By Narayan Pattison
Many Brisbane boaties will know Ross Muir from his work managing Muir Marine in Manly for 30+ years. A local S.E.Queensland boating legend, Ross has tirelessly handcrafted two timber dinghies, paying homage to his family’s classic yachts from the 1900s.
The Muir contribution to boating is huge, stretching well beyond Ross’ time in Manly, to his father Jock’s boat building business in Hobart’s Battery Point in the mid-1900s.
It was at the family boat yard that Ross began his own apprenticeship in the early 1960s. Ross developed his boat-making skills, while his father was building Balandra for the Admiral’s Cup team in 1967. Not long after, his father built Trevassa, which he finished in 1971. The former owner later sold Trevassa to the Muir family in 2012.
Ross, along with his brothers John and Greg, painstakingly restored the yacht. In particular, Ross handcrafted a beautiful custom steering wheel and table, so it was fitting that Ross named his recent Huon Pine timber dinghy Trevassa Too.
After finishing his apprenticeship with his father in the 1960s, Ross began running his own successful marine boat-building, rigging, and chandlery in Hobart. In 1987, Ross made the decision to move his family up to Manly, where he still lives today.
The Muir Marine business opened in 1988, after Ross took over a local chandlery shop. True to his Tasmanian roots, Ross has kept the business focused on boat rigging and chandlery, and has kept the shop open seven days a week, with the help of his son, Jason. Now, 50 years on, the Manly harbour is absolutely filled with boats. It is the biggest boat harbour on the east coast, and the second biggest in the country.
To successfully build the two classic dinghies Ross split his time between his Manly workshop, where the accessories were made, and Hobart, where he did all the hard yakka on the boat hulls.
Both of the timber dinghies are tributes to the work of Ross’ family and friends. The first dinghy built was the 10-foot Trevassa Too, crafted out of Tasmanian Blackwood and Huon Pine. The second dinghy, Kittywake IV, is based on the 1921 cadet clinker dinghy design. The cadet dinghies later moved to fibreglass, so this is the first timber cadet to be built in about 40 years.
As one can imagine, the building process for these dinghies was extremely labour intensive. Ross put about six months of labour into each one. Two-thirds of that time was spent constructing and varnishing the hull and trolley in Hobart. In his Manly workshop, Ross handcrafted all the remaining accessories, including the spars, oars, bowsprits, paddles, bailers and rudders. Timber boats have always been his passion, and building these dinghies lets Ross revive the family traditions he learnt as an apprentice back in the 1960s.
The two dinghies are proof that Ross clearly loves Australian timber. Huon Pine is beautiful to sand, and to work with, it is some of the best timber in the world. Growing only on the west coast of Tasmania, it has a lot of oil in it and is very much like teak. Trevassa Too is all planked and ribbed in Huon Pine, including the trims on the accessories. Kittywake IV has a combination of Huon Pine and Australian Red Cedar, which has been used since the early days because it is light and strong.
Timber boats certainly are not for everyone because the costs and maintenance involved can be extreme. However, for people like Ross Muir, who love timber and the history of boating, nothing beats classic wood.
Published in print January-March 2023
