Collection of the Sydney Flying Squadron newsletters
Subject or historical figure
Wee George Robinson
(1894 - 1987)
Date1946 - 1974
Object numberANMS0088
NameArchive series
MediumInk on paper
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Faye Magner
DescriptionThis archive series consists of 4 bound volumes of the Sydney Flying Squadron, the newsletter of The Sydney Flying Squadron club from September 1940. It was printed at weekly intervals during the yacht racing season, with occasional additional mid-week issues. The newsletter included items of interest to members, notices about races, the social program and advertisements. The newsletters were collected by skiff sailor and builder George Robinson, and date between 1946 - 1974.HistoryMr George Robinson (1894 - 1987), known widely as "Wee Georgie Robinson", was the designer, builder, owner and skipper of the champion skiff BRITANNIA throughout its working life.
Robinson was a foreman shipwright at Cockatoo island, living on the Balmain waterfront for his whole life. He sailed in summer and played football in winter. Like his father, George Robinson became a boatbuilder and 18-Foot skiff skipper, starting as a bailer boy in his father's boat.
In 1913 he built his first boat, a 6-foot skiff named BRITANNIA, and in 1919 he launched his 18-foot skiff of the same name. Over the next 25 years BRITANNIA became a champion, crewed by 11 family and footballers.
Robinson built other craft including other skiffs, his own work launch, a yacht named WAITANGI and a series of Sabot class dinghies.
Upon his death in 1987, his family donated various papers (programs, notebooks race records, magazines and newsletters) relating to BRITANNIA and the Sydney Flying Squadron collected by George Robinson to the Australian National Maritime Museum. The Museum also holds half block models of boats he built.
