Names

Model Skiffs

IDs

VC000016

http://emuseum.anmm.gov.au/code/emuseum.asp

Descriptions

A collection of approximately six wooden model skiff hulls and their associated items including keels, rudders and sailing rigs, as well as images, trophies, pennants and programs. The popular classes were 12 inches (300mm) and 2 feet (600mm) long. Principal craft include THELMA, VE and ROSE. The models from the 1920s to 1940s are carved from wooden blocks or planked around moulds, with brass fittings, lead ballast on a metal fin keel, wooden spars and cotton sails.

The ANMM collection of model skiffs and associated material is representative of the racing models unique to Sydney Harbour NSW from the 1920s until the 1950s. These models resembled the large 18-foot skiffs, and many of the people who raced them were skiff sailors and builders. They followed after their models rowing in clinker dinghies. It was a major recreational and social event. Large crowds including passengers on chartered ferries watched the races held in bays along the Balmain shoreline or elsewhere on Sydney Harbour and Georges River. Illegal betting on the outcome was common.

Some material included in this collection may be subject to copyright

By appointment only, please contact ANMM

Parts of this collection are digitised and available on the ANMM web site www.anmm.gov.au

Subjects

1919-1942; Model-making; Models (representations)

Models

Sailing

Coverage Spatial

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Coverage Temporal

1919

1942

Related Collections

Dates

2012-05-30 23:40