Collection of The Open Boat newsletters

Subject or historical figure Wee George Robinson (1894 - 1987)

Date1933 - 1940

Object numberANMS0089

NameArchive series

MediumInk on paper

ClassificationsEphemera

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Faye Magner

Terms

DescriptionThis archive series consists of 154 issues of The Open Boat, a newsletter printed weekly during the yacht racing season, which included notices of races and sailing news. The series, collected by skiff sailor and builder George Robinson, date between 23 September 1933 and 16 March 1940. The Open Boat was apparently succeeded in September 1940 by The Squadron Leader, which later became the Sydney Flying Squadron.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.