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BEYOND
THE CORAL COAST …
Getting
to know Alan Lucas…
(As
appeared in Cruising Helmsman Magazine) copywright by
Jo Djubal
Anybody who has sailed the East coast or read any number of sailing
magazines over the last four decades will know the name … Alan Lucas hit
the growing sailing scene in 1968 with the release of his indispensable
pilot book, Cruising the Coral Coast, now in its eighth edition. The second
cruising guide to be published in Australia, (the first being Joshua Bells
‘Moreton Bay and How to Fathom It) the book has enabled thousands of
cruisers to safely explore our East Coast armed with a wealth of first hand
information.
Twenty three books have been published under the Lucas nominer since
1964, covering not only Australian cruising grounds but the Pacific, Europe,
Red Sea and Indian Ocean, along with a plethora of How To Manuals.
Alan is quick to add that most ‘never went to a second edition and
many were unceremoniously remaindered…’ Regardless, many of us have more
than one well thumbed Lucas book in our library and remain on the look out
for additions to the collection! The majority of these publications have
been technical in genre - but between the pages lay a lifetime of adventure
anything but the book by nature…
Born in July 1936, the young Alan Lucas began his lifelong passion
for life afloat on the Lane Cove River, “…much of it trying to drown
myself in a strange range of home made craft, from tin canoes to rafts, war
surplus rubber dinghies and aeroplane wing fuel tanks…”
In his early teens, VJs and open 12’ skiffs replaced the earlier
prototypes before he became the proud owner of a “dilapidated 6 metre
launch” which he ketch rigged. Although a foundation member of the Sydney
Junior Offshore Group, racing has never featured heavily on the Lucas
sailing agenda. ”Big time racing doesn’t grab me being a non competitive
person,” he says. “However racing is the best way to acquire sail
trimming skills. In that area, cruising makes you pretty slack!”
Alan's flair for graphic layout has origins in his trade as a
commercial artist. Freelancing in advertising agencies kept him afloat
financially in the early years, enabling him to dabble in a variety of far
more alluring odd jobs like his stint on a 22m Tasmanian trading ketch
running fishing charters out of Sydney and working in the Royal Sydney Yacht
Squadron boatyard. This was “the best” - says Alan and no doubt the
beginning of his love affair for ‘mucking around with boats’.
His
authority on fitting out Above, Below, Inside and Out is more than verified
as his list of vessels unfolds …
At 22, he began building the first, a 9.5m plywood ketch called
‘Rendezvous’, launching her two years later as his first liveaboard
home. For 11 years, Rendezvous
carried Alan up and down the East Coast, to the Top End, Timor, The Solomons
and New Guinea. (Where he was lucky enough to meet Robin Lee Graham of Dove
fame…”His cat and mine got along famously.”) During this busy period
he also married, had a son and penned the first Coral Coast …
”The inspiration for the book came in 1963 when I proposed a series
of anchorage articles for the now defunct
‘Powerboat and
Yachting’ magazine. When told the pay, I decided to risk doing a book! I
tried getting a Queensland publisher to no avail so I sailed down to Sydney
where Horwitz Grahame finally accepted it in 1964. Why they then took four
years to release it is beyond explanation – I just don’t know because by
the time it was at last published, I was in the Torres Strait”
The ‘Hippy Era’ was in full swing and Alan says the guide was
well received more for its “folksy, life changing ways” than its
anchorage descriptions. “Incredibly, I received quite a few letters
thanking me for wrenching people out of their nine to fives to do something
different…The most extraordinary incident was when I found a castaway on a
Torres Strait Island who had accidentally been abandoned there by a charter
boat. He reckoned his battered copy of CCC was the only thing that kept him
alive. (In those days it had a lot of bush tucker and cooking type stuff in
it) He wasn’t fawning because he had no idea I was the author and I
didn’t tell him!”
While ‘Cruising The Coral Coast’ lured legions of ‘squares’
seaward (and sustained the odd castaway!), Rendezvous was meandering its way
far from the limelight but indelibly into Alans memory as one of his
favourite boats. He affectionately remembers his first liveaboard home as
“ Rough as guts but a good sailer that never needed a hand on the tiller
– she balanced on all reaches with nothing more than sail adjustment.”
If only life ashore could have been as easily trimmed... After moving
onto Palm Island where he worked as skipper of the cargo boat, his marriage
failed and. Rendezvous was sold.
By 1972, life on the land had lost its novelty – forever. “I have
to tell you, living ashore was the most vile period of my life…”
Alan emphatically maintains. When asked to share his most frustrating
cruising experience, his answer is simply, “None. The only frustrations
I’ve experienced were living ashore…”
Over thirty five years living aboard lay ahead but back then he
simply longed to return “to a lifestyle that never hurt me…”
Leaving Palm Island behind, he bought a steel hull and deck in
Gladstone, refitted her over a few months and set off on this original
‘Soleares’ to cruise the East Coast, completing the second edition of
Coral Coast and the original guide to the NSW Coast along the way.
In 1975, he found a kindred spirit in second wife, Patricia. A widow
with three children and a sense of adventure to more than match his own,
Patricia was immediately at ease on the water. The instant family demanded a
bigger boat and a “very run down motor sailer named Silver Spray” was
quickly purchased. Once again, a refit was needed, this time at Mosman
Marina before a quick jaunt North where Silver Spray was sold. Moving ashore
behind Hervey Bay, the couple set upon building themselves a ‘real family
sized boat’ – the 18m ferro schooner, ‘Alegrias’. In just 15 months
their new home was launched and fitting out completed afloat.
So with their newly built ‘real’ boat, the
Lucas family headed off for “…points North, South, East and West, doing
the usual coastal thing plus the SW Pacific.”
Alan nominates “Watching the joy of my second family as they saw
New Guinea for the first time.” as one of his lifes cruising
highlights…”My tearing them out of Sydney suburbia more than
vindicated…” Diminishing
family numbers and the high cost of running a big boat eventually saw
Alegrias delivered to Darwin for a new owner in 1980 and the next chapter
began…
Another stint of shore life was narrowly avoided when “…going
ashore from Alegrias, wondering where the hell we were going to live, we
stumbled on a 14m ferro cutter in the Sailing Club Yard – just a bare hull
and deck plus an engine, mast and a bit of hardware. We bought her, stowed
most of our gear aboard, then drove to Sydney to round up equipment and
revise my NSW book…”
You need a boat to revise a cruising guide! And yes, yet another
refit ensued. This time a Tasman Seabird named ‘Response’ was given the
Lucas touch before ‘doing’ the NSW coast. After serving its purpose,
Response was sold and the couple returned to their new cutter, ‘Tientos’
in Darwin. “There were just three of us by then, living in a perpetual
dust storm as we fitted her out and rigged her…”
Tientos hit the water in September 1981, Indonesia in sight. But
endless trouble with failed equipment saw them returning to Darwin, “I
think all companies sent their duds to Darwin back then!” Alan muses.
After a second failed attempt they finally gave up, sailing to Cairns for
what Alan termed a ‘proper recommissioning!’
Perseverance paid off and in 1982 they left Gove on a
circumnavigation covering 5 years and producing some vivid memories, like
Alans most nerve wracking moment at sea when they were “… fired at by an
Ethiopian gunboat, ordered alongside in a 3 metre swell and interrogated
under a row of cocked rifles.”
(Although
a number of Guides were written during this sojourn, Tientos’ cruising
adventures could easily form another book – we can only hope!)
Returning home in 1987, Tientos was one of the last boats to be
cleared in Maryborough before the customs office closed mid year. Another
revision of the Coral Coast was due and the family again headed North for
Torres Strait.
Son, Ben was ready for high school the following year, prompting the
next round of musical masts … ” We deluded ourselves into believing we
couldn’t handle the correspondence schooling so moved into a home unit at
Point Clare, near Gosford NSW.”
14m of boat was obviously more than they now needed and Tientos was
sold to make way for ‘Renee Tighe’…
As with most of the Lucas’ purchases, the 9m wooden ketch was in
deplorable condition. “We bought her in Queensland, then sailed (and
bailed!) her back to Point Clare. I put her in an industrial yard and spent
all of 1989 restoring her before launching in 1990.While Ben enjoyed high
school (and a peer group that didn’t sail away), Patricia found a good job
and I spent much of my time at sea somewhere along the coast…” A few
years later, Alan and Patricia moved aboard permanently, leaving Ben where
he wanted to be - ashore. “It worked out well” Alan says “because he
could ‘man the base’ for mail transfers etc!”
Five years cruising followed as the couple took on the massive job of
self publishing the Coral Coast…”The pay is better but the commitment to
be somewhere within reasonable reach is a tough balancing act.” Alan says
“Going foreign again was out.”
However a new project beckoned – more than big enough to
temporarily quell any wanderlust … “For some time, Patricia and I had
wanted to build the ‘ultimate’ boat which, regardless of how experienced
one becomes, remains a vague notion. But our choice was a 15m shoal draft
ketch developed from the lines of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack. We built
Soleares II of fibreglass over seventeen months and launched her in June
1999. Renee Tighe was sold during the period, having overlapped nicely as a
home. This all happened in Maryborough, just 20 odd miles from where we
built Alegrias twenty three years earlier …”
So what is Alan Lucas up to now? Soleares II is currently cruising
the East Coast for the third time. Revision of the NSW and Coral Coast books
motivated the first two voyages - an
enviable work agenda! As Alan says, ”To earn ones living with, on and
about boats is about as good as it gets for a cruising person” But with
the recent release of the 8th Coral Coast, Alan and Patricia are
enjoying a leisurely cruise this time round…
Does he have a favourite cruising ground? ”Not really” he says,
“It is all great and no sooner do I arrive at one than I miss the last.
It’s all about lifestyle to me, not where you are.”
A definition of the ideal cruising boat? “One that satisfies
you.” he simply replies.
As for the future, in true cruiser fashion, Alans plans are non
committal. “…To keep doing what I love doing for as long as possible.”
No doubt further revisions of the Cruising Guides will ensue and, hopefully,
more memoirs of his cruising adventures!
Are there any current issues on the water he feels strongly about?
“Yes. Very strongly. But positive criticism, regardless of how
constructive it might be, is now called ‘being negative’ in new speak.
This succeeds in destroying sensible debate and lets the rich win everytime…”
Despite his reticence, it’s safe to assume Alan Lucas is fiercely
protective of the freedom inherent in a cruising lifestyle and all that
it
entails …
This undeniable icon of Australian cruising and ceaseless adventurer
has passionately charted a life many of us can only dream of. Along the way,
he has inspired and guided many towards their own calm anchorages while
quietly living by an all encompassing philosophy …”When you live life on
your terms, in your preferred environment and can support yourself within
that environment doing something you love, life doesn’t get much better
… A billion dollars couldn’t buy my scene…”
END
LIST
OF BOOKS – In chronological order of publication
Cruising
the Coral Coast – 8 editions
Just
Cruising
Cruising
the New South Wales Coast – 5 editions
The
Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Boating
Cruising
Papua New Guinea
Barrier
Reef Rendezvous
The
Schooner
Cruising
New Caledonia and Vanuatu
Cruising
the Solomons
The
Tools and Materials of Boatbuilding
The
Cruising Boat
Fitting
Out Below Decks
Fitting
Out Mechanically
Fitting
Out Above Decks
Cruising
Companion
Cruising
to Europe
Red
Sea and Indian Ocean Cruising Guide
Cruising
in Tropical Waters and Coral
Cruising
Australians
How
to Build Small Boats
How
to Sail Small Boats
Australian
Cruising Guide
Sydney
to Central Coast Waterways Guide |
