CAPRICE sailing with its new rig in 2016 on Sydney Harbour, photo courtesy Beth Morley @ Sport …

Images(13)

CAPRICE leading RIPPLE on Sydney Harbour

CAPRICE on Sydney Harbour out for a day sail

CAPRICE daysailing with its Bermudan rig sail plan

CAPRICE restored to its gaff rig in 2016

CAPRICE to windward under its new sail plan in 2016, photo courtesy Beth Morley @ Sport Sailing…

CAPRICE on Sydney Harbour in January 2017

CAPRICE on Sydney Harbour in January 2017 coming toward the finish of its SASC race.

Caprice

Vessel numberHV000636

Previous NumberHV000635

Sail NumberA43

Designer William Fife III

Designer Alfred Blore

Date1900

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 9.75 m x 6.55 m x 2.59 m x 1.83 m, 8.13 tonnes (32 ft x 21.5 ft x 8.5 ft x 6 ft, 8 tons)

DescriptionCAPRICE was built by well-known shipwright Charles Lucas at his Battery Point yard in 1900. The design by William Fife was modified by well-known Hobart designer Alf Blore. It is planked in Huon pine, with a grooved seam to hide the caulking, It is 32 feet overall, 21 ft 6 in on the waterline, 8ft 5in beam and 6 feet draft.

Webster raced CAPRICE for a year and then sold it to an unknown buyer; the advertisement noted it was a “Fast and Comfortable Cruiser”. It appears to have been shipped to Sydney on the SS OONAH, and was registered to Alfred Starkey who raced it on Sydney Harbour. In the early 1920s it was known to be moored at Pittwater north of Sydney, where AJ and HJ Stone bought CAPRICE from Messrs’ Hosking and Thorpe. It then raced with Sydney Amateur Sailing Club and in 1926/27 won the SASC Gold Medal in A Class. In 1928 Arthur Stone, now the sole owner, put a Marconi rig into CAPRICE, one of the first of these rigs seen on Sydney Harbour.

In 1929 the yacht was sold to John Cooke but Stone kept the new Marconi rig for another yacht, and Cook had to put up with the original and worn out gaff sails and spars. Cooke had bought the yacht for his grandsons Harry and Jack Pfeiffer who raced it with SASC. In their second season they converted it once again to a Marconi rig, built by George Griffin with sails made by Harry West. As Arthur Stone had found, CAPRICE sailed very well under a Marconi rig, and other yachts soon converted their gaff rigs to Marconi as well.

Over the next seven decades CAPRICE sailed with three generations of Pfeiffer’s, and was very successful for all of them. Harry’s sons Michael and Tony were the second generation to become the skippers, and now Tony’s family are also taking their turn with CAPRICE. Over this period it won four Gold medals with SASC, and many other trophies. In 1967 the rig was further revised with minor alterations, and CAPRICE continued to win races and was always known as one of the fastest yachts of its size in light weather. Being able to set a jib topsail was one of its strengths in these conditions.

In 2014 CAPRICE still sails with Griffin’s 48 foot long solid Oregon spar and Marconi rig, but consideration is being given to returning the yacht to a sail plan very similar to its first gaff rig designed by Alf Blore.

SignificanceCAPRICE is a racing yacht built in Tasmania in 1900. It was one of the first attempts by its owner EH Webster to begin a one-design class for racing on the Derwent River, however this design did not become a class. After a short period of racing in Hobart it was shipped to Sydney, and has been a well-known racing yacht on Pittwater and then Sydney Harbour since at least 1908. It has been with one family since 1926.