31st March 2008
by Peter Campbell
The Sydney Etchells fleet will go into battle for an historic trophy won by a Gallipoli hero a century ago when they sail for the Port Jackson Championship next weekend.
Conducted by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, the Port Jackson Championship is likely to see a fleet of 25 or more boats line up for the first three heats next Saturday, April 5, with three more heats on the Sunday.
With Anzac Day just a few weeks away, they will race for the Eaton Cup, a sterling silver cup made in England about the turn of the last century and later given as trophy for a training competition between reserve members of the Australian Light Horse.
Nick Kingsmill & the Eaton Cup
Prominent Etchells skipper Nick Kingsmill has donated the Eaton Cup for the Port Jackson Championship in honour of his great grandfather, Captain Marwood Cleeve.
In 1909, Captain Cleeve, a member of the No 4 Squadron of the 4th Light Horse Regiment, won the Cup for a “Battle Firing Competition” at Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales.
Captain Cleeve landed on Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, and stayed on for the duration, during which he won a Military Cross. After Gallipoli he was sent to France, fought on the Somme and was Mentioned in Despatches.
Captain Cleeve MC MID returned to Australia and became a Magistrate in country NSW.
Sydney Etchells Fleet Captain Peter Alexander said today the Eaton Cup was awarded to Captain Cleeve for ‘skill, accuracy and firepower.’
“We think that is also an appropriate description of the one-design racing in the International Etchells class and I expect that every sailor racing in the 2008 Port Jackson Championship will do so in honour of an Australian hero of Gallipoli,” he said.
”The Port Jackson Championship, the final series of the RSYS summer season of 2007-2008, has always underlined the intense competition of Etchells sailing on Sydney Harbour.
“In fact, there have been seven different winners over the past seven seasons – Roger Hickman (2007), Gary Cassidy (2006), Ian Porter (2005), Rob Weir (2004), current RSYS Rear Commodore Richard Chapman (2003), Neville Wittey (2001) and Peter Alexander (2000).”
Among the entries for the Etchells Port Jackson Championship is Alice Springs-based yachts Geoff Rose who has his boat, Second Wind, based in the Metung fleet at Lakes Entrance, Victoria.
Will McCarthy, a two-times winning America’s Cup sailor with the Swiss yacht Alinghi, will also be racing with his father Ed on North Sydney Station.
Footnote: The Australian War Memorial’s website has a photograph of Captain Marwood Cleeve MC MID taken during the Gallipoli campaign.
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