Ross Blair
Age 52
Sailing experience 40,000+ nautical miles

I built a plywood, “A” Class catamaran at the age of 19 and sailed the small open cat around Moreton Bay with camping gear tied to the mast for a couple of years. In 1976 I started building a Lock Crowther designed Buccaneer 28 trimaran. During this time I was visiting Multihull Yacht Services and met Mark Pescott who was also building a Buccaneer 28.

After 3 years of part time building, Dejavu was launched in the murky waters of Doboy Creek in Brisbane.

We set off in the winter of 1980 on a cruise up the Queensland coast. Life was very basic then and we left with a depth sounder, a mechanical log and handbearing compass for navigation. A CB radio was purchased during the time and a plastic sextant was also added for a planned trip overseas. Plans changed, however when we discovered my wife was pregnant. We spent a cyclone season in Mackay, working and waiting for our son to arrive. As soon as he was given his first grease and oil change we headed off cruising again and pottered up and down the North Queensland coast, occasionally bumping into Mark on Yarrageh. After our son, Micah, had started to walk I realised that Dejavu was becoming too small so the decision was made to sell her and move onto something bigger.

We rented an old farmhouse on the outskirts of Bundaberg and commenced construction on a Command10 trimaran designed by Ian Farrier that was also of multi chine plywood and timber construction. The boat was completed inside a year and once again we moved onboard the day she was launched. It was a pleasant surprise to have Mark show up for the launching.

Soon after I started working on a 36 foot Malcolm Tennant catamaran of foam sandwich construction to pay for the rig and sails and after a short cruise to Brisbane again ended up back in Doboy Creek where I commenced work for Windspeed Catamarans.

The following year we left Brisbane and had a leisurely cruise up the coast to the Whitsunday Islands for 6 months before heading back to Mackay to begin work on a Lock Crowther designed Catana 40 catamaran.

More cruising was done after this and we arrived in Cairns and started work with Bob Shanks helping to build a number of boats including, what at that stage, was to be the fastest catamaran in Australia, the Lock Crowther designed 50 foot, Top Gun.

We were ready to head to New Guinea by August of ’87 we had a new gadget onboard.

A Sat Nav! My God, positions every 2 hours or so, who had heard of such a thing! And all for $3000.

We had a windy and overcast 4 day crossing followed by 4 months cruising in the Louisiade’s. We have many happy and some stressful memories of our trip there and having a blonde haired 6 year old on board certainly helped break the ice with the villagers.

Our return trip was a dream passage with 10 to 15 knot winds aft of the beam all the way home.

Not long after arriving back in Cairns Mark announced that his new catamaran, cheekily named, Summersalt, was ready to launch.

I also was asked to be navigator aboard Top Gun and competed in the 1988 Brisbane to Gladstone Race. After the 1988 Around Australia Yacht Race fleet came through Cairns we set off cruising again and steadily headed back down the coast to Mooloolaba. I decided I wanted a catamaran and put Ricochet on the market selling her in 1990 and purchasing my first piece of real estate near the quiet little town of Tin Can Bay just to the south of Fraser Island.

I built a house and then immediately started building a bigger and modified version of Summersalt. As things happen my wife and I separated at this time and I moved onto my very bare, windowless and nameless 10.6metre catamaran. At the launch of a sailing buddy’s new boat in Noosa I was offered work building a modified Shaun Arber catamaran. I also met the love of my life on the same day! Soon my boat had a rig and sails and a name, Alias and I moved to Noosa. After we had almost completed the Arber cat, Mark arrived and we built the Whitehaven 11.1 Majeak in 8 months. After the launching, Mark decided to head to Thailand and asked me if I would act as his agent in Australia while he was away. A “Yes”, and a handshake was all that was needed. Still is!

In 1998 I sailed on the Whitehaven 11.1 Aown in the Darwin to Ambon Race. We were the second boat into Ambon, with only a 40 ft racing catamaran from Darwin ahead of us. Later the same year with my new family we cruised Alias to Cairns before selling her and settling in Cairns for a couple of years.

I commenced construction of a lengthened Firefly 850 and developed a trailer system for it.

We moved back to Noosa at the end of 2000 and I campaigned Firefly as much as possible.

We also cruised the Whitsundays for a couple of weeks and had many memorable cruises to Fraser Island. Firefly proved to be a most rewarding boat to sail, being highly responsive and an absolute demon upwind.

Firefly was sold in 2004 and packed into a 40 ft container and shipped to Singapore.

Since then I have been building several Whitehavens in the Noosa area, as well as handling the plans sales in Australia.