BARAGOOLA
Saga of the Returning Tide Jason Antill describes the process and work done on bringing the 1968 classic, Baragoola, back to life and preparing the boat for the 2020 World Championship, where they won both the Classic divisions. Tommy Spithill: “Jas, what about an old 6 Metre for Woody Point?” Jason: “Mate, I know of a 5.5 Metre on the harbour for sale, I think the rigging was good.” John Bacon: “Yeah, I’ll help you tomorrow. It’s only an East Coast Low, should make the trip quick.” And so it began...
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aving not been sailed in some time, and not having ventured outside the heads in decades, it’s fair to say Baragoola could have done with some prior preparation. But, hey we know boats, so after an hour of working out the rigging and pumping out the rain water we were off. Even until today, the speeds we got that day down some pretty big waves without a spinnaker are unmatched. At that moment we all knew there was something special about this
64 • fivepointfive • april 2020
boat and the 5.5 Metre class. The next scheduled event was the Woody Point Race, (a Wednesday Summer evening ritual that requires its own article). This was the main purpose for Tommy wanting a classic wooden yacht and it had become a legendary performer, so much so it stopped the restoration programme in fear of a handicapper retribution. Once back at its home at the Royal Prince Alfred the history of Baragoola (the Aboriginal meaning is ‘flood tide’ or ‘the returning tide’) began to emerge. Commissioned by a club stalwart Russell Slade back in 1967 for the trials for Mexico Olympics the following year, along with Carabella, both Britton Chance designs; other new boats built for the trials included Crest for Carl Halvorsen (which my father Rob Antill competed on) and Kings Cross. It’s quite something that all of these boats are now in competitive condition in Australia racing together. The rules of the 5.5 Metre class were evolving and following the Games the class planned to allow a separate keel and rudder, so all of these boats were designed as such but initially requiring a hung rudder off the keel. The difficulty
