The boats of Cliff Gale and how the Sydney Ranger class came to be
by D.W ‘Bill’ Gale
Edwin Clifford Gale (1886–1968) grew up near Woolwich Baths where his father, Claude, taught swimming. Their large family had an 18-foot rowing skiff for transport and fishing, which was very helpful for the family budget. When Cliff turned eight, his father bought him an 8-foot sailing dinghy in which he spent countless hours exploring the harbour.
By the age of nineteen he had built in excess of one hundred rough sailing models, all of progressive shapes and different concepts. Having left school at the age of twelve, he had no mathematical skills but was proficient at arithmetic. He had knowledge of design centres of effort and lateral resistance, but no professional training.
By building the models Cliff taught himself boat design. His work ranged from an eight-foot-six dinghy through various sailing yacht designs and wonderful fishing motor cruisers, to his masterpiece, the massive 35-foot ocean cruiser Mathana.
When I asked him why he never designed a racing yacht, he replied, “no one ever asked me”. One of his outstanding designs is the 28-foot Maluka, ocean raced by Sean Langman.
Billy Fisher and Cliff were very good friends and very respectful of each other’s knowledge. Maluka was built by Billy for George and William Clarke, and at their request Cliff supervised the construction. Post-construction, Billy wrote a note of thanks and sent Cliff a cheque for seven pounds for his supervision of Maluka’s build. Billy Fisher being a legendary commercial boat builder, he was accustomed to building an enormous number of fishing boats and some big ferries and was famous for wooden construction. That he was prepared to not only listen to my father, but to pay him that amount — and that would have been a very good week’s wage in 1934. I consider this to be extraordinary.
Later the Clarkes wished to sail to China and Japan, and asked Cliff to design the massive 35-footer Mathana for this venture. He agreed to undertake the design on the condition that the work be checked by a qualified Naval Architect, as a lot of money was involved and as Cliff was a ‘seat of his pants’ designer.
A Mr Blackman was commissioned to check the design. He wrote to my father and said ‘she is a wonderful example of an English-type heavy cruiser, and could not be faulted’. All Cliff’s design work was done by making a layer cake of alternating cedar and pine and then carving the shape by eye and by instinct. Drawings were done later, after disassembly.
Our father was a very inventive man. He was apprenticed at the age of twelve to Dr E. Deck of Macquarie Street as a dental mechanic. Having observed an American dentist cast a gold filling, Dr Deck gave him three months off productive work to see if he could cast a gold partial denture. He succeeded, and was probably the first to do so in Australia. The year was 1905.
He began his racing career in 6, then 8 and later 10-foot dinghies. In 1910 he joined the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club (SASC) and raced the 21-foot Vagabond in A Class, then sold her in 1915 and had Vagabond II, a raised decker, built to his design. Having been rejected for military service in the AIF, he was very busy in his work as a dental mechanic and could not supervise the build. She was eight inches too beamy so he immediately sold her.
In the early 1920s he designed the 26-foot Wanderer, built by his brother Milton, then he purchased the 28-footer June Bird from Melbourne. He sailed her from scratch in the SASC A Class. In about 1930 he designed, and had Billy Fisher build, the 21-foot centreboarder Karoo, and she was a great success. My nephew built a modern replica, Yeromais V, for John Diacopoulos, and John loves her.
In 1933 Cliff had Billy Fisher build the 24-footer Ranger, Cliff’s last of some 27 boats. He never intended to race her, but did for many years and did very well.
She was rigged with small sails and simple wire and line items, ideal for single-handed sailing, which was his great joy. He sailed many thousands of miles in this mode.
Cliff left instructions that on his demise Ranger be passed to my brother Roger and I, and then solely to the surviving brother. In my ownership she was raced and cruised from 1968 until a couple of years ago.
In my care she was upgraded in sail size and rigging and she won two pointscores for me: in one case from scratch, and in the other from behind scratch again on the last race of the season. Cliff was totally satisfied with her: she is fast for such a heavy fat boat, she is great for camping, a great motor boat and is superb for fishing.
Ranger has been purchased by Shaun McKnight and his excellent yachtsperson wife Erin. Shaun is dockmaster at Noake’s Boatyard and has the knowledge and the means to bring her up to perfection. Being built of the very best timber (Huon pine planking) and with this standard of care she will last for centuries.
I am delighted that Shaun and Erin are using her for family cruising as well as racing. Billy Fisher used her model with some flattening of the lines aft for a range in size of fishing cruisers, many of which can still be seen in New South Wales waters.
Cliff never accepted payment for any of his design or consulting work; it was his hobby. In quite a few cases he was called in to improve ‘disappointing’ boats with great success.
Notably in the 1920s he made alterations to Hoana II, a gorgeous 33-footer built for Mr A.C. Buckle. Cliff was appointed skipper, and within a month her handicap was reduced by about 16 minutes. In 1933 Mr Buckle had the master shipwright Charles Hayes build him the cruising 9-metre Josephine to the design of William Fife. My father was her helmsman for some years with my brother Roger as her for’ard hand in Division 1 Royal Club races. They never lost their scratch handicap, although some of their competitors were faster boats.
One of the great skippers of the era was Dr H. Kirkland. He spoke to me one day at Broken Bay some 70 years ago, and said, “Young fella I want you to know that your father is far and away the best skipper in Sydney Harbour.” I will never forget that statement.
Ranger has no vices and is extremely stable. If a problem were to occur it would be the fault of the skipper or crew, not the boat. Cliff headed a family of four children — June, Brian, Roger and myself — and always ran a boat. His occupation was not so lucrative as opposed to the present.
He could never have achieved all of this without the total support and skills of his wife Marguerite. His sons Brian and Roger were renowned for their skills in boats and for their selfless work in teaching their knowledge.
D.W. ‘Bill’ Gale
March 2018
Recommended organisations and reading
Yacht Clubs of Sydney Harbour
Sydney Amateur Sailing Club; Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron; Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club
Classic Yacht Association of Australia, www.classic-yacht.asn.au
British Classic Yacht Club, britishclassicyachtclub.org
International Eight Metre Association IEMA, www.8mr.org
British Eight Metre Association BEMA, www.8mr.org.uk
Classic Boat UK, www.classicboat.co.uk
www.paneraiclassicyachtchallenge.com
www.Sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk
Australian National Maritime Museum,www.anmm.gov.au
Maritime Museum of Tasmania, maritimetas.org
Model Boats — www.floataboat.com.au
