| Australia. World War II hero to start 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race |
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; "Dennis Mason: © Andrea Francolini")
| Tuesday, 14 November 2006 | |
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Peter Campbell: A World War II hero who sailed in the third Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race back in 1947 will be the Official Starter of this year’s 62nd annual ocean classic. English-born Dennis Mason, now aged 90, has accepted the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s invitation to fire the starting cannon to send the fleet on its way south on Boxing Day. Dennis sailed aboard Hal Evans’ yawl Moonbi. Joining him as the Starting Team will be John Powell, who crewed on the South Australian yacht Nerida in 1947 and when she won in 1950, and Trygve Halvorsen who, with his brother Magnus, won five Sydney Hobarts including three in succession with Freya, and is another veteran of early Hobarts. Dennis Mason, a retired motor industry executive who lives in Sydney, sailed in just one Sydney Hobart Race but he has had a lifelong long involvement in sailing, in England and Australia, and still goes out for an occasional cruise on Harbour with his son Greg, a CYCA member, on his yacht Sine Wave. Dennis Mason moved to Australia from England twice to further his career, once as a young man in 1938 and again after World War II in 1946 after a distinguished wartime career with the RAF and the Marqui, the French Resistance, after being shot down over France. Earlier in the War, whilst on leave, he also sailed across the Channel on a small boat to help rescue British soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk. Dennis trained as an airgunner in the UK and on the Isle of Man, being commissioned as a gunnery instructor. He also flew missions over France and Germany in Wellington bombers with 102 Squadron and Lancaster bombers with 622 Squadron before being shot down on his sixth mission. He parachuted into northern France, landing near Montargis where he fought with the Marqui for three months before being taken through German lines to join up with the advancing United States forces in 1945. For his wartime efforts he was awarded the Air Force Cross, the French Resistance Medal and the Dunkirk Medal. Dennis’ father was killed in World War I and he was brought up his grandfather, a keen yachtsman who sailed his own yacht, Monometre, on the Thames Estuary. “I sailed Dragons and Thames One Designs and once got invited aboard Sir Thomas Lipton’s J-boat Shamrock IV at Southend,” a recollection that makes Dennis’ eyes light up. Returning to Sydney after the war in 1946, Dennis met Hal Evans, owner of Moonbi, who invited him to “come for a sail.” That led to him crewing aboard Moonbi in the 1947 race in which the yawl placed fourth (she won the race in 1955) with Dennis describing the voyage to Hobart as “not too uncomfortable, with fairly stiff winds down the NSW coast until Bass Strait.” That was Dennis Mason’s one and only Sydney Hobart Race, preferring to sailing Dragons on Pittwater and then a Heron to teach his son Greg to sail, and sail enjoying a relaxed cruise on Greg’s yacht. But he always closely followed the progress of the fleet south from Boxing Day for the next 58 years. This year will have an added interest for the veteran yachtsman and war hero. http://rolexsydneyhobart.com/default.asp |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 14 November 2006 ) |
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