Images(3)

MIL racing at the Hobart Tall Ships event

Mil

Vessel numberHV000690

Official Number355072

Builder Charles Larson

Designer Charles Larson

Date1950

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 8.74 m × 8 m × 2.8 m × 1.8 m (28.68 ft × 26.25 ft × 9.19 ft × 5.91 ft)

DescriptionThe design collaboration between the original owner John Thomas and boat builder Charles Larson for MIL produced a seaworthy ocean cruiser with a deep keel and canoe stern. Larson was known to like the Colin Archer style of vessel, which has a deep keel, short overhang rounded bow and a double ended hull shape. The canoe stern is a longer overhanging stern version of this style and suggests a compromise between the two co-designers as they agreed on the details of the design. The carvel planked hull is built around a structure of small section, closely spaced frames supported by a number of stringers, a configuration seen on other Larson built yachts. It is a contrast to many cruising yacht structures where they use heavier frames and two to three stringers.

MIL was built as a fractional rigged sloop and launched in 1950. After sea trials a bowsprit was added and the mast shortened so that it became a mast head rig. This change was reversed by a later owner and the original fractional rig spars and arrangement was put back onto the yacht again.

MIL had several owners between 1950 and 1968 and remained in Sydney where it was rarely sailed. The current owners purchased MIL in 1968 when it was moored in Port Hacking just south of Sydney and the owners was a member of the fledgling Port Hacking Yacht Club. It was sailed from there until 1972 when it underwent an extensive refit to become a live a board cruising yacht. The owners were keen skin divers and spent the next 13 years exploring Queensland and the Barrier Reef. Cairns then became its home port for 14 years and while there had a further major refit. They then relocated to Tin Can Bay, Central Qld for about seven years. Having experienced enough tropical weather they moved south to Tasmania where it is currently located in Kettering.

The current owners have now owned MIL for 47 years. The yacht remans in very good condition with only a few repairs to the original structure. It sails regularly in Tasmania and attends the Australian Wooden Boat Festival every two years in Hobart.

SignificanceMIL is a wooden cruising yacht launched in 1950 in Sydney NSW. It was designed and built as a collaboration between its owner and the well-known builder Charles Larson. It is one of a few Larson built yachts still extant and strongly represents his preferred configuration and proportions for the construction of cruising yachts. Larson is best known for building KATHLEEN GILLETT (HV000042) and a comparison of the way both craft are built shows a number of shared characteristics and details, and helps confirm that what is the typical basic design of the structure used by Larson.