VIETNAM War veteran Russell Wiseman has donated a rare sailing boat to Sailability Bayside, an organisation that helps people with disabilities experience the thrill of boating.
Mr Wiseman, who spent years sailing with his family, acquired the boat from an elderly woman in Noosa.
After performing necessary repairs to the deck and centreboard, the boat is now ready to sail.
Mr Wiseman is dedicating the boat to his late father, Roy, who shared a lifelong passion for sailing with him.
“I’m dedicating it to my dad, Roy. We used to sail in the 16-foot skiffs from the same clubhouse when it was on Darling Point,” he said.
Roy Wiseman, an electrician, played a key role in wiring the clubhouse in the late 1960s.
“I was only 10 or 12, and I nailed all the floorboards there – so it goes back a long way,” Mr Wiseman said.
Reflecting on his own sailing experiences, he shared some fond memories from his early days on the water.
“I started off as a bailer boy and ended up on the main sheet,” Mr Wiseman said.
“They had a memorial race one day – I was on the main sheet and Dad was forward hand.
“The skipper was Donnie Piper, who’s got some boats he built in the museum at South Brisbane.”
In true sailing tradition, Mr Wiseman recalled a moment when a boat sailing past dropped its jib to acknowledge them.
“Not to be outdone”, Roy dropped the bigger mainsail and “hit us three on the head”.
This playful exchange led to Roy earning the nickname “Clancy”, after the famous song Clancy Lowered the Boom, a moniker now memorialised on the donated boat’s bow.
Mr Wiseman noted that the donated boat is highly sought after, with several Sailability contacts already on the lookout for a similar vessel.
“I’ve been online trying to get one from Sydney but they’re very rare that someone sells one, you know,” he said.
Although Mr Wiseman’s regular sailing days are behind him, he’s open to taking the boat out one more time.
