The Robert Lundie collection

Robert “Bob” Lundie (1900-1992) had a long sailing career in open boat sailing, in 10s, 12s, 16s and 18 foot skiffs. As a skiff sailor with the Sydney Flying Squadron, Bob is best remembered as a kite setter aboard the legendary Britania for all-time great “Wee” Georgie Robinson in a record 11 successive championships.

After retiring from competitive sailing he had a long and distinguished career as an administrator of various amateur sailing clubs, most notably as the longest serving president of the Sydney 18ft Flying Squadron, a position he held continuously for almost 30 years.

The Lundie Collection was acquired by the Sydney Heritage Fleet in 1997 under the terms of his estate. At the Sydney Flying Squadron’s request, the Collection was relocated in October 2018, under a permanent loan agreement basis with the Sydney Heritage Fleet, to enable research and display at the Sydney Flying Squadron club premises.

The Lundie Collection held by the Sydney Heritage Fleet includes:

• Photographs of skiffs dating from early 1900s to 1990s. Many of these photographs have names of skiff and skipper written on the back of the photo.
• Photographs of people and places associated with skiff sailing. Some of these photographs have names written on the back of the photo, many photos are not captioned.
• Copies of “Sailing through Australia” newsletter from 1^st edition 1924 through to 1931-32 season.
• Copies of “The Open Boat” newsletter from 1933-34 through to 1939-40 season.
• Copies of Sydney Flying Squadron Programmes from 1940-41 through to 1990-91 season. Not all seasons are held.
• Files containing newspaper articles on skiffs or personalities.

 

Digitization of a small part of the collection has been undertaken. Click here for:

Photographs of skiffs

This is a sample of the collection only showing skiffs in action from 1905 to 1965.

Cover pages of newsletter “Sailing through Australia” 1924-1925 season

In 1924 the Sydney Flying Squadron and Sydney Sailing Club produced a weekly newsletter. This newsletter provided biographical stories and results together with a programme detailing the skiffs and their colours.

 

For further information on the Lundie Collection contact:

 

The Maritime Records and Research Centre’s Curator on 02 9298 3850 or [email protected]/home

The Sydney Flying Squadron, 76 McDougall St, Kirribilli NSW 2061 on (02) 9955 8350

 

A sample of the photos is shown below.