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Diamond Cutter II
Diamond Cutter II
Diamond Cutter II
Diamond Cutter II in 1985 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, photo by Richard Bennet. Photo provided by Ken Mascord

CountryAustralia
Boat TypeDavidson 36
Sail Number2776
ClubMiddle Harbour Yacht Club
RigSloop
Year Build1979 (age 45)
Owner (s)Alan Sweeney
Former CrewAlan Sweeney
Bob Fraser
Campbell Knox
Deborah Banks
Julie Hodder
Ken Mascord
Mike Sharp
Patrick
Paul Boothby
Robin Crawford

Diamond Cutter II

Alan Sweeney bought Diamond Cutter II in 1979 after he sold the first Diamond Cutter I.

Many of these photos are mine or from MHYC. Some were obtained from other sites including:

Document sans titre (histoiredeshalfs.com)

(4) Phil Uhl Studios Hawaii | Facebook

About

Diamond Cutter 1980's
Diamond Cutter 1980's
Diamond Cutter at MHYC

1979

Southern Cross Cup and Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1979

Diamond Cutter was on the winning NSW team. See Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1979. Diamond Cutter is middle left.

Skipper Alan Sweeney (5)
Navigator A Shaw (3)
Crew I Broad (2), C Hay (4), G Ditchburn (1), C Rogers (2)
Diamond Cutter 1979 Ocean Racing Digest 1980
Diamond Cutter in 1979 Hobart Ocean Racing Digest 1980
Southern Cross 1979 Results

1980

1980 Tasman Sea Trophy and Mooloolaba and Gladstone Races

Trifecta to Diamond Cutter - Ampol Tasman Sea Trophy

This year's Ampol Sydney to Mooloolaba Yacht Race 1980 was a great triumph for Middle Harbour yachts which filled four of the first five places. Alan Sweeney must be particularly congratulated for his second win in three years and also for winning the Brisbane to Gladstone Race which followed.

It is believed to be the first time that the same yacht has won these two major events.

Diamond Cutter then went on to win the Gladstone to Bundaberg Race completing a remarkable treble on her trip north. Fanny Adams (Jim Allan and Barry Bloomfield) won line the Brisbane to Gladstone Race and the Ampol line honours trophy will grace our cabinets for the first time since Ron Swanson won it in Sundowner in 1969.

Syd Yaffe in Patsy sailed consistently well, and his second place was a just reward for his efforts. This combined with excellent results in the Montagu and Solitary races enabled him to win the Ampol Tasman Sea Trophy without entering the final event, the Gladstone Race. Satin Sheets, skippered by Andrew Strachan from Lake Macquarie was second in the Ampol Tasman Sea Trophy with Peter Gray in Hobo from Port Hacking third. Incidentally the navigator of Hobo in the Mooloolaba and Gladstone races was Middle Harbour life member Frank Likely, the only yatchsman to have competed in every Sydney to Brisbane or Mooloolaba race.

The Ampol Tasman Sea Trophy plus second and third prizes will be presented at the No. 1 Offshore Division dinner on Wednesday 21st May.

Ken White in Salamanda II and Keith Tierney in Kintama also sailed remarkably well in the Ampol Sydney to Mooloolaba race and no one could begrudge them their trophies. Perhaps the most deserving skipper not to gain a prize was Marshall Phillips who owns Sweet Caroline. Sweet Caroline broke her mast a week or two before the race and when Marshall could not get a replacement he hartered Sagittarius (the former Diamond Cutter with Allan Sweeney won the 1978 race), ransferred the safety equipment from Sweet Caroline and had the rating certificate revalidated in the forty eight hours before the race.

Marshall, a Middle Harbour Yacht Club member gained fourth place in No. 2 Division and was sixth overall.

Ragamuffin, skippered by Syd Fischer turned in his usual fine performance to be second in Division one and we should not forget that Syd is a Middle Harbour member of long standing.

A particularly gratifying feature of the race was the praise given by prominent skippers from other Clubs for the conduct of the radio skeds.

To our thanks to Peter Zeins we add our gratitude to Dick McElhinney, skipper of Sea Gatta, Derek Barnard of Penta Base, Ansett Airlines and other donors and particularly to Mooloolaba Yacht Club and Ampol Petroleum Ltd., whose sponsorship of the Ampol Tasman Sea Trophy makes the event 

Trifecta to Diamond Cutter
Trifecta to Diamond Cutter

Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1980

MHYC Boats competing in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1980, included Diamond Cutter (25th overall), White Pointer - Keith Le Compte (38th), Pryority - John Pryor (27th), Battlestar (Harry Janes) and Sweet Caroline -Marshal Phillips (RET).

Diamond Cutter Crew
Skipper Alan Sweeney (6)
Navigator J Robson-Scott (14)
Crew Mike Sharp (5), Wally Wardell (3), Paul Boothby (3), John Everett (1), S Fergusson, B Henshall, G Robson-Scott
Oops Sorry Officer - Diamond Cutter and Police Car
Oops Sorry Officer - Diamond Cutter and Police Car
Oops Sorry Officer - Diamond Cutter and Police Car
Oops Sorry Officer - Diamond Cutter and Police Car
Diamond Cutter at the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1980
Diamond Cutter at the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1980
Diamond Cutter at the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1980
Paul Boothby getting Diamond Cutter ready

MHYC Log and the MHYC Spectator Boat

Publish 1981 Feb/Mar - 1980 Start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

Oops Sorry Officer - Diamond Cutter II and Police Car
MHYC Log Feb/Mar - MHYC Log Feb/Mar - Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1980
Thomas Family on MHYC Spectator Ferry

Docking in Hobart

Diamond Cutter - Finish of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1980
Diamond Cutter - Finish of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1980
Diamond Cutter - Finish of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1980

1981

Diamond Cutter: MHYC's The Log August 1981 Mooloolaba
Diamond Cutter watching the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1981? Photo by Phil Uhl Studios Hawaii

1982

Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1982

Diamond Cutter Crew in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1982

Skipper Alan Sweeney (7)
Navigator Robbie Grant (4)
Crew Col Wildman (15), Paul Boothby (4), Mike Downman (3), Patrick St John, Greg Riding (4), Campbell Knox, John Everett (1)
Diamond Cutter Crew - Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1982
Diamond Cutter - Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1982
Diamond Cutter - Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1982 - John Walker if foreground
Diamond Cutter - Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1982
Diamond Cutter - Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1982
Diamond Cutter - Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1982
Campbell Know and Paul Boothby - Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1982

1983

Brilliant Win to Vice Commodore Alan Sweeney - MHYC The Log July 1983
Diamond Cutter Crew - Julie Hodder and Deborah Winfield (now Deborah Banks(
This may be the start of the 1985 Hobart
This may be the start of the 1985 Hobart

1984

1984 Hobart

Diamond Cutter Crew in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1984

Skipper Alan Sweeney (9)
Navigator Robert (Bobby) Grant (4)
Crew Greg Riding, Charlie Herbert (9), Paul Boothby (5), Mike Downman (4), Campbell Knox (1), Julie Formby (now Julie Hodder), I Sharp
Diamond Cutter Crew
Diamond Cutter leaving for Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1984
Diamond Cutter leaving for Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1984
Diamond Cutter leaving for Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1984
The Manly Daily - Boats limp home sad but Safe
Raging Weather Claims a terrible toll in race
The Mosman Daily 1
The Mosman Daily 2
Yachties tie the knot

1985 Hobart

Diamond Cutter Crew in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 1985

Skipper Alan Sweeney (8)
Navigator Ken Mascord
Crew Charlie Herbert (10), Campbell Knox (2), R Stone (1), Deborah Winfield, C Finn

From Ken Mascord's Memoirs

"In 1985, Sweeny entered Diamond Cutter II in the Sydney to Hobart.  It proved an interesting race.  

We started in a good northerly which stayed in all afternoon until the southerly came through at midnight.  We were off Jervis Bay, well out to sea; we'd been chasing a strong southerly current, so we set out to take full advantage of it.  South from Jervis Bay, the current swept to sea in an eddy, so we didn't have to keep heading so far to sea.  It wasn't a strong southerly and settled down to a good sailing breeze.  

All day, I watched the wind and the sky.  By evening, the southerly was fading.  The forecast predicted that it would continue easing and jiggle to the south east.  All yachties know, that's what a southerly does, right?  

I was reading signs that pointed to it kicking back in from the west so being on the western side of the fleet wasn't going to be the wrong side to be.  Some of the crew were annoyed.  I'd put them exactly in the wrong place.  But I'd seen this once before when I'd misread the situation.  Bout nine  pm that night when we were somewhere near Green Cape, the wind came in fresh and hard from slightly south of west.  We sailed across the paddock powered up with slightly sprung sheets and carried that breeze all the way down the eastern Tasmanian coat. 

I calculated that we were leading on corrected time from the morning after that westerly stream came in and held that position all the way to Tasman Island.  What the sailing gods give, they take away.  At Tasman Island, we sailed into a deadly hole and parked for four hours.  We managed a fifth place on corrected time but who ever heard of the yacht that came fifth."

Diamond Cutter II in 1985 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, photo by Richard Bennet. Photo provided by Ken Mascord
Diamond Cutter II, (c1985) photo provided by Ken Mascord

1985 Hamilton Island

Diamond Cutter 1985 Hamilton Island

1986

Alan sold Diamond Cutter in 1986

 1996

Monday 22nd July 

In 1996, she was sold to an owner from Melbourne.

On Monday 22nd July, the beautiful Diamond Cutter sailing from Launceston to Queenscliff. She hit rocks off Wilsons Promontory and was wrecked.

A sad ending to a great boat. The news stories can be viewed here on Utube www.youtube.com/watch?v=3evDi5L0IBk

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3evDi5L0IBk

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