Veola 88th Bruny Island Yacht Race – Muir family’s Trevassa entered

by Peter Campbell on 6 Feb 2014 Veola 88th Bruny Island Yacht Race – One of the finest examples of Tasmanian yacht design and boat-building of more than four decades ago, Trevassa, a creation of the famous yacht designer and builder and intrepid yachtsman, the late Jock Muir, will return to offshore racing this weekend in the Veolia 88th Bruny Island Race.

Skippering the timber 48-footer will be Jock’s son John who, with his brothers Ross and Greg and sister Lynn, bought back the now 43-year-old Trevassa from her long-time Sydney owner Russell Duffield and returned her to Hobart two years ago.

After a major refurbishment, the Muir family had the yacht shipshape for the 2013 Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart and have since used her for cruising and the occasional twilight race.

This will be the first offshore race for the stoutly built Trevassa in more than two decades….'We are hoping for a bit of weather,' skipper John Muir said this week.

Joining John in the 10-man crew will be his Brisbane-based brother Ross and John’s son-in-law Matthew Johnston, the vice commodore of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, which has been conducting the Bruny Island Race since 1898.

The Bruny Island Race will start on Hobart’s Derwent River on Saturday, 8 February at 9.30a.m. from a line off the Domain Regatta Grounds, just south of the Tasman Bridge, with a fleet of 17 yachts, ranging in length from 8m to 24m.

Trevassa will be the oldest yacht in the fleet, having been designed and built by Jock Muir ‘on spec’ in 1971. When Sydney yachtsman Russell Duffield heard about the yacht he traded in his Laurent Giles-designed, Muir-built Patsy of Island Bay, on the new boat.

'During the delivery voyage in 1971, Russell told Jock that when he no longer needed Trevassa he would like her to go back the Muirs in Tasmania,' John Muir said. 'Russell, who is now 90, owned her for 41 years and his hope has come true.'

Built of Huon pine planking over hardwood ribs, Trevassa is 48 feet (14.3m) LOA and, according to Jock Muir’s autobiography, ‘Maritime Reflections’ was very like the 1947 Sydney Hobart line honours winner Waltzing Matilda 'only a bit drawn out'. The original deck was dynel-covered, marine ply-on-hardwood but was subsequently replaced with a teak deck on top of the marine ply.

John Muir estimates that Trevassa has not raced offshore for more than 20 years….'she will be as good as new when she starts in the Bruny Island Race, a tribute to the design and building skills of our father,' he added.

Yachts in the 88th Bruny Island Race include: Audère (Michael Pritchard, RYCT), Footloose (Stewart Geeves, RYCT-GBBC), Helsal 3 (Rob Fisher, RYCT-RORC), Intrigue (Don Calvert, RYCT), Madness (Gavin Adamson, RYCT), Maxi Ragamuffin (Mark Moore), Off-Piste (Paul Einoder, RYCT), Pisces (David Taylor (RYCT), Planet X (Donovan Oak, DSS), Ramrod (Scott Sharp, Huon YC), Rumbeat (Justin Barr, RYCT), The Fork in the Road (Gary Smith, RYCT), Trevassa (John Muir, RYCT), Trick Cyclist (Jory Linscott, DSS), Whistler (David Rees, RYCT), Wildfire (Malcolm Robinson, BYC), Winstead Wines (Neil Snare, DSS).