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Royal

Vessel numberHV000569

Sail NumberC24

Vessel type The Couta Boat

Date1924

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 7.92 m x 1.07 m (26 ft x 3.5 ft)

DescriptionROYAL was built by Mitch Lacco as a typical carvel planked couta boat hull, half-decked with an oval cockpit and a gaff sloop rig. It is 7.62 m long ( 26 feet) the common length for these craft. It was built as a 21st birthday gift to Mr Val Ferrier from his father.

Val and his brother Bill used ROYAL for fishing out of Queenscliff. Their typical pattern was to sail across to Rosebud inside Port Phillip in the late afternoon, fish for snapper then return to Queenscliff before leaving again early in the morning to then fish outside the heads for couta.

They were paid between two and three shillings per each 100 pound net of fish, a good price for the day. One night they took 25 boxes of snapper near the South Channel Pile light off Rosebud.The brothers fished in ROYAL for over 40 years before selling it in the 1960s. It was later converted into a houseboat.

In the 1980s ROYAL was one of the initial couta boats restored to their original working arrangement by Tim Phillips, now recognised as an authority on these craft and respected for having brought about a revival in their preservation, continued use and the introduction of newly built craft in the style of the original boats.

SignificanceROYAL is a Victorian couta boat built in 1924 by well-known couta boat builder Mitch Lacco at Queenscliff. It represnts the transitional period of development for these working craft in the 1920s when engines were installed but the sailing rig was still the primary means of power. It worked for four decades as a fishing boat.

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