South Passage is a Purpose Built Sail Training Schooner.
South Passage is a gaff rigged schooner – this means she has two masts and the aft mast is taller than the foremast. She flies four sails – a main sail, fore sail and two head sails. The top speed she has achieved is 16.7 knots – just over 31 kph in the 2007 Brisbane to Gladstone yacht race.
The Sail Training Ship South Passage owes her birth to Simon and Marilyn Steenland.
They came to Australia in 1971 with their family and loved the freedom and opportunities available in ‘the best country in the world‘. They had a desire to put something back into the community but didn‘t know what. They are keen sailors and in 1988 saw the tall ships from all around the world in Brisbane on their way to the bicentennial celebrations in Sydney. The fleet included vessels from WA, SA, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania but none from Queensland.
They set out to remedy this anomaly and with marine designer Rick James, Simon decided to build a gaff rigged schooner based on the nineteenth century pilot ships that sailed off the east coast of America.
She would have a shallow draft to allow safe sailing in Moreton Bay and along the east coast of Australia with a flexible sail configuration to suit many different wind conditions. It was decided that South Passage would be built to suit 14–17 year olds so she was designed so that all the sails can be managed from the deck. She has an aluminium hull and uses modern materials but apart from an engine everything is done manually.
She was launched on 23 September 1993 and named South Passage after the channel between Moreton and North Stradbroke Islands. Her maiden voyage with 24 students was in December 1993.
Since then she has taken over 30,000 students sailing on voyages varying from six hours to seven days.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
- Designer: Rick James B.E. (NA) MRINA (Aust)
- Builder: Steenland Constructions
- Length: 30.5 meters (including bowsprit)
- Beam: 5.8 meters
- Draught: 2.2 meters
- Height: 22.7 meters
- Sail Area: 270 sq. meters
- Displacement: 60 tonnes
