The big boat era
The defining change: The 18-footer comes to dominate the open boat classes: huge sail plans, crews of a dozen or more, and following ferries packed with spectators and punters.
At their peak more than thirty 18-footers raced each week, followed by crowds of spectators and punters in chartered ferries. 18-footer sailing attracted as great a following as horseracing, with prize money for the winners and bookies on the ferries. The skippers were the rock stars of sport in Sydney, and thousands lined the harbour to watch.
These were the heavily crewed, big-sail wooden boats whose replicas the club sails today: gaff rigs, ringtails set in light air, and crews who played first grade rugby in winter and sailed all summer, which is why the crews still wear football jumpers.