Our Patron’s Yacht
Nerida
In years to come, Masons joining or visiting Lodge Sir James Hardy No 1046 are well likely to ask: “why did you choose that particular yacht to have as this Lodge’s logo?”
Nerida, a gaff-rigged cutter is Sir James’ yacht and has an interesting and somewhat romantic history.
Sir James’ father, Tom Hardy had been sailing in St Vincent’s gulf in a sloop and decided he wanted something larger and more comfortable. Tom Hardy commissioned a local man to design a yacht to his specifications. Not being completely satisfied, Tom Hardy wrote to “Messrs A. Mylne and Co, 81 Hope St, Glasgow C2” and asked them to quote on modifying this design. Tom Hardy listed eight points which needed to be followed; the 6th being ‘Must be a good looking vessel’ and the 8th being ‘must provide good accommodation … with head room for owner, 6ft. 2 in. in height’.
In Messrs Mylne’s reply he referred to point No6 writing: ‘a good looking vessel is a matter of taste’. It is unquestioned that this icon of Sydney Harbour is a ‘good looking vessel’.
Tom Hardy accepted the plans and, in 1929, R.T. Searles and Sons of Adelaide commenced building a yacht to the Mylne modified design. She was launched in 1933. Sir James’ mother, Eileen, chose ‘Nerida’ after the aboriginal word for ‘Water Lily’.
Following Tom Hardy’s untimely death in 1938 in the DC2 Kyeema air crash, Nerida was sold to Colin Haselgrove OBE, the Technical Director of Thomas Hardy & Sons. Over a period of time Nerida was converted into a yawl, the gaff removed to become a sloop; the tiller replaced by a wheel and an aft cabin installed. In this configuration she won the 1950 Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race. She still is the only South Australian built yacht to win that trophy.
Nerida passed through various hands until Thomas Hardy & Sons Ltd purchased her in 1971 and brought her to Sydney. Jim [as he was then – and to many of us still is unless you sail with him then he’s Gilbert] had Nerida restored to her original splendour by the Gretel II America’s Cup design team. When Jim mentioned to Colin Haselgrove that he was removing the wheel, in a letter laying out some history and passing owners, Colin wrote: “Hardy, if you put her back to tiller steering you are clearly much stronger in the arms than in the head.” Of course, Nerida is again tiller steering.
Sir James brought Nerida from the company in 1994.
In 2007 during a severe storm, a yacht moored in the same area broke her moorings and hit Nerida, pulling the bobstay out of the bow, leaving a small hole. In the second storm a week later, with her bow pitching into the waves, Nerida slowly sank at her mooring until a metre of mast was left above the surface. Sir James was in Spain at the time for the America’s Cup Challenge and was devastated. She was raised and restored to remain a ‘good looking vessel’. The only addition were electric winch-halyards for the main. Previously it took four crew to raise the main by hand; two on the peak of the gaff and two on the throat.
Nerida’s details are: L.O.A. 45’ + Bowsprit 7’: L.W.L 33’: Beam 11’: Draught 6’3” weight 16 tons.
In the logo, Nerida is in ‘full rig’ carrying: jib, staysail, jib-topsail, mainsail and jack-yard topsail.