Images(4)

Stern view of NON STOP II, showing the development of a rounded foredeck and narrow stern.

Close up view of the builder's name on the stern of NON STOP II.

Non Stop II

Vessel numberHV000047

Builder Norm Casey

Owner Australian National Maritime Museum

Vessel type The Surf Ski

Designer Norm Casey

Date1957

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 5.24 m x 0.6 m (17.2 ft x 2 ft)

Terms

Vessel Highlights

The Surf Ski

DescriptionNON STOP II is 5.2 m (17 ft) long and 600 mm (2 ft) wide. It retains the single chine section shape that had been always been used, but the hull bottom is moderately rounded, the deck where the paddler is seated is slightly convex, and the foredeck has a distinct camber. The profile has a generous amount of rocker forward, and continues with an elegant curved sheer to the stern. The skeg has been placed under the boat well forward of the stern. All these details were aimed at improved performance, and brought this generation of surf ski considerably closer in proportion to the 2006 fibreglass production model. These are relatively high performance vessels, and are very popular throughout the country.

NON STOP II was built by Norm Casey at his Randwick premises, not far from Bondi, Coogee and Maroubra, the popular Sydney eastern suburbs beaches. It is a single ski (for one person only), with two different seating positions to suit different conditions, and was paddled with wooden double-bladed paddles. The craft is made in plywood which has been moulded to the different cambers for the hull and deck. The narrow topsides remained a straight line in section.

Norm Casey was one of several builders of hollow plywood surfboards and surf-skis in Sydney's eastern suburbs, along with Barry Bennett, Gordon Woods and Bill Wallace. While Bennett, Woods and Wallace laterrelocated to north of the harbour, establishing Brookvale as the centre of the foam surfboard manufacture for the next 20 years, Norm Casey relocated to the southern suburbs, first to Rockdale, then to Taren Point in 1964.

In 2006 NON STOP II is now part of the National Maritime Collection at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Additional information supplied from Geoff Cater at 'surfresearch' - http://www.surfresearch.com.au
SignificanceNON STOP II is a wooden surf ski built in 1957 in NSW. It is an example of a stage in the evolution of the surf ski, a type of craft developed in Australia. NON STOP II is a late 1950s example with a cambered bottom panel and foredeck, and narrower hull sections, an important change from the wider, flat bottomed boards that were the origins of the type.