COLIN RYAN INTERVIEW
Ozwegian comeback After period of building and sailing 5.5 Metres from 1978 to 2005, Colin Ryan has been out of the class for 15 years, but is now back having acquired SUI 209, Otto, in partnership with his son Marc to campaign in Europe.
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olin Ryan had been looking to get back in the class for a number of years. “I wasn’t in a hurry but coming to the 2020 Worlds in Newport was a great opportunity to see what was available. And my son was driving coach boat around for Otto and is a great mate of Lasse Berthelsen on the boat. So there was some obvious connections and we see Bent from time to time at HYC.” “By the end of the week we had agreed to buy Otto. The boat is going to Hankø in Norway. We’ve been going to Norway since mid-eighties actually. So I have a great
connection with the Norwegians. I have been a member of the club in Hankø for nearly 20 years and Marc is also member so all of these guys and his generation used to stay in my house as younger guys.” “There’s a lot of Australian history associated with HYC going back to maybe the late sixties, early seventies. Frank Tolhurst went there a lot and sailed with King Olaf. He became an invited member there, that’s the special category which is reserved for mostly International sailing members and mostly 5.5 Metre sailors. Carl Halvorsen was also an invited member. The then Crown Prince Harold would come out to Australia in the 1970s and sail the Worlds and Carl would loan him his 5.5 Metre. I went there in 1986 for my first European championships on the way to Helsinki for the worlds and I just fell in love with the place.” The 2021 Scandinavian Gold Cup and World Championship are being held by Hankø Yacht Club. “It is a very special small club limited to 200 members along with the King, Queen and Princess of Norway as well as ordinary blokes like us. At the 2020 World Championship there Top: Otto • Left: Carabella Top right: Tangalooma Over: Kings Cross
68 • fivepointfive • april 2020
