1951 AGM elects Commodore Merv Davey, Vice-Commodore Fred Harris and RearCommodore RB Campbell.

26/12/1951 The 7th SHYR, with 14 entrants, is the first year that the fleet is joined by a

radio relay vessel, Kurrewa III. Stan Edwards’ Margaret Rintoul took her 2nd successive line honours win (John H Illingworth Challenge Cup) and broke Morna’s 1948 record to set a time of 4 days 2 hours 29 minutes. Tom Williamson’s Struen Marie won the Tattersall Cup.

Editor (Correction, should be Austin Edwards. Stan Was Austin's son.)

Note, Frank Barlow crewed on Margaret Rintoul as skipper in the 1951 race.

23/02/1953 CYCA incorporated as Company Limited by Guarantee. Individual member’s

liability limited to £1. Original subscribers were Sverre Berg, Jack Halliday, Hal

Evans, Merv Davey, Vic Meyer, Bert Wilson, John Blunt, Erl Le Brun, Albert

Saalfeld and George Barton.

08/1957 AGM elects Commodore Merv Davey, Vice-Commodore Dr FA Bellingham and

Rear-Commodore DM Brown. Treasurer Bill Psaltis and Secretary Alan Brown

continued for their fourth term. Capt. John Illingworth, Peter Luke and Erl Le

Brun elected as the first three life members. 254 members and 81 yachts on the register.

1961 Merv Davey and JS Sampson elected life members. Davey for his many year’s

contribution to the club and Sampson for supplying the SHYR radio relay

vessel Lauriana for the past five years.

1962 Merv Davey appointed full-time secretary/manager with assistant Betty

Hamer.

03/1972 Merv Davey retires from active duty.

Editors Note: Much of the foregoing relies on information in the Cruising Yacht Club Australia Archives where © resides... 

MR Photos[2011 - 2017] PK's Copy.docx - Microsoft Word Online

A collection of photos by others of Margaret Rintoul taken during the RSYS Cruise in 2011 and 2017.  

Click the link below to view. 

Margaret Rintoul Photo Album 2011 and 2017

Editor's Note:

The copyright of these items is acknowledged though unknown in some cases.   In the main rights are thought to belong to the RSYS.

Paul Kerrigan -  June 2020

Australian National Maritime Museum - Margaret Rintoul Entry

Australian National Maritime Museum

Margaret Rintoul in the Derwent River 1949 - Hobart Mercury Photo

☆☆☆☆☆
Margaret Rintoul-Vessel Number: HV000430
Build Date: 1948
Designer: Philip L Rhodes New York
Builder: Ted Haddock Sydney Australia
Previous Owner: Austin E Edwards-Sydney, Club Distribution Company Pty Ltd-Sydney, Bob Tardiff - Sydney
Current Owner: Bruce D Gould & Paul F Kerrigan – RSYS

Dimensions:
Vessel Dimensions: 13.49 m x 9.45 m x 3.43 m x 1.98 m (44.25 ft x 31 ft x 11.25 ft x 6.5 ft)

Classification: Vessels and fittings

Significance:
MARGARET RINTOUL is an ocean racing yacht built in Sydney for builder Austin E Edwards in 1948. The yawl rigged yacht won line honours in two successive Sydney to Hobart races in the early 1950s and set a record for the race with its second victory. Line honours, which was the first yacht to finish, has always captured the public's attention for the Sydney to Hobart race, and the challenge of setting a new record has since become a fascination and focus of media speculation each year in the lead up to the event. Designed by renowned US naval architect Philip L Rhodes, it is an early example of a post-war ocean racer built in Australia to the latest international concepts, at a time when many local ocean racing boats were dated to the 1930s. The custom-built, up-to-the-minute design of MARGARET RINTOUL in 1948 just three years after the event had started, illustrates how early the development of a serious and competitive approach to all aspects of ocean racing had begun, an approach that was dominating the event from the late 1950s. MARGARET RINTOUL also represents another stage in a growing trend away from local designers toward designs from the USA and Europe, that had its beginnings in the 1930s.
Description: MARGARET RINTOUL was built by Ted Haddock in Sydney for builder Austin Edwards, who had chosen a design from the Phillip Rhodes, an emerging American naval architect. Rhodes had been chief designer at Cox and Stevens from 1934 and took over the firm in 1947. He then gave the firm his own name and quickly became one of the leading yacht designers in the USA in the 1950s and 60s beside a retiring John Alden from Boston and the acknowledged dean of the profession, Olin Stephens. The builder Haddock is less well known. He had a yard at Margaret St in Greenwich for a short period and is also remembered as the builder of the light-weight ocean racing sisterships NOCTURNE (possibly the yacht built for J R Bull of the CYCA and line honours winner in 1952) and SERENADE in the late 1940s.

MARGARET RINTOUL sailed in the 1949 and 1950 Sydney to Hobart races and narrowly missed line honours by two minutes in 1949 when the yachts finished in the dark. Close finishes then become part of its story.

MARGARET RINTOUL's second race in the Sydney to Hobart was in 1950 and it was a gruelling event. The fleet sailed directly into a fierce southerly gale as they turned south at Sydney Heads, and spent almost 2/3rds of the race pushing to windward in heavy sea conditions. Edwards had the experienced Mervyn Davey as his skipper (Mervyn's record included winning the 1949 race as skipper of Trade Winds on corrected time.) and Norman Hudson, (Sydney Morning Herald Yachting Correspondent), who was the mate of the crew as well a crew used to tough conditions.
Conditions eased through the Bass Strait crossing and then it became a spinnaker run down the coast where rival yacht MISTRAL V, a similar and contemporary Olin Stephens design took the lead for a period, while the fleet bunched up overnight off the coast of Tasmania. The following morning a severe, squally southerly hit the fleet again and MARGARET RINTOUL headed out to sea while rivals MISTRAL V and NERIDA stayed close to shore. They came together again at the entrance to Storm Bay, and in the fickle conditions, MARGARET RINTOUL picked a change in the wind direction before the other yachts and took a freshening sea breeze down to the finish line to an exciting 18-minute victory over MISTRAL V, watched by spectators ashore and on boats following them to the finish...

In the following year, 1951 conditions were quite different, and the favourable nor-east winds allowed the leading yachts to run under spinnaker until well across Bass Strait when the wind went south-west, then south-east. It died away on the turn into Storm Bay, and once again there was a close finish with MARGARET RINTOUL catching an easterly shift to take line honours and new race record of 4 days, 2 hours and 29 minutes, half an hour ahead of LASS O'LUSS. The race record was to stand for another seven years. The winning crew were Austin Edwards (Owner), Ken Cornwell (Navigator), Frank Barlow (Skipper), Ron Wise, Ron Kelly, Peter Mecham, Len Miginof, Terry Flew.
 
Photo Hobart Mercury

© - Hobart Mercury Photo

MARGARET RINTOUL was a consistent performer in many races on the east coast over several years after the Hobart record event. Winning several east coast races including the Montague Is race in 1951 and setting a race record for this race.
A sister ship was built in Adelaide called TAHUNA for Henry Wickens.

 
By 2020 Margaret Rintoul has become a classic yacht seen cruising around Sydney Harbour and Pittwater, still with its original sail plan. The original spruce main mast has been replaced with an Oregon one designed by Alan Payne, The mizzen mast has similarly been replaced several times over the years and is also now constructed of Oregon.


Vessel Details
Ballast: external lead
Cabin or superstructure material and construction: timber planked
Current status: operational
Deck layout: cabin decked with cockpit
Deck material and construction: timber plywood, wood, fibreglass
Hull material and construction: carvel timber carvel-planked timber
Hull shape: displacement monohull, overhanging stem overhanging transom, round bottom.
Keel/centreboard/rudder type: full keel, keel hung rudder
Motor propulsion: auxiliary motor diesel inboard
Propeller: single
Related materials: awards/trophies drawings interviews news clippings photos references
Rig type: yawl
Sailcloth: synthetic
Spar material: timber
Hand propulsion/steering mechanism: wheel replaced original tiller steering by Bob Tardiff
Alternate Numbers

Sail Number: 353

Vessel Registration Number: MR353N