Miss Sandgate
Vessel numberHV000207
Sail NumberRed Diving Girl
Designer
Linton Hope
Date1929
DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 6.71 m x 6.1 m x 1.83 m (22 ft x 20 ft x 6 ft)
DescriptionMISS SANDGATE was built in 1929 by its owner Ted Rice of Sandgate in Brisbane, Queensland. The hull is seam-batten carvel construction, a typical Australian building method for the local 18 and 16-foot skiff classes. It is planked in New Zealand kauri on silver ash frames. The centreboard is a piece of 12 mm (1/2 in) steel plate pivoted on the front corner. The rudder is also steel plate.
MISS SANDGATE has a retractable rudder which fits into a slot through the deck and hull, an innovative feature which was typical of Hope's designs. His intriguing design details such as this were copied by Australian designers, or inspired them toward their own innovations. The first yachts in the class were originally rigged as gaff cutters with a bowsprit. Later boats, including MISS SANDGATE, had higher peaked gunter rigged mainsails and no bowsprit.
Ted Rice sailed MISS SANDGATE in class and mixed fleet racing until the day he died at the tiller, aged 71. Club members and friends continued to sail MISS SANDGATE in Vintage Yacht Regattas at Sandgate until it was donated to the Queensland Maritime Museum by Ted's wife Margaret, in May 1992. MISS SANDGATE was on display at the museum in 2008, complete, left exactly as it was when it sailed its last race in May 1991.
The Queensland based 22 ft One-Design class was derived from a 1-Rater that was designed by the innovative Linton Hope. Hope had many of his designs published in magazines and books and was very well known internationally in the late 1880s and early 1900s. His designs were built in many countries. 1-Raters were very popular in England and also in Sydney. They were suited to enclosed waters and carried a mixture of yacht and dinghy features. The term rater comes from the late 1880s English YRA Waterline and Sail Area rule used to calculate a yachts rating for racing purposes. The measurement was expressed in tons, and in this case a 1 rater was measured as 1 ton.
The rule was used extensively in Australia in the 1890s, before it was replaced by the Linear Rating rule around 1900, so it is perhaps surprising to see that the Raters were first adopted by the Royal Queensland Yacht Club in 1910, followed by the Sandgate Yacht Club from 1914 up until 1957. They were also sailed in Bowen in the late 1940s. This perhaps indicates that the rule had produced a well balanced and evenly proportioned boat which remained desirable despite the rule's demise. The first vessels were built by A.J. Whearet & Sons and Norman Wright Snr's boatyard, both on the Brisbane River, Queensland.
Prepared from research material supplied by Queensland Maritime Museum
SignificanceMISS SANDGATE is a timber yacht built in Queensland in 1929. It is an example of a Queensland based 6.71 m (22 ft) long, one-design class established in 1910. The class adopted the design for a 1 rater from the influential English naval architect Linton Hope. MISS SANDGATE is an example of an English designed yacht built using typical Australian skiff construction techniques, and it represents Australian adaptation in yacht design.
1935
