Ann Gash Folkboat info

I scanned this article and picture of Ann Gash the famous lady Folkboat sailor

These are the links for the files if anyone needs them. I will remove the files in 1 week.

I found the article in my copy of her book after cleaning up.

drive.proton.me/urls/80MDHYDRZW#qdeKSSqBGHlQ

drive.proton.me/urls/QGAG8H03BG#FsoiHwuhaHZY

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garymalmgren said..
Thank you very much for that.
Makes things real doesn't it.

gary

Thanks Gary.

Theres also a interesting interview with her on ABC Offtrack.

www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/offtrack/ann-gash-sails-the-world/7628482

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EastCoastSail said..
Makes me want to buy a Folkboat

Very wet and cramped boat but oh so well balanced and not as slow as you would think for a full keel. For example faster than a Tophat but more room in a Tophat and would have to be drier on a Tophat. Both full keel. Certainly nowhere near standing Headroom in the Folkboat although the Mariholme 26 modification had a bit more.

She didn't really circumnavigate as is often publicised because the boat was put on a freighter for a month from Africa to England but I guess she came close if you don't take a technical view. Ironically after all that celestial navigation she ran aground and the yacht was wrecked on a rock just off BarrenJoey being the entrance to her native Pittwater. Same rock that punched the keel up through the bottom of a mates 1104 whilst racing and cutting it a bit fine in a big swell at high tide. Apparently she bought a second timber Folkboat which she still owned moored on Pittwater when she died about 30 years later.

Not very impressed with her expressed motivation for going. Definitely sounds like a veiled suicide attempt/political statement. Impressed however that she built the boat although again it would be interesting to know exactly how much of it she built.

Think it would have been a lot more comfy in Bill Hatfield's Triton 24 which he used in 1972 with his girlfriend and newborn for half the trip. Mind you he lost his rudder near the Falklands so maybe a full keel boat was a better idea in those days.

My experience was with my father's fiberglass folk boat in the late 70s but I gather they are quite similar. Always thought the timber clinker design meant they were constructed from solid planks but apparently it was ply which doesn't make a lot of sense to me due to exposed ends. Perhaps only the deck was ply or perhaps I am missing something.

There is a bloke on the Broardwater who goes out with his wife and two boys all the time on a fibreglass folkboat.
I mean really sails it. One of the nicest things on the water there.
I would love to sail one once in my life.

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julesmoto said..


My experience was with my father's fiberglass folk boat in the late 70s but I gather they are quite similar. Always thought the timber clinker design meant they were constructed from solid planks but apparently it was ply which doesn't make a lot of sense to me due to exposed ends. Perhaps only the deck was ply or perhaps I am missing something.

I always thought they were mahogany but it seems a fair few were ply clinker. The Stellars are often confused with the folkboat but they were longer and had an extra plank in the topsides. I think the planking is going to depend a lot on the locality of the build and how much you are prepared to pay.
Lead paint would mean these boats would have a long life even if they were ply.

southernwoodenboatsailing.com/news/hald-and-johansen-danish-boat-builders-in-sydney-in-the-1960s

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garymalmgren said..
There is a bloke on the Broardwater who goes out with his wife and two boys all the time on a fibreglass folkboat.
I mean really sails it. One of the nicest things on the water there.
I would love to sail one once in my life.

I saw Haase at the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, Wa USA, last September. Sadly she has become very frail and I doubt that she sails anymore. She 'sold' the sail loft, and it continues in a different spot as Port Townsend Sails, under the leadership of her heir apparent Alison.
Also there was Kaci Cronkhite, on her Spidsgatter 'PAX' (read - 'Finding Pax'). Had a long talk as she recounted coming to last year's Hobart show and sailing down from Melbourne on 'Holge Danske'.
These girls have given the wooden boat scene so much! A very memorable day out for me.

Ann Gash was my mother's cousin. I had heard of Ann's journey to UK but enjoyed today listening to her ABC interview and reading news articles re her voyage. The Cockburns were from Scotland, settled on farmland near Wirrabra in South Australia. The farmland is still owned and farmed by Cockburns. My mother's uncle Patrick (Ann's father) moved to Newcastle. Mum often spoke of journeys she, her brother and mother would take to holiday in Newcastle, they would sail from Adelaide to Sydney and then travel up to Newcastle.
Ann sounds quite eccentric which must be an 'inherited gene' as my Grandmother ( Mums mother and Ann's auntie) was definitely an eccentric lady!