FINN FAMILY
Join us as we tip our hats to these incredible individuals whose passion and dedication have left a lasting mark on our fleet.
Colin Ryrie
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National Champion - 1956
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Eight (8) time NSW State Champion - 1956 to 1961 & 1963 to 1964
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Australian Olympic representative 1956 and 1964
Colin Ryrie was an experienced yachtsman, navigator and one of the most accomplished Finn sailors to come from NSW. Colin completed in the Finn Class at the 1956 Melbourne and 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
He is a past commodore of the Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club in Sydney. He also instigated and sailed in the first Americas Cup challenge from Australia in 1962 on Gretel.
In 1954 he and Jules Feldman formed Modern Magazines Pty Ltd and launched Modern Motor. Other titles followed in 1965, including Modern Boating, Hi-Fi Review, Rugby League Week and Electronics Today. A son, Kim Ryrie, co-designed the Fairlight CMI.
He died in 1972 when the boat he was driving hit an unlit buoy near Clark Island in Sydney Harbour as he and his wife were returning to their Mosman home from the Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club.
Tony James
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Three (3) time National Champion - 1968, 1973 and 1974
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Nine (9) time NSW State Champion - 1966 to 1969; 1971 to 1975
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Coach at 1972 Olympics
(Taken from: Cranbrook School Centenary article)
Tony sails much less these days, mainly because he did “100 years of sailing in 25 years” when he competed locally and internationally on a number of occasions. This gives some insight into the work that Tony put into his sailing career, which he says he saw modelled first-hand when he was on the swimming team at Cranbrook, training and competing alongside future Olympic champion, Murray Rose. The two boys used to train together in the mornings before school—Tony would be on an inflatable surf planer wearing flippers, while Murray swam beside him without equipment, and Tony could barely keep up with him. Rose was a “very stylish swimmer, and bloody fast.”
Tony had also been part of a small group of students at Cranbrook who had started the Sailing Club (Rose Bay) during 1954, which was probably the first time that Tony started to take sailing more seriously. Later, when he began to work towards the Olympics himself, he kept in mind Rose’s example of attitude and dedication. Tony had left school in ’59 to pursue a cadetship in the shipping trade, but he soon became determined to follow his cousin, Colin Ryrie, who had competed in Sailing in the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 and in the Rome Olympics in 1960. Colin became Tony’s coach.
During the 1960s, while Tony was working full-time, he began training towards selection for the Munich Olympics to be held in 1972. He would practice seven days a week—three nights on the Harbour, two nights in the gym, and two days, both Saturday and Sunday, sailing in competitions. He also met, courted, and married his wife, Pamela West, during this time. Tony says that one of the best experiences in competing in the 1972 Olympics, was walking out into the Opening Ceremony. The team walked onto the arena to the sound of Waltzing Matilda playing to a 100,000-strong crowd. The effect was stunning, and he remembers feeling a great sense of pride to be wearing the ‘green and gold.’
Roger Gale
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NSW State Champion - 1965
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Former President of the N.S.W. Finn Association
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Former Secretary and President of the Australian Finn Association
{Taken from: SASC "The Amateurs" Centenary Book 1972)
R. V. (Roger) Gale, Cliff Gale's second son, sailed in his father's boats till he was six years old, when he took to dinghies and divided his time between Cadet dinghies and 12-ft. skiffs until 1932, when he joined his father again as for'd hand in "Josephine".
But Roger's first and best love was open boats, and when he was transferred to Mackay, Queensland, in 1939, he sailed in the 16-ft. skiffs until the War interrupted sport everywhere.
Back in Sydney in 1945, after five years' War Service, he stayed with open boats and sailed in the 16's and 18's, both as crew and helmsman, until 1947 when he again joined the crew of "Josephine" as for'd hand and nightwatch helmsman. It is perhaps significant that with Roger Gale filling these two important roles, "Josephine" won the Montague Island Race.
He stayed with "Josephine" for the 1948 Hobart Race, but his first love was calling, and in 1950 he returned to open boats and sailed a 16-ft. skiff in Middle Harbour for the next three years with some success. Then, in 1955, the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron purchased six Finns and commenced a series of races to choose a helmsman to represent Australia at the 1956 Olympic Games. There were 80 candidates, and Roger was one of the three who went to Melbourne for the final trials. Colin Ryrie was the successful competitor, but Roger had finally found the answer to his love for open boats. He had found the Finn, and he has been involved with them ever since.
From then on Roger has sailed in every State and Australian Championship for Finns and has represented this country in New Zealand.
He is currently President of the N.S.W. Finn Association, having formerly been Secretary and President of the Australian Finn Association. He is also an Instructor in the R.S.Y.S. Junior Sailing Scheme, which was formed some eight years ago. He has also served as a Committeeman with both the S.A.S.C. and the R.S.Y.S. His undoubted administrative ability has been of great value to both Clubs.
Boats are his hobby, and he has inherited his father's facility for modifying and tuning sailing craft. But Roger is also handy with tools and he carries out his alterations without professional assistance.
Roger's son, John, is following in the footsteps of his grandfather and his father. In 1969 he won the State 12-ft. skiff championship in his "Josephine", which he designed and built himself.
Another son, Stephen, served his time as a boatbuilder with Halvorsen's and is also an outstanding for'd hand in open boats. His daughter, Carolyn, sails a Moth and won the R.S.Y.S. Championship in 1970.
Ron Jenyns
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Eleven (11) time National Champion between1957 to 1969
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NSW State Champion - 1970
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QLD State Champion 12 times between 1959-1971
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Australian Olympic representative 1960 and 1968 finished 4th both times and was also a reserve for 1964
Ron hails from Queensland and is known for his mental toughness and fierce competences as a Finn sailor. He is one of the most accomplished Finn sailors to come from Australia winning ten straight national championships (11 in total) and represented Australia at the 1960 Rome and 1968 Mexico Olympics finishing 4th both times. He later worked in the game fishing industry in northern Queensland.
Joe Cooper
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NSW State Champion 1976-1977
(by Joe Cooper, WindCheck Magazine 31.10.2016)
My adopted mother (I adopted her, and her husband, Tony James) posted a Facebook picture a few days ago. It was of the Australian Sailing Team for the 1972 Kiel Olympics including amongst other notables, her husband Tony. It brought back some serious memories.
In 1975, I was sailing a Laser and working at Elvström Sails in Sydney. The Top Gun Finn sailor was Tony, and he used Elvström sails. I knew who he was, and he would come into the loft once in a while. One day I saw he and Mike Fletcher, one of the principals, talking and looking at me. Huh, oh, what had I done this time?
Fletch beckoned me over and introduced me to Tony. We exchanged pleasantries and talked Laser sailing for a bit longer than a Formula One pit stop before he asked me what I was doing on Saturday. In even less time, I had agreed to meet him and sail a Finn with ‘some of the other blokes.’ I had just been recruited into THE most demanding, and Olympic, boat on the planet.
After sailing on that Saturday, we went to Tony’s house to wash off and get something to eat. Since he had been to the Kiel Olympics, he had a goodly supply of ‘Olympics stuff’ and pretty soon it was clear he was dangling the idea of the Olympics in front of me. Photo albums, posters of Kiel, funny stories of tooling around Europe in a VW bus, his hiking bench…and so on. It worked.
For me, at about 19, with no particular direction and no pressing desire to do anything except surf or sail, the idea of the Finn AND the Olympic vision struck a chord. Here was something I could sink my teeth into. This focus became even sharper after spending time in the boat, reading about Paul Elvström, sailing with Tony and the boys and being exposed to the Olympic theme at chez James.
Geoff Davidson
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Four (4) time National Champion between 1978 to 1981
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Four (4) time NSW Champion between 1978 to 1981
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Selected for 1980 Olympics
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1984 and 1988 Olympics as part of support team
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Past President of Yachting NSW
Geoff Davidson won selection as the Finn sailor for the 1980 Moscow Olympics only to have the team withdrawn under political pressure over the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.
Larry Kleist
Olympics missed on ‘Technicality’ (SMH 17-03-1984 p68)
Larry Kleist, one of Australia's top sailors and a candidate for an Olympic medal, has been excluded from the Australian yachting squad "on a technicality"
Kleist, 23, from the Sydney suburb of North Rocks, is the NSW and Australian champion in the Olympic Finn class – a 14ft long, one-man boat with a single sail. It is the boat in which John Bertrand, the Australia II America's Cup skipper, won a bronze medal in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.
Kleist was favourite to be nominated as the Australian representative before the team was announced at the weekend after a selection regatta in Adelaide. Kleist finished second at the weekend.
Chris Pratt, of South Australia, was named the Australian Finn representative with third placegetter Geoff Davidson, of NSW, as reserve. Mr David Holloway, president of the Australian Yachting Federation, said in Sydney last night that Kleist was not included because he did not win the regatta. Normally, Mr Holloway said, most teams were chosen not just on the selection regatta but on past performances.
But for this year's Olympics the only criterion was the results of the selection races held in Adelaide. This, he said, was because of the closeness of the competition. Kleist is appealing to the AYF on the ground that he would have won the regatta had he not been disqualified on a technicality in a race in which he came second. Kleist lost a protest in the third race when one of his main competitors alleged that the Kleist sail was pulled out on the boom beyond a black limiting mark. "The protest was on a really minor technicality," he said, "I had Lex Bertrand, one of the selectors and John Bertrand's brother, to appear for me but three of my hottest competitors appeared against me…”
"Had I not lost the protest I would have won the regatta on points. Surely they should take the results of your sailing performance on the water not in the committee room?" In the first two races Kleist said he had a medical certificate from a Sydney doctor to prove that he sailed while suffering from the effects of a course of antibiotics for a gash on his leg he injured the leg while sailing in the Finn Australian championships. "For the early races I was really tanked up with antibiotics because the gash on my leg had become infected," he said. "And the races were sailed in quite heavy conditions where you really have to lean out and use your legs." When the effects of the drugs wore off Kleist went on to win the fourth, fifth and seventh races of the series by large margins but it was not enough to put him in the lead.
Kleist was favourite going into the regatta with one of the best records of any Finn sailor Australia has produced. A few days earlier he had won the Finn Australian championships races with Pratt in sixth place. Kleist also won the NSW championship with Pratt second. In the pre-Olympics in Los Angeles in August last year two Australians competed. Kleist came fourth and Pratt 20th.
He also scored a second in the International Finn Cup in Germany and a second in the European Cup. In the Finn Gold Cup, the world championship of the class, held in September in the United States, Kleist finished 12th with Pratt in 46th place. Mr Holloway said in Sydney last night it was “a matter of getting points on the board". "The competition was very tough," he said.
Mr Holloway would not comment on the reason Kleist was not made a reserve.
Campbell Rose AM
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NSW State Champion 1985 and 1987
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Alternative helmsman for the Australian Olympic Yachting Team at the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988
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Australian Representative in the Finn Dinghy Class at the inaugural Goodwill Games in Russia in 1986.
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Crew member of Steak and Kidney for the America's Cup Defence Series in Perth in 1986
Campbell was Chief Executive of the Western Bulldogs for a period of more than 8 years, after returning to Melbourne from Brisbane where he was running the 2001 Goodwill Games as Chief Executive.
1990 - 1994 as executive director of the Victorian Yachting Council, later Yachting Victoria. In this role he held various positions with the Australian Yachting Federation, now Yachting Australia, and the International Yacht Racing Union, now World Sailing.
A move to the position as Chief Executive of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Bid, working with Ron Walker, Bid Chairman, saw the company successful in its bid for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Melbourne in 2006.
In 2017 Campbell was made Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to sports administration, to infrastructure and transport development, and to the community of Victoria.
The list goes on...
Glenn Bourke AM
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Australian Finn Class Champion 1990 and 1991
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NSW Finn Class State Champion 1989 and 1990
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Australian Olympic Finn Class representative 1992 (20th)
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Three time Laser World Champion and the list goes on...
From Manly, Sydney Glenn made a big name for himself as a sailor, winning three Laser world championships on the trot in the late '80s before switching to the Finn dinghy and competing for Australia in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He was back in Olympic mode for the Atlanta Games in 1996, this time as coach for the Australian team.
He also competed in two America's Cups first as part of Australia's unsuccessful defence of the Auld Mug in 1987 as trimmer for Kookaburra and then as challenger, calling tactics for OneAustralia in 1995. He was also coach for Team Dennis Conner, the New York Yacht Club's challenger for the 2002-03 Louis Vuitton Cup and America's Cup series in Auckland,
As the Sydney Olympics approached, Bourke began thinking about life after sailing. 'I was a bit bored with the professional circuit and was looking for something more solid,' he recalled. 'The job of competition manager for sailing at the Olympics came up, so I went to the Australian Yachting Federation (now Yachting Australia) and they agreed to support my application.'
The ease and grace with which he handled that job doubtless was a key factor in his subsequent appointments. Bourke began his working life as a boat builder after doing studies in shipwrighting and naval architecture at Sydney Tech, so he entered the new phase of his working life as a novice. 'It was a case of learning on the job, although I understood the basic formula involved,' he said. 'I learned as much as I could from the top echelon of business it was a bit like doing a combined degree in sports administration and business on the run. I guess I was a bit like a sponge.
In 2020 Glenn was made Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for For significant service to sailing at the elite level as a competitor, coach and administrator.
Paul McKenzie
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Australian Finn Class Champion 1995, 1996 and 1997
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NSW Finn Class State Champion 1992
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Australian Olympic Finn Class representative 1996 (6th)
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Past IFA Treasurer, chairman of technical committee
From Victoria Paul competed for Australia in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Paul has been involved in the administration of IFA and is a regular on the masters European circuit and is now based on Europe.
Anthony Nossiter
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Six (6) time Australian Finn Class Champion 2000-03; 2008-09
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Five (5) time NSW Finn Class State Champion 2003-05; 2021-22
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Three (3) time Australian Olympic representative:
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2000 (13th)
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2004 (6th)
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2008 (16th)
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Volvo Ocean Race 2001-02 (Djuice Dragons)
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Americas Cup challenger series 2007 (+39 Challenge)
Anthony began sailing at 7 years of age. His grandfather Harold Nossiter was the first Australian to sail around the world in a yacht he had built himself. His father Ben Nossiter, who Nokka rates as one of the most influential people in his career, is another famous sailor from MHYC.
When Anthony is not racing, his favourite hobbies are windsurfing, wave-surfing, kayaking and wake boarding. His sailing prowess is not only Finns, but also ocean racing.
Anthony is still a regular on the start line and a great bloke to have in the boat park.