Tamima
Vessel numberHV000845
Sail NumberC 12
Designer
W D Bailey
Builder
Dave O'May
Date1930
DescriptionTamima was designed as a 30ft cruiser by W D Bailey in the Southern Sydney suburb of Como in 1929. It was then built in Bellerive Tasmania by Dave O’May and launched in late 1930. It is a canoe sterned yacht slightly larger than Bailey’s 27ft transom sterned Albatross he designed in 1927. ‘Tamima’ translates to Albatross in the language of the Bruny Island community. Following its design, the lines of Tamima were published in Australian Motor Boat and Yachting in 1929.
Dave O’May (1908-1976) was trained as carpenter, a skill required within the family ferry business, and built Tamima while still very young. He built the much larger replacement Moorina in the late 1950s. He also built two Tamar dinghies in 1951, #8 TARINNA, and #25 SWIFT). From late 1930s to his retirement he was manager of the Derwent ferry fleet for Hobart Bridge Company and later the Tasmanian Transport commission, and no doubt did not have much time for boatbuilding.
Whilst designed as a cruiser, Tamima did participate in some club racing. In the 1930s there were only three racing classes recognised by the Greater Hobart clubs. These were categorised as the A, B and D classes. Everything else – like Tamima – went into a catch-all C-Class for cruisers, Tamima displaying number C12. From 1950 Tamima raced regularly and was moved up to the new Division III as H12, from 1962 down to Division IV as X12, and by the 1970s was 112 in a new numbering system that, whether intended or not, let boats swap around the racing and cruiser classes without renumbering. Opening of Season Programs in the 1970s sometimes show Tamima racing in Division III but more often as a cruiser, and it kept that number into the 1990s.
Jonathan Davis owned Tamima from 1988 to c1992. Wooden Boat Guild of Tasmania member Allister Martin owned Tamima during the late 1990s, and as of 2023 the current owner has the vessel at the Dunnally slip undergoing restoration. Tamima’s carvel hull is predominantly constructed of Huon pine, with copper and bronze fastenings, and its spars of Oregon wood. The focus of current restoration works are on re-caulking and minor plank repairs.
Compiled with the assistance of ARHV Steering Committee and Council Member Peter Higgs
SignificanceTamima is a 30ft canoe sterned cruising and racing yacht built in Bellerive Tasmania in 1930 by Dave O’May. Its design was completed a year earlier in Sydney by W D Bailey, the lines of the vessel published in Australian Motor Boat and Yachting. O’May and his family were part of a prominent Tasmanian ferry business. From the late 1930s to his retirement O’May was the manager for the Derwent ferry fleet for Hobart Bridge Company and later the Tasmanian Transport Commission. Tamima was very active in competing in local Hobart club racing, with a longstanding engagement in differing divisions for over sixty years from the 1930s to the 1990s.
1928
1935
1918
