Images(3)

Sailing memorabilia

Date1890-1925

Object numberANMS0204

NameArchive series

MediumPaper

ClassificationsEphemera

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Mary Shaw

Terms

DescriptionThis archive series numbered [001] - [009] consists of material collected by businessman, entrepreneur and keen sailor Mark Foy. Included is a 1890 booklet of rules and regulation of the Port Jackson Amateur Sailing Club; a 1925 calendar with images of FLYING FISH; a 1910 dinner card and menu for Mark Foy's farewell; two greeting cards with a sketch of KANANOOK and FLYING FISH; and postcard of the Mark Foy Interstate Challenge; and a 1912 Sydney Flying Squadron dinner program. The material was donated by Foy's granddaughter Mary Shaw.History"Who cares who wins when no-one knows? And the kernel of this sport is always wasted, not only to the spectators but to the competitor... who cares what the boats are doing when they sail out of sight?" In 1895, entrepreneur and founding Commodore of the Sydney Flying Squadron Mark Foy (1865-1950) wrote this about the manoeuvres of the big yachts in regattas. He preferred the potential of Sydney's smaller open boats. Open boats, or skiffs, were beamy boats with huge sails - and large crews of waterfront workers for ballast. Based on workboats from six to 24 feet (1.8 - 7.3m) long they were a spectacle on Sydney Harbour. Skiff racing was a tough working-man's sport. Foy introduced rules to make the sport more lively - coloured emblems for the sails, a short triangular course with handicapped stat, large prize money and spectator ferries with punters following the races. By the 1920s the open boats were standardised as 18-footers and were racing in Western Australia and Queensland. In 1898 he challenged the Medway Yacht Club in England to a match race series entitled the Anglo Australian shield. Unsuccessful, he challenged again in 1898.