Sailor Vie - Nautical But Nice
The Age
Monday February 20, 1995
EVERYTHING, yes, everything ends up as a fashion item. Some sooner than later. But who would have thought pond yachts could have become so sexy? Once they were the affair of young boys and old men but, over the past few years, they have become increasingly desirable, sought after and hard to find. In a word, sexy. In another word, collectable.
In Sydney, around the harbor, a bay window isn't a bay without a pond yacht or two in it.
Ray Jackson, of Ray Jackson Fine Antiques and Collectables, not only sails real yachts, he also collects pond yachts. Unlike other passionate collectors, he doesn't sail them. Jackson, like an increasing number of collectors and decorators, uses the yachts purely for decoration. Recently he sold a yacht to Jamie Bartells to use as a centrepiece in his new house. It is, according to Jackson, the talking point the moment anyone steps in the door.
Jackson can pinpoint exactly when he discovered the beauty of pond yachts. He was reading the first issue of the magazine French Style, and there, decorating a staircase, were two flawless pond yachts. It seemed to him an original and beautiful way to say something about a house. The French were not talking about the old sailing clippers but about the cleaner, brighter, more flowing lines of this century.
Jackson hasn't looked back. He's really only interested in the old pond yachts, not the newer fibreglass models, and he buys old pond yachts from all over the world and from all over Australia. In his house, he has a room built especially for yachts, so that he can contemplate them every night before going to bed. For him, the yachts, with their beauty that has a use ``they were designed entirely to be used" are objects to dream on, to feel romantic about.
Glorious dreams but they don't come cheap. The yachts begin at $350, and can go up to over $10,000 for a racing yacht with a pedigree. Yes.
Pedigree. The yacht will have been raced and perhaps have won championships. Or it could be the exact scale reproduction of a famous yacht.
Alan Endicott, who specialises in making and repairing scale models at his workshop, Classic Marine Models, at 563 Nicholson Street, North Carlton, talks about people ordering yachts for different rooms in different houses. Some people want to begin a collection, he says, and they don't mind paying $28,000 for a single yacht. The prices, as in anything marketable, are tied to rarity.
The essence of the allure of the pond yacht is the fact that it is entirely functional. Those who have them are insulted if they are spoken of as a toy. Some of these ``toys" are three metres long but most are smaller. The thing to remember is that their beauty is in the exact scale, in the perfect reproduction. Such exactitudes are only achieved by the time and effort put in by some loving craftsman.
With their rich polish, old paint and shellac, the yachts are friendly, as well as romantic. And in Ray Jackson's eyes, having a scale model of a certain yacht means you are dealing in contemporary history. Yet such is the passion of those who have grown up with pond yachts before they became collectable that most owners are happy to talk for hours about their yachts and their histories. But they will not part with them.
So, if you happen to have a pre-war or just-after-the-war pond yacht sitting idle or housing spiders in your back shed, you might consider selling it. Or cleaning it up and putting it on the mantelpiece. Have a look. Now.
© 1995 The Age
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