In one group of images in the Hall Collection of familiar 18-footers from the early 1930s I noticed that each boat had a female crew member, invariably dressed in white, so it was almost certain that the images were taken on a Queen of the Harbour race. The fact that the images were all grouped together and that the conditions on the water were the same indicated that the images were from the one event. The presence of ARGO (blue shield with cross insignia) meant that it had to be either the 1932-33 season or the 1933-34 season. The presence of ARAWATTA with her Bermudan rig which she abandoned in February 1933 meant that it had to be the 4th Queen of the Harbour Race in December 1932.
The images appear here in the numbered order but the sequence mixes up the runs and the works, but this one appears to be from early in the race as the fleet approaches Bradleys on the first leg, but is possibly after the Clark mark on the leg to Chowder Head. KISMET (Aus flag) is in the foreground, far left is MASCOTTE, then SHAMROCK, AUSTRALIA, ARAWATTA with Bermudan rig and HC PRESS partially obscured beyond KISMET.
The Queen of the Harbour race was a big deal. 132 ladies raised money for the Benevolent Society of NSW and its Royal Hospital for Women, the top 27 fundraisers drew lots for which of the 27 boats in the fleet they would be aboard. Mrs Iris Stark raised the most, a total of 82 pounds 2 shillings. The candidates were paraded for the public on Clark Island prior to the race, as in the photo below, which is possibly from another year.
ARGO crosses ADVANCE.
Can’t make out the insignia on any of these boats, but there’s a lady aboard and the numbers are sequential.
ONDA on a work.
KISMET again in the foreground, chasing SHAMROCK and ARAWATTA, with ARGO well ahead distant left, YENDYS distant beyond SHAMROCK mains’l.
HC PRESS on the work.
ARLINE on the work. ARLINE broke their mast after the Chowder Head mark while in 4th place.
GLORIA on the run.
Unidentified boat on the run raising or striking their ringtail.
Part of the fleet on the run from the Sow and Pigs, ADVANCE and DESDEMONA in the foreground.
ARGO on the work.
MASCOTTE on the work with a bit of furious bailing going on. FURIOUS beyond right
AVALON the eventual winner, on the work.
CUTTY SARK leads GLORIA. This is more likely to be approaching the turning mark at Clark, because GLORIA was 2nd and CUTTY SARK 3rd at the finish.
CUTTY SARK approaching either the turning mark at Clark or the finish line where she was 3rd.
The Queen of the Harbour Mrs Frank Austin who won an Austin 7 car! From the Sydney Morning Herald Monday 5 Dec 1932 p12.