TUMLAREN ASSOCIATION

The Tumlaren Association was founded in April 1967 to cater for the specific needs of the expanding fleet of Tumlaren based at The Royal St Kilda Yacht Club , now Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron after the first of the Knud Reimers One-Design yachts, Acklorean 98 was built by in Adelaide by Clausens in 1937.

Long regarded throughout the years as the backbone of the St Kilda fleet, the Tumlaren Class had a fine racing record on Port Phillip, it earned the reputation of being part of the history of yachting in Victoria and lived up to the expectations set out in 1937 by the then Royal St Kilda Yacht Club, now R.M.Y.S), when it became a new One Design Class to stimulate the Club's activities, as the yachts at the time were both mixed and varied. Namely, a Class yacht which could be built at a figure within the reach of all yachtsmen, one that could be easily handled by small crew and importantly would stand up to the conditions encountered on Port Phillip.

Reimers produced a design he described as being a cross between an archipelago cruiser, a canoe and a Norwegian 19.5 square metre Spidsgatta. Resulting in an unusually narrow in beam canoe stern yacht, having a long keel with an extremely cut away forefoot and uniquely a distinctively sharply raked stern hung rudder; also having attributes common to latter-day thinking, a high aspect 3 to 1 Ratio rig of relative light sheet loading, about which an American Naval Architect once wrote:- The Tumlaren’s mast does process one absolutely wizardly attribute “It stands up”. Having a light displacement hull with low wetted surface, ensured good speed in light going, and reserve buoyancy due to a high powerful turn of bilge, combined with slack sections and ballast ratio of 51 per cent, provided power for sail carrying and speed in fresh conditions. Originally a two berth cruiser, in no time the design was to exceed all expectations as a racing yacht.

Being narrow in beam, the general belief was that they would lay over and kick in a hard blow. That was not so. If overpowered they had the attribute of spilling wind out of their sails. The large open cockpit, even if the yacht was knocked down, which happens to all racing craft, shipped little or no water due to the inherent buoyancy in the hull shape. It was therefore not uncommon for the Class to race in 30 knot conditions under full sail.

The fleet and the association remained active until the late 1990’s when time and tide took some of the key sailors and most of the yachts into retirement. In recent years the recognition of the heritage value of these yachts has seen some invigorated efforts to restore and race with an increasing number of Tumlaren sailing with the Classic Yacht Association fleet.