{"id":33771,"date":"2025-10-08T06:44:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T13:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/windpilot.com\/blog\/?page_id=33771"},"modified":"2025-10-08T06:53:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T13:53:53","slug":"sv-frolic-john-rose-tasmania-au","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/windpilot.com\/blog\/schiffe\/sv-ziska\/sv-frolic-john-rose-tasmania-au\/","title":{"rendered":"SV Frolic"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCHNELL SEGELN AN ANDEREN ENDE DER WELT<\/strong>
\n\"\"Hobart ist ein hartes Wort, bei dem jeder Segler sofort eisige Gedanken hat, weil er eben weiss, dass im S\u00fcden von Tasmanien ein anderer Wind sein Regime f\u00fchrt, zeitgleich Segler mit S\u00fcdseegedanken in die Schranken weist. Der Blick auf die Breitengrade gen\u00fcgt, um dem Respekt die Vorfahrt nicht zu nehmen. Im Sydney – Hobart sind die Harten unterwegs, die sich hier und da auch schon mal die Z\u00e4hne ausbeissen, oder ihre Riggs verlieren. Beim GGR war Hobart stets der eine ersehnter Stop-Over-Hafen, wo der eine odere andere Hero seine Wunden lecken konnte, auf dem Slip Muscheln zu kratzen, wenn er oder sie das nicht abseits in der Nebenbucht erledigen wollte, abseits der Beh\u00f6rden und fines.
\n\"\"In Tasmanien jedenfalls leben viele Segler, die allesamt Respekt und Ehrfurcht vor den Elementen haben, von denen viele gerne Entlastung von der Sklavenarbeit des Steuern haben m\u00f6chten. F\u00fcr mich ein Traumrevier, weil ich mit wenigen Worten mein Evangelium erkl\u00e4ren und Missverst\u00e4ndnisse ausr\u00e4umen kann. Es hat Segler gegeben, deren schlichte Mail nur nach Preis und Lieferzeit fragte, deren Schiffe ich bereits kannte. Einziges Handicap: Tasmanien ist f\u00fcr Logistiker ein Lottoasechser, weil dort Traumpreise m\u00f6glich sind, zumal aircargo selten vorbei kommt … die Segler ergo in der Falle sitzen. Ein Stigma der besonderen Art.
\n\"\"\"\"So lernte ich vor einiger Zeit John Rose<\/strong> kennen, habe ca 50 Mails mit ihm getauscht, und ihm am Ende eine PACIFIC f\u00fcr seine SV FROLIC<\/em>, einem schweren Gaffelkutter aus dem Jahre ca 1870 verkauft. Das bislang \u00e4lteste Schiff in meiner Agenda. Der Gaffelkutter wurde f\u00fcr mich zur Herausforderung in vielerlei Hinsicht. Die Frolic<\/em> die zu segeln John als FROLICING<\/em> bezeichnete, was so viel heisst wie HERUMTOLLEN<\/em>, war mit komplizierter Radsteuerung \u00fcber Getriebe und Drahtseile bis ins Steuerhaus ausger\u00fcstet, weil die damaligen Berufsseeleute ja auch nicht gerne im Regen stehen wollten. <\/p>\n

Jedenfalls wurden wir uns am Ende einig, John hat
\n\"\"bezahlt, die Ware wurde zum Hamburg Airport gebracht und ging fliegen. Wenig sp\u00e4ter dann der ungehaltene Protest von John, der sich dar\u00fcber beschwerte, dass er vor Ort Customs Fees und Geb\u00fchren zu zahlen hatte, was er ablehnte, weil er nicht noch einmal zur Kasse gebeten werden wollte. Ich habe die Sachlage m\u00fchsam zu erkl\u00e4ren versucht, aber John hatte die Nase voll, ich habe am Ende vorgeschlagen, dass ich die Ware wieder nach Hamburg
\nzur\u00fccknehmen werde und den Kaufpreis zur\u00fcck \u00fcberweisen wollte.<\/p>\n

Ich habe von John nie wieder etwas geh\u00f6rt, die PACIFIC wurde nicht retourniert.
\n\"\"Am 09.09.2025 allerdings habe ich diese Mail bekommen:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hello Peter, it\u2019s definitely about time I give you some feedback.
\nFirstly, how are you keeping these days ?
\nSecondly, after having sailed from Tasmania to NewZealand, up around NZ, then to Vanuatu, using your windpilot 99% of the journey, it\u2019s really been great, and it\u2019s hard to imagine having done that without it.
\nEven though I ended up spending a lot more to have it delivered to Tas, it\u2019s been a positive spend, and I thank you for the object, and your guidance along the way.
\nI have one question please, as I\u2019ve been using the pilot a lot I can\u2019t remember how much \u2018play\u2019 or looseness it had through the main pivoting shaft, but I\u2019m thinking it might have more than it did ???
\nHow much jiggle should there be ?
\nKind regards John. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Minuten sp\u00e4ter meine Antwort:<\/strong>
\nDear John,
\nhow nice to hear from you … how would I yearn for some nice pictures of your beloved vessel on anchor in front of beautiful islands …which you have visited during the months behind certainly …<\/p>\n

No worry, some play is essential to gain sensitivity over the long run … here the reason: any wind vane has to create some pressure to the main rudder mainly to effect lee rudder …. as any vessel will tend to head up into the wind on her own … so \u201elee play\u201c will never effect steering as the pendulum carriage is creating POWER to one side mostly.<\/p>\n

We have had extremely heavy vessel of around 40 t.weight, running 3 times around the world … with no need to change any single slieve ..<\/p>\n

If the pendulum rudder oars tends to vibrate a bit in the water behind the big rudder and the prop … you can easy \/ or even reduce to zero … if you slightly readjust the rudder in the rudder fork at lower end at about 1 cm only …. and overcritical balancing might be reduced or neclected.<\/p>\n

I am impatiently waiting for some \u201e eyefood \u201e<\/p>\n

take care
\nPeter
\n\"\"Minutes later John\u00b4s answer:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ok, thanks for fast support, as usual, much appreciated. Yea the blue and green colours are a feast for the eyes\/heart.
\n\"\"
\nFROLIC is from Cygnet Tasmania!<\/strong>
\nShe was built in Melbourne Australia around the 1870’s as a yacht and was converted to a fishing smack in 1899 to fish in Bass Strait if the Victorian coast.
\nShe was the first commercial vessel fitted with an internal combustion engine in Victoria.
\nJohn Rose her current owner rescued FROLIC and rebuilt her over 10 years here in Cygnet.
\nOne of the reasons for FROLIC’S longevity is she is planked in 2″ New Zealand Kauri!<\/p>\n

Wendy Burnett
\nMy grandfather ‚William James Burnett‘ owned this boat and used her for fishing. He had an established fishing shed at BATTERY POINT TAS.
\nThey fished Couta Scallops Crayfish to name a few, and they also smoked Couta at the old IXL Jones building in Hobart.<\/p>\n

\ufeffYes an old boat. \u00a0There are a few accounts of the Frolic and all are probably inaccurate if it talks about what this boat was before 1899. The oldest sure account is from a newspaper article in 1899 from Melbourne Victoria, which says \u2018 the old boat Mystery is changing its name to Frolic and heading to Tasmania\u2019
\nI have over a 14 year project, off and on, replaced ever fastening and piece of wood apart from the main keel piece and the planking, bit by bit so as not to lose the shape. \u00a0
\nWe know most of the history from 1899. \u00a0She was a fishing boat all those years, but no one know what she was before that, or where or when she was built. Her planks are NewZealand Kauri Pine which was common then as a traded timber, and the other timber suggest she was built in Victoria Australia.\u00a0
\nIt has become its original name !<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Meine Gedanken kamen ins Fliegen, denn John erz\u00e4hlte mir seine Geschichte:<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

I wasn’t thinking to take on a timber vessel but was interested to see this boat advertised, propped up on the hard next to a river. At first sight the plumb stem captured me like an old dream rising to the moment. It was in a terrible state, having been out of the water for a couple of years, with only a foredeck and poop deck and side decks. open to the sky with a stripped out hull, looking sad indeed. the wet-well had been removed so she was weak through the guts. Pretty much every rib was rotten and the deck unable to be saved along with every deck beam. As it turned out the stem and stern timbers needed replacing too, so in effect all that was there was the shape, the planking, and the main keel to work with. So every fastening was replaced and a whole new boat built to those planks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It needed corking to re-float it, which was a temporary job, which I did so badly that I nearly lost it when craned back into the river as water poured through every seem. I knew nothing of timber boats then. An old fellow told me to have a sack of sawdust ready to shakeout under the hull if it leaked too bad, which is what I did, and it saved the day, along with a friends help and two fire pumps throwing water out as it entered.\u00a0
\n\"\"I reworked a broken down slipway in the countryside near where I lived and built a bush style roof over it and got to demolishing.<\/p>\n

After five years or so, I had steamed in all new ribs and stringers and clamp and shelf and floor timbers and deck beams, and re-corked very carefully every seam. It was time to move the boat as time was up in that place. I had bought an old house in a town name Cygnet nearby, re-built an old heavy trailer with 12 truck wheels rolling, re-floated the boat, and dragged it home, and built a shed over it, and a work shed beside, spent another 9 years or so, dragged it back to the sea on that trailer, spent a couple more years working on the rig, and finally got to go for a sail.
\n\"\"This is the front of the story. The back story is one of many feelings, ups and downs. At the halfway point I didn’t believe in the project anymore.\u00a0 A few relationships passed, and the constant problems of designing and knowing what, how, which order, when, etc made the whole journey feel somehow quietly over dramatic.\u00a0
\nI feel I was too proud and stubborn to quit, but finally there wasn’t much pride left as it took so long, and I suppose that’s ok.
\n\"\"It really was rewarding though to be sailing across the Tasman Sea on her maiden crossing, with my son who saw it all, to have the Frolic running like a witch, pressed with wind, with that shape of hull finding its way in rough seas so sweetly again, as it had for who knows how long. We put a couple of hundred miles under the keel on one of the 24 hour periods of that crossing, and she was perfectly balanced with two reefs in the main and the jib, running on the quarter, and 30 odd knots of wind.
\n\"\"This boat feels good and can really get along, and I must say that now I’ve been living and cruising with my partner and two young girls for the past 9 months, that the whole journey to date kind of makes sense.
\n\"\"The history of this boat is only known from 1899 till the present.
\nPrior to that it is yet unknown. The last bit of verifiable information
\nis in that year of 1899, which is a short article from a Melbourne newspaper which says ~ \u2018 the old boat Mystery is changing its name to Frolic and heading to Tasmania.\u2019
\nSo she became her original name !<\/p>\n

regards from Tasmania
\nJohn of Frolic<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Heavyweights<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n