Images(4)

AEOLUS in 2006, on the slips for maintenance and showing its long keel and canoe stern hull sha…

Aeolus

Vessel numberHV000063

Vessel Registration NumberFZ435N

Sail NumberA11

Date1930s

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 9.75 m x 3.04 m x 1.52 m (32 ft x 10 ft x 5 ft)

DescriptionAEOLUS is a carvel planked yacht, 9.75 m long, rigged as a Bermudan yawl. The builder is unknown, but the canoe-sterned hull shape and long keel are a trademark of AC Barber work in the 1930s. However the hull exhibits features which are not typical of the designer's work. These appear to be adaptations by the unknown builder. One example is the gently rounded topsides which are in contrast to the usual slab-sided shape preferred by Barber.

References in the Australian Motor Boat and Yachting Monthly magazine, and racing programs from the 1930s, confirm that it had the sail number A98, and was registered with the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club. Members recall that the name was changed to PATTY B, (or PATTI B) but the date is not known.

SASC commodore Peter Garrow owned it in 1986 through to at least 1997 and It was renamed SUNCHASER at this time. The current owner was once hailed from a passing vessel by a previous owner's daughter who remembered the yacht from her childhood.

In 2006 it was rechristened with its original name AEOLUS, and in 2008 it was used as a cruising yacht around Sydney Harbour.
SignificanceAEOLUS is a timber yacht built in the 1930s. It was designed by prominent naval architect AC Barber in the 1930s and features his trademark canoe-stern design. It is one of a handful of his designs surviving on Sydney Harbour where it has raced for more than seventy years. AEOLUS is a good example of a typical small cruising and racing yacht of the 1930s and retains a large amount of original structure.