FROM THE ARCHIVES - #58. UTR Mar, 2025.

I recently came across an article I wrote about the Herons in Australia for UTR back in October, 1987 and which was subsequently also published in the Heron Association Newsletter magazine in December, 1994. For some reason I overlooked this in my archive articles but after reading this again I felt that it may interest our current Heron sailors who may not know the history of their Class as well as for interest to other Club members. Please note details of construction mentioned in it and other matters are those as applied back at that time. Some things may have changed. So the article follows with the initial original sentence explaining what prompted me to write about our Herons.

“THE HISTORY OF HERONS IN AUSTRALIA.

This article has been prompted by a comment made in jest at a recent Management Meeting by our intrepid Commodore (at that time Ian McMaster). After a week or two, the idea kept nagging at me  until I thought it would be a good thing to write this article on our wonderful little sailing boat –“THE HERON.”  Maybe it will convert a few skippers from other classes to the best Class.

As all history should start at the beginning, we have to go back to the U.K. in the early 1950’s when the magazine “Yachting World” held a competition for an easily built, general purpose dinghy capable of being transported on the top of a car. The winning entry was designed by a well-known dinghy architect, Jack Holt, and was published in that magazine in April, 1951, under the name of “Y.W. CARTOP”.  By 1953, a number of these boats had been built and were sailing with a few clubs. Enthusiasts formed a class association for the U.K. on 17^th February, 1954 and adopted the name “Y. W. HERON (Cartop)”. At this time, 95 Herons were being sailed in eight Clubs, with the first U.K. National Championship being held in 1955 with 89 entries.

First, a few technical details. The Heron is a one-design boat, 3.4 metres in length with a beam of 1.4 metres and carries 6.5 metres of sail in a mainsail and a jib. The minimum hull weight is 66 kilograms and, these days, in the main, has built in buoyancy tanks, although blow up bags are still used. It has a sliding gaff rig which gives a sail height of 6.5 metres above the deck. Also, it flaunts a pivoting centre board and rudder which gives the Heron a distinct advantage over other mono hulls being sailed at C.R.S.C..

Now for the Australian scene -  the first Heron built in Australia was No. 678 “DEE KAY” and was constructed in Tasmania. This boat is still registered with the Association and is still sailing down south (in 1987). The Tasmanian Heron Yacht Racing Association was the first governing body for Herons in Australia. However, the main promotion of the class started in Sydney in 1958 when Stephen Dearnley built the first mainland Heron. He eventually became the first secretary of the Y.W. Heron Sailing Association and did not consider the Heron as a purely racing dinghy. He promoted the dinghy as a family yacht capable of being skippered and crewed by any family combination, i.e. husband and wife, father and child etc.

On this family concept the Heron could be, and was designed as, a general all purpose boat, capable of being used as a rowing boat for fishing and other recreational use. Also, if one wishes it to be sacrilegious, an outboard motor can be fitted. So, as can be seen, we have a very versatile vessel. From these humble beginnings and  with the enthusiasm of the founding members, the Heron started to prolificate right around Australia.

The Association structure in Australia is, firstly, on a  national basis and under the control of “The National Heron Association of Australia”, and then goes down through various State Associations right down to club level. The State Associations are responsible for coordinating the interclub events. The National Body encourages Heron owners to join a club as well as to continue registration with the National Body. It is also recommended that Heron owners join  clubs where the Heron is sailed as a class rather than in an open division. The reason for this is fairly obvious in that the Heron is not a high performance boat, but enjoys very competitive racing amongst its own class due to the one design principle.

This one design concept has led to many arguments within the class associations about changes requested to the original Holt design. The one design concept is to have all boats in the fleet as similar as possible in hull shape, sail plan and rig, so that the potential performance of the entire fleet is equal and the success of the boat is in proportion to the skill of the skipper and crew. However, as in many cases, the Heron is constructed by amateurs, some tolerances in measurements are permitted, but these are rigidly set down in plans and measurement forms. The one design concept is held in the hands of the association measurers and for an “A” Class certificate, a boat must measure within all tolerances specified. The rigid adherence to the class concept has enabled older Herons to still sail competitively against the latest ones  constructed. Also, it has helped well-kept Herons to retain their re-sale value.

The original designer did not include a spinnaker in his design and the National Body on a number of occasions, has been requested to alter the rules. On all occasions, this has been rejected by the membership, although it is interesting to note that Tasmanian Herons right from the start have rigged with spinnakers, but only use them for Regatta and Handicap events. They are never used in championship events which require an “A” Classification for the boat.

Over the years, the Herons have bred rather well – the master register, which is under the control of the Y.W. Heron Class Association of Great Britain, has almost 10,000 numbers issued. About 65% of thee were registered in Australia with the remainder spread over the U.K. and other countries.

It is interesting to follow the development of the class in Australia over the years. The first AGM of the National Association, then called the Y.W. Heron Sailing Association of Australia, was held in August, 1959, after 12 months of operation. At this stage, there were 25 members and 15 boats. This first championship was sailed at Clontarf in 1960 and was won by Heron No. 1583 “SARANGA”. The second series in 1961 was again sailed at Clontarf with 24 starters vying for the new perpetual trophy, the “Silver Heron”, which had been donated by the parent organisation in the UK. In October 1961 the Class Burgee was adopted – a White Heron on a dark blue background – you will still see the same flag being raised on our starting boat each race day.

The next championship attracted 48 entries, with the following series having 50 boats and the 5^th series having 77 entries with interstate boats for the first time. The Herons went truly national in the 6^th series in 1965 which was held outside of NSW for the first time. More than 50 boats representing NSW, Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and Papua New Guinea gathered at Hobson’s Bay, Port Phillip, Victoria. Since then, the Silver Heron has been contested in all states, with the 29^th Nationals being held at Ceduna, SA, in December,1987. Peter Carrick, from our fleet will be competing.

Over the years, the membership of the National Association has fluctuated considerably with the highest numbers being in 1972 with 1,922 members owning in excess of 2,000 boats.  Currently, the membership at the end of last season (referring to 1986) was 677 members having some 800 Herons.

The Heron has been allowed a few changes with the approval of the membership. Windows in sails were allowed at the 14^th AGM after being rejected at the 7^th AGM. The mid-1970’s saw probably the most radical change in construction of the Herons by approval being given for the construction of G.R.P. hulls by licensed builders.

In 1975 “Yachting World” magazine returned to Jack Holt all rights for his Heron design. This prompted the Australian membership to drop the reference to Y.W. Heron in its association name and rename it “The National Heron Association of Australia”.

The Heron Class has produced some very good sailors who have graduated to other classes and two have become well known to the Australian public, mainly through the America’s Cup. These are AY.F. Coach, Mike Fletcher and Colin Beashel, who combined some years ago to win the National Heron title.

CRSC has had Herons racing since the 1964/5 season when they were included in “A” Class, The Heron fleet moved to its own class in 1965/66 season when 10 boats were sailed regularly

For many years, the Heron fleet had up around 25 registered members. This number fell but, over the past few seasons, it has seemed to have stabilised around 14-15. Concord Ryde Herons have participated in many State and National Championships and the club has hosted a number of  association T/T events and JAX Teams Race days. Our Heron sailors did quite well in the JAX event on a number of occasions.

After learning to become good sailors in the CRSC Heron fleet, many skippers and crews have moved to other classes still within the club. Some of these who come to mind are Ted Kendrick (NS14), Nick Brown (Tasar), Margaret Brown (Spiral), Kerryn Deakin (Spiral), Craig Burwood (Spiral), Len Hedges (Spiral), Alex Whittle (NS14), the Swindells family (all into Spirals), Chris and Malcolm Lloyd-Owen (Spirals), Paul Gurr (NS14) and many more. Maybe this article will revive memories and some may return to the fold.

Of those still sailing in our Heron fleet, some have been around for a number of years. The Deakins joined during the 1971/72 season, the Carricks in the 1974/75 season, the Robbs in the 1978/79 as did the Burwoods. These skippers look as though they will be around for a few more years. Of the club boats, we have some old, some new, some timber, some GRP. The oldest is still one of the fastest which confirms the one-design concept of equality with the difference coming from the ability of the skipper.

A couple of seasons ago, Rob Scott was still sailing with us in a black boat with orange sails which some of you may remember seeing. This was #1583 “SARANGA” which was mentioned earlier in this article as having won the first National Title in 1960. It had been built in 1958. Rob still has the boat but is not sailing it at the moment, however, this demonstrates the point that the Heron just goes on and on. Also, currently, Greg Deakin is sailing a relatively newcomer, #5136. This Heron commenced life in 1965 under the name of
“MY WORD” and when Greg purchased it in 1971, he became the 4^th owner and changed the name to a friendly “HI-YAH”. In the UK Heron No. 7, built in 1951, is  still registered and sailed. So if you want some friendly, competitive sailing, the idea is to buy a long lasting, fairly inexpensive Heron, and not a boat in one of the new fangled classes which you have to change every other year to keep with the latest fashions and trends.

LONG LIVE THE HERON”

Just remember that the above article was written in 1987 and so relates to things and skippers  back 38 years ago. A final comment from this current time is that some changes have been allowed by the Association in recent years such as the one-piece mast.  A larger headsail (genoa) has also been introduced for use by crews with a combined weight of 135 kgs or more. These changes have a similar performance to the original design and the older boats still remain competitive. Also there are still many in the Club who will remember the earlier CRSC Heron skippers whom I named in the article.

The Heron Class at CRSC is one of the longest established classes having now been sailing with CRSC for 61 years, as have the NS14 Class, when they both started off in the 1964/65 season in the “A” Class. So it is very appropriate that the above article on the Herons is printed again in UTR. The Class is now the second largest in our Club, behind the Spirals,  and has 16 Herons registered to members although not all sail in the races and there are also 3 Club Herons which are sailed in the fleet from time to time as well.

The three Herons which I owned and sailed at CRSC were all named “SEAHORSE” are pictured below. Originally when I purchased #5136 in 1970 it was called “FORELLE” which is the German Brown Trout and I did not like the name so I applied to change it to “SEAHORSE” and then transferred it to my subsequent boats. This was a wooden fully varnished Heron and I raced it at CRSC from 1979 to 1980. I then  had a new Heron #9678 built with the new fibre glass hull with timber deck selling it to Greg Deakin in 1990 who changed the name to his cheerful “HI-YAH”. In 1990 I had a full fibreglass Heron built, #10100 and sailed it at CRSC until 2009. The latter joined Allan Takacs’s fleet of Herons in 2017 with the name “CHOPPSY’S SEAHORSE”.

As can be seen the 3 types on construction look very similar.

Good Sailing!!!!

Ron Burwood           

Archivist.