THE laughs are never far away when
Harold Cudmore is around, even in
the midst of misfortune. So when the
tiller he was holding steering Yendys
in the Historical 18ft Skiffs Australian
Championship broke, sending her into a
race-ending capsize, he hung onto it and
waved it with a grin for the photographers.
And he later chuckled over the caption
from a Sydney friend John Diacopoulos to
the picture posted on the web: “Amazing
how some guys will never let go the tiller.”
Cudmore, born and raised in Cork,
Ireland, retired from full-time professional
sailing in 1995 after a long and successful
career that included skippering world
championship winners in the Half Ton and
One Ton Classes, sailing in America’s Cup
and Admiral’s Cup teams and coaching
Bill Koch’s winning America Cubed team
in the 1992 America’s Cup.
A typical earlier Cudmore response to
misfortune came when Jameson 1, a boat
he was skippering in the 1993 Admiral’s
Cup, hit Gurnard Ledge, a notorious
rocky outcrop on the shore of The Solent,
near Cowes, UK. The back of the keel
punched up through the hull before
falling off. Cudmore steered for the shore
and Jameson 1 came to rest, the waves
rolling over her deck, off a small beach
where Cudmore faced the media.“There are two ways you can approach a
sinking,” he told them. “You can either get
upset about it or say, ‘What the hell, there’s
nothing we can do about it so we might as
well go out and enjoy the evening.’”
The shipwreck also inspired a popular drink
of the time, a “Harold Cudmore”, ingredients:
a double Jameson whisky on the rocks.
Cudmore sailed on several Australian
boats, as well as British and Irish yachts,
in Australian offshore events over the
years. He skippered John Storey’s Atara
to win the 1991 Sydney Hobart race
and lead the Irish team to its win in the
Southern Cross Cup.
He first came to Sydney in 1977 to sail
in the Half Ton Cup World Championship
with a Ron Holland-designed lightweight
centreboarder called Silver Shamrock.
Despite a broken mast that put her out
of one race, she finished second, a point
behind a new Farr centreboarder, Gunboat
Rangiriri, skippered by Peter Willcox,
from Auckland.
At the prizegiving dinner Cudmore and
his wild young Irish crew shattered tradition
at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron when
they relocated an ornamental brass cannon
from the foyer onto the winner’s table,
reasoning it would be appropriate for a yacht
called Gunboat and filled it with brandy.
Following the Half Ton worlds,Silver Shamrock retired from the rough
Sydney Hobart race with hull damage,
prompting Cudmore’s own Irish joke:
“There was once an Irishman so stupid
that he tried to sail a centreboard Half
Tonner in the Hobart race.”
Cudmore, who had four Half Tonners
at different times, left Silver Shamrock in
Sydney rather than meet the customs duty
to ship it back to the UK.
“We were young and we were broke
with just enough to build the boats, send
them around the world, sometimes with
not enough money to get them home.
I just left Silver Shamrock in Syd ne y.
Customs impounded her when I couldn’t
pay the duty.
“At that stage of our life we were so busy
we just abandoned everything, boats, girl
friends, there was something happening
next week, next week and next week. We
built another boat went somewhere else and
just kept rolling for seven years then got
involved in more serious stuff.”
When Cudmore did eventually settle
down, married Lauren and had two
daughters, Eliza and Freya, the earlier
Sydney memories remained strong.
The Cudmores bought a house at Cowes,
on a premium site next to the Royal Yacht
Squadron. “We always reckoned we were
going to knock the house down and rebuild
at some stage,” Harold said.
“We got the plans, I looked at the costs
and said to Lauren, ‘for that amount of
money we could go to Australia for three
months a year for the next ten years if you
like, while the children not in school for
that period.’”
“And to my amazement she said ‘okay’.
To this day she denies it, she probably wasn’t
listening. Following that I went and bought
the tickets and never renovated the house.”
When the Cudmores began regular
holiday visits, staying at first in Mosman,
Harold was soon attracted to the
historical 18s racing from the Sydney
Flying Squadron in nearby Careening
Cove with the crews including friends
and acquaintances from his earlier racing
days and went on to sail with them
during his holiday visits.
While he has retired from professional
racing he still sails on the super yacht
regattas like St Barths and Antigua, classics
regattas in the Med and UK and does some
cruising, just for fun.
And the house in Cowes has been
knocked down and rebuilt. ✵- Bob Cranse
HAROLD HANGS ON
BY THE WAY
Cudmore on the
capsized Yendys,
not about to let
go the tiller.90
AUSTRALIAN SAILING (^) + YACHTING
APRIL-MAY 2015 MYSAILING.COM.AU
BOB ROSS