Classic yacht Maris setting sail to celebrate 50th

by Peter Campbell on 23 Oct 2008
The classic ocean racing yacht Sanyo Maris is coming out of retirement to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her launching – by competing in two of Australia's toughest races, the Hempel 35th Gosford – Lord Howe Island Yacht Race and the 64th Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

She will be among 14 boats setting sail this coming Saturday, 25 October in the 414 nautical mile race to Lord Howe Island. On Boxing Day, 26 December, the 11.5m yawl will join an expected fleet of about 100 boats in the 628 nautical mile dash south to Hobart.

Skipper Ian Kiernan, a solo round-the-world yachtsman and founder of Clean Up Australia, will be joined by two new part-owners in the race to Lord Howe, Tiare Tomaszewki, whose grandfather, the marine artist Jack Earl was the original owner of Maris, and Lord Howe Island identity John Green. A third new partner, Ben Hawke, also a grandchild of Jack Earl, will race to Hobart. Both Tiare and Ben are children of Earl's daughter Maris, after whom the yacht was named.

Sanyo Maris is a classic yawl-rigged, timber-hulled Tasman Seabird class yacht, designed by the late Alan Payne and launched in 1958 to replace his famous ketch Kathleen, which he skippered in the inaugural Sydney Hobart in 1945 and later cruised around the world.

Earl raced Maris to Hobart in 1960 and 1961 (placing 5th overall) before setting sail on an extended cruise of the Pacific. When he returned to Sydney he put the boat up for sale and, as he recalled this week, Ian Kiernan was 'entranced by Maris sitting in Mosman Bay.'

Over the 38 years that he has owned Maris, Kiernan has encountered some dramatic moments at sea with the boat, but the day he rowed out to meet Earl for the first time on board the boat certainly had its moments.

'A savage southerly buster arrived and an out-of-control Bluebird surfed past, gybed, and the boom swept a fat guy into the bay,' Kiernan recalled. 'He lacked swimming ability and I dived in and got him ashore, reboarded Maris and rowed back with the sale agreed and the finest friend you could image, Jack Earl.'

The sale included an agreement by Earl to 'teach me how to cross oceans in this wonderful vessel. He certainly did that. I became a celestial navigator..Jack taught me to practice with my sextant bringing the sun down reflected in a dish of oil.'

Kiernan went on to compete in the BOC Challenge single-handed race around the world, numerous Admiral's Cups and many other international races.

He returned Maris to ocean racing in the 50th Sydney Hobart Race in 1994 and sailed her in three more Hobarts, winning her division in 1997 andalso placing second on handicap in the 1999 Gosford – Lord Howe Island Race.

'It is good to have the Earl family back involved after 38 years as that deal back in 1970 was the start of a very strong bond between our families,' Kiernan added.

A fleet of 15 yachts, 10 of them nominated for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, will start in Saturday's race to Lord Howe Island, headed by the maxi yacht ASM-Shockwave 5.