Jim Goss and the Beginnings of SoPYC.

This is the story of Jim Goss, a founding member of the South Perth Yacht Club, told through recollections from his son Kevin Goss.

Jim Goss was the last surviving Founding Member of the South Perth Yacht Club when he passed away in 2007. He was proud of this and in his words “in recent years they have done me the honour of calling me a founding member instead of a foundation member.”

Prompted by my recorded interview, Dad recalled that at the conclusion of the Second World War ‘a couple of meetings of just a few blokes teed up an official meeting at the Como Sea Scouts Hall at The Olives on the Como foreshore, to propose a new yacht club. Jim also recalled a well attended meeting at the Mends Street Hall which he said ‘formed the club’. Their motivation was to have a club ‘south of the River’ when all the other yacht clubs were north side. According to the Club’s and State Heritage records the South Perth Yacht Club was founded at the Sea Scouts Hall on 18 December 1945. Jim was 27 years old at the time.

Jim was unclear which meetings he and his much older brother Fred attended – meeting minutes were not kept until official foundation – but they were soon involved. According to Jim, key movers to form the club included Frank Sampson and Tom Kempkin, both builders, and Dave Robins (father of Noel Robins) who worked for the ’supply department’. According to State Heritage “the original clubhouse of the South Perth Yacht Club was an army disposal mess building. Club members volunteered to remove the building from its original site at Point Walter, Bicton, and to transport it to its new site on the Como foreshore.” Dad was present for this relocation and build, and according to him Dave Robins ‘got a heap of old power poles delivered and dumped there for tuppence’, for piles for our jetty. He organised a lot of this sort of work and became the historian of the club. He was very involved and he did a marvellous job.’

Jim donated photos of the clubhouse under construction to the South of Perth Yacht Club. Although he isn’t seen in any of them (he took the photos), his Border Collie dog Terry, can be seen in one shot. These framed photos were hanging in the Club rooms, near the entry to the bar and the stairs, when I last visited 10-15 years ago.

I unsure what drew Dad to forming the new club. He and his friend Max Shean, lived opposite on Suburban Road (now Mill Point Road), South Perth, and as boys spent hours in the Perth Water shallows with home-made canoes and model yacht sailing. Max went on to greater nautical adventures in midget submarines in World War II (and the 1979 Parmelia race); and upon on his return joined in the Club’s foundation and raced in its first season. Max’ sister married into the Nevard family, who also lived on Suburban Road. The Nevard boys, Peter and Barry, also sailed with the SoPYC.

The Vaucluse Junior or Vee Jay was the popular craft for the new club (see two photos of VJs on the Club foreshore; some with taller rigs may be Vaucluse Seniors). According to State Heritage the first yacht race was 13 January 1946 and the official clubhouse opening 18 November 1946. Jim built three Vee Jays and raced them. One was called Metis, shown in attached photos as SP14 with a wavy-shaped insignia. Besides the clubhouse photos there is one with his VJ on a paperbark lined foreshore, one with his wife-to-be Evelyn and sister Peg, and another on the opposite Applecross foreshore with Ev, his father-in-law Will (who lived on Canning Beach Road) and the SPYC clubhouse in the background. I recall one of Dad’s Vee Jays with varnished plywood deck, a sole straight leaning plank (later to be two curved ones) and a small, deep rectangular inset for keeping sheets tidy (later to be a shallow dish-like depression). By the 1970s VJ racing was in decline; however today, there is one on display at the Western Australia Maritime Museum, Fremantle.

I have a hazy memory of going to the Como-based club with Dad (up to the age of 12). I do clearly recall the day a couple of yachts needed rescuing from entanglement with the cross-river floating pipework that took dredged river sediment to the foreshore as a foundation for the coming freeway. With the Club under pressure to relocate, Jim and Max Shean suggested the Coffee Point site, requiring a small name change.

Jim recounted one sailing story in another interview with his grandson. ‘One day I sailed over [to] a fleet race over at the Mounts Bay Yacht Club which everyone went to and joined in; club to club races, then you came home.  It was getting pretty dark by then, and I’m sailing back on the VJ.  They had a swinging plank on the VJ.  When you haven’t got enough weight to hold it up against a stiff breeze you got out on this plank and held on out there and lever it against the breeze.  You go faster you see.  Frank McGrath was my forward hand, and I said to Frank “Here you are then – now is your chance – you take the tiller and I’ll get on the swinging plank.” So he could have a go. I got out on the swinging plank and heaved and heaved as much as I could to keep the boat upright and, snap, the swinging plank broke.  I fell into the water and this boat was pelting along before the breeze; no centre plate down because you didn’t need it.  You could go faster without it.  Way down breeze from me and I’m in the water.  He rounded up further down and he says “Hang on Jim, I’ll get the plate down, I’ll get back”.  Which he did. He got the plate down and he sailed against the breeze back to me and picked me up.  I would say if it wasn’t Frank McGrath I wouldn’t be here today because all the other forward hands I had would never be capable of doing that.’

Meanwhile, my Uncle Fred had also joined the club from June 1946 (according to the memorial photo donated to the South of Perth Yacht Club by his wife Slope (Alison)). I have shared two photos of un-named boats moored at the Como-based club, one a gaff-rig with Fred standing alongside me as a young boy. This may have been his boat. In my time Fred and Slope owned a modest-sized power boat and competed in South of Perth Yacht Club time trials, while also taking it to Rottnest and Garden Islands.

In this photograph of the first ladies’ auxiliary of 1946, it’s possible that in the bottom row were office bearers wives, but the top row is almost exclusively Goss family. – Kate Rutland, Alison Goss, Peg Goss, Evelyn Goss & Doreen Goss.

Peg Goss passed away in 1963, Fred in 1988, Alison in 1996, Doreen in 2002, Jim in 2007, and Evelyn and my brother John in 2014 – ending the Goss family association with the South of Perth Yacht Club.

The above stories have been told to the archive team through a series of emails during which Kevin Goss freely shared stories of his father, his family and those around him on and around the South of Perth Yacht club. The H28 archivist helped with some historical details. Kevin also supplied the photographs and the archive team recognises their wonderful addition to our history.