CORIANNE on Sydney Harbour in the 1950s with the Thorneycroft family

Images(5)

CORIANNE at Batemans Bay in the 1950s with the Thorneycroft family

CORIANNE in 2007 with a bowsprit, larger rig and ballast to keep it upright

Corianne

Vessel numberHV000123

Date1957

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 5.18 m x 4.88 m x 1.83 m x 0.76 m (17 ft x 16 ft x 6 ft x 2.5 ft)

DescriptionOwner/builder David Thorneywork constructed CORIANNE at his Baulkham Hills, Sydney home and launched it into the Parramatta River in 1957. Many people around Australia considered that designing and building a simple small craft was within their means and abilities, and CORIANNE is a good example of a very successful amateur boatbuilding project. According to his son Ian, who at age 6 helped build the boat as dolly holder for the rivets, Thorneywork managed to secure the timber 'off the back of a truck' when he worked for NSW Forestry. Ian also painted the inside using tar as instructed by his father. It probably helped the craft survive. He understands that the design was inspired by the Jubillee class yacht and a Gippsland launch his grandfather had operated on the lakes.

The plywood clinker 5.5m (17 ft) long hull was used for snapper fishing off Sydney for many years. Thorneywork also took his family out on the harbour, and once followed the Sydney to Hobart fleet from Sydney down the coast, ending up in Bateman's Bay for the New Year, presumably with a favourable north easter to help him sail south in comfortable conditions. It had outboard power too, firstly a 1940s Johnson, but that fell off the transom and is on the harbour bottom near the Harbour Bridge. It was replaced with a venerable Seagull.

Thorneywork eventually sold the boat, and one of its subsequent owners in the 1976 was young schoolboy David Harpur. With a borrowed outboard motor, David cruised his home waters just north of Sydney, exploring all around Broken Bay, Pittwater, the Hawkesbury River and Brisbane Water. In 1978 he entered the Old Gaffers Day race on Sydney Harbour, but fresh southerlies prevented him making the passage from Broken Bay. In 1978, in has last year of high school David sold it to Joan Dunne at Scotland Island on Pittwater. Joan later moved to Tasmania, and CORIANNE went with her.

CORIANNE has been restored recently and is about to be relaunched in 2011. The hull remains in largely original condition, but the craft is now sloop rigged with a gunter main and carries a bowsprit . The increased sail area is balanced with the addition of lead ingots as internal ballast.
SignificanceCORIANNE is a wooden yacht built in in Sydney in 1957. It was built in the north west of suburban Sydney . It is an example of an amateur designed and built snapper boat for fishing off Sydney, NSW, with a long history of use around the harbour and nearby waterways.