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Envelope with weather map sketch showing winds around a high pressure system in the Tasman Sea
Envelope with weather map sketch showing winds around a high pressure system in the Tasman Sea

Envelope with weather map sketch showing winds around a high pressure system in the Tasman Sea

Date6 May 1952
Object numberANMS1105[015]
NameEnvelope
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 146 x 89 mm
Copyright© Lindy Boyd
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Lindy Boyd
DescriptionA Hearld weather map clipping ANMS1105[016] was found inside this envelope. The envelope was associated with WAYFARER Logbook 7 - ANMS1105[007]. HistoryPeter Luke launched WAYFARER early in World War II. It was built by Charles Larson in the early 1940s at his yard in Gladesville, Sydney. Larson had experience building a yacht from the same designer, John Alden from the USA. Once the yacht was rigged WAYFARER served with the Volunteer Coastal Patrol on Sydney Harbour and along the NSW coast until the war ended in 1945. In 1944 Peter Luke was one of the co-founders of the Cruising Yacht Club and the Sydney to Hobart race. He sailed WAYFARER in the first Sydney to Hobart yacht race in 1945, finishing last, with a time of of nearly 10 days . They went ashore twice, taking a casual attitude to the event. The logbooks are hand written by Luke and his crew and some include a number of small black and white images taken by Luke. They cover the period of the war when Luke was part of the coastal patrol, the first Hobart race and the 1948 Trans-Tasman race in great detail. Later entries often provide daily information but as Luke gets older the entries become irregular. He and his family lived aboard WAYFARER for many years. Luke was a well known in Australian yachting, living a vagabond lifestyle, and was a close colleague of Jack Earl and his family. WAYFARER is listed on the Australian Register of Historic Vessels, HV000152. The yacht remained in Luke's possession throughout his life, and was sold by the estate in 2008, a year after his death. SignificanceThis envelope with weather map sketch and associated newspaper cutting is part of an archive associated with WAYFARER (HV000152) and its owner Peter Luke, who co-founded the Sydney to Hobart yacht race and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.