(^6) CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2019
VARG 8 METRE
Opposite: Cap
end to boom
describing the
boats original
build of 1924
and restoration
by Wilson Bros
in 2009
Inserts: Custom-
made bronze
tiller and
extension; main
sheet winch and
block with rope
mat protection
Below: Varg’s
interior fit-out
is a mixture of
“whitebait” Huon
pine bulkheads
and overheads,
with Honduras
mahogany berth
fronts and soles,
and silver ash
inlays
B
oat-loving visitors to Tasmania might be
distressed to drive past Helm’s Bay, about
30 miles south of Hobart, and see the broken
wreck of an old yacht lying keel-less on its
side in a waterside garden. But if they were
to drive a short distance further north along the shores
of Port Cygnet and look across the water, they might
see a similar looking yet immaculate boat on a swinging
mooring in a sheltered bay. And if they were to discover
that boat – an 8-Metre – has the garden sculpture’s
ballast keel bolted to her bottom and hear her story,
their distress is sure to be alleviated.
Johan Anker designed a total of 40 8-Metres during
his career, the majority of which were built at his own
yard. Number 21 was Varg which was completed in
1924 after two of Anker’s other 8s – Tifaun and Sildra
- won gold medals at the previous two Olympic Games.
Varg was commissioned by the Norwegian Larsen
family, serial boat owners who seemed to alternately
favour Anker and William Fife. It is thought that the
Larsens brought her to the UK to race her in the Solent;
she was certainly there from the spring of 1925 when she
was purchased by RG Perry. That season she had more
than her fair share of racing success, winning both of
the Royal Yacht Squadron regattas in Cowes Week, for
instance, but the following spring, Perry sold her to Lord
Forster who had just returned from a five-year term as
Australia’s Governor General. Forster renamed her Norn
and, while he had reasonable success with her during his
first season, it was perhaps the lack of a win in Cowes
week in 1927 that led him to replace Norn with a new
Fife 8-Metre, Unity.
He sold Norn to wealthy Australian music publisher
Frank Albert who bought her for his son Alexis and
shipped her out to Sydney. Norn made an immediate
impact as soon as she arrived in Australia. She featured
in a John Allcot watercolour on the front cover of
Australian Motor Boat and Yachting magazine (with
Sydney Harbour Bridge under construction in the
background) and she won the highly coveted Sayonara
Cup, beating the newly-built Fife 8-Metre Vanessa in the
process. Throughout the Alberts’ ownership, Norn had
much racing success and was meticulously maintained,
being laid up in her own shed every winter and presented
immaculately every summer. But when the Alberts sold
her, at the end of the 1950s, she seems to have gradually
fallen into a state of complete disrepair.
Kraig Carstrom’s great grandfather emigrated to
Australia from Sweden in 1896. Kraig himself was
born and brought up in Tasmania and moved to the
Australian mainland at the age of nine. Over the years
he has raced in a variety of boats, mainly on Sydney
Harbour, including Vaucluse Senior 15 footers,
Northbridge Seniors (“state-of-the-art sailing dinghies”),
Etchells and Dragons. In 1992, when he had his own
Northbridge Senior, he met Carolyn Mason, to whom
he is now married, and they raced together for seven or
eight years. From time to time, Kraig came across Saskia,
a 1930 Fife 8-Metre which was based in Sydney for
some 50 years. “I kept thinking I’ve got to get an
8-Metre as aesthetically beautiful as that,” he said.
When Kraig and Carolyn read that Norn was for sale
they found her in a shocking state. About a metre of her
stern had been removed (whether it fell victim to a racing
collision, was removed to give her a more modern look,
or simply rotted away is unclear), the outside of the hull
was sheathed in plywood which was fixed in place by
countless rusting staples, and she had acquired a large
and unsightly coachroof. Furthermore she had a metre
of putrid water in her bilges. But Kraig was able to see
beyond all that, and recognise her for the beautiful boat
she had once been. Kraig and Carolyn made an offer of
25,000 Australian dollars (subject to survey) and the
owner, a merchant banker, accepted it. The surveyor,
however, found her to be in even worse condition than
they imagined, and so they asked for their deposit back.
But for Kraig, getting the boat out of his mind wasn’t
easy. A short time later, when he was at Miami airport