Sailing through history

The life and times of the late Gil Allbutt cannot be spoken or written about without a grin stretching from one cheek to the other.

A Queenscliff icon and leader in Australian boatbuilding and design, Gil spent his 88 years teaching his neighbours the art of sailing while navigating the water’s surface, cares carried through the wind.
Gil’s grandson Liam Petrie-Allbutt said his family’s connection to the Bellarine and its boating culture dates back to his great-great-great-grandfather William Golightly, who arrived in Queenscliff in 1854 and his great-grandfather John (Jack) Richards Golightly, who was Gil’s father-in-law.
“My great-great grandfather was John Lindors Golightly. John and brother George were builders and developers, responsible for running and building the original Barwon Heads pub, prominent Queenscliff buildings and also sub-dividing acres at Point Lonsdale where Golightly Street stands today in old Lonsdale,” he said.
“My great grandparents were at the time very progressive in building the town. Jack was mayor for many years (seven terms) and founded the Queenscliffe Historical Museum.
“The Golightly Park down in the caravan park on the foreshore in Point Lonsdale, he organised the 100-year lease for that to be turned from government land into council tourism land for camping to allow people to come down from Melbourne.
“No one camped back then. If you had a lot of money and could stay at the Vue Grand and the guesthouses, you would. That sort of changed the way land was made available for campers and holidaymakers.
“From a historic point of view, he also founded the Queenscliff Point Lonsdale Yacht Club. The original name was the Swan Bay Boat Club.
“That yacht club is down King Street; it’s that little white shack down on the water there. Originally it was up Swan Bay a bit more, but back then they wanted to move it to that location, so they floated it out and brought it back to where it is now. Jack’s handmade wooden boat shed doors are still hung in position today.”
When Jack was part of the yacht club’s reform in the ‘40s, there were no boats appropriate for sailing on Swan Bay.
He teamed up with local boat builder Peter Locke to design the “Swan Class”, which became the first fleet to sail on its shallow waters in 1948 when the club officially opened.
In October last year, Liam tracked down and purchased one of the last of the original Swan sailing boats from the 1947-48 line for $4,000 through Facebook.
It’s named “Annie-May” after Jack’s sister, Annie, and his daughter Nancy-May who married Gil.
While Gil completed his boatbuilding apprenticeship with Peter, Liam said the design (which he has the original drawings for) was by his great grandfather, Jack.
“He (Gil) did all the drafting for it, but the design was by Jack Golightly Senior and Peter Locke. My grandfather was telling me not to go for it. He was 17 when he moved to Queenscliff from Portarlington, and he lived here until he was 88.
“He was a real go-getter in the town with community projects, but he was never considered a local, even in his last weeks.
“He would say ‘I was never a local, unless you were born here, you weren’t a local’.
“But he married one of the biggest locals in town, really – he married into the Golightly family. Grandad was a very talented boat designer and he (Jack) was a hobby boat guy.
“He said ‘I want you to have one of mine, I don’t care about my father in law’. It felt like there was a bit of that at the end, too.
“The Swan I secured is a wooden boat, there wasn’t fibreglass back then, so it’s got ribs and it’s in the original wooden condition. Most wooden boats fell apart or rotted away.”
When the family heirloom found its way home after more than 70 years, Liam said it was as though a piece of history had returned to its land, like a boomerang soaring through time to rediscover its beginning.
“They couldn’t have done the drawings without my grandfather because he was the apprentice. He went on to found his own company, Gilcraft, which is well known across Australia.
“The two famous names in boat building and boat design in Queenscliff are Cayzer and Gilcraft. There was a bit of competition between Cayzer and Gilcraft back in the day.
“People rename boats after Gilcraft or try to tag my grandfather’s name to boost the price.
“I think it’s really nice that an old wooden boat from 1947, one of the first fleet of the Queenscliff Point Lonsdale Yacht Club, has returned to family hands to keep for generations to come.”

The story of how Gil and Nancy-May met is indicative of Gil’s pioneering yet brazen attitude, and it was told in his final days.
“In the last month he started telling us stories we’d never heard. My grandmother was quite a beautiful lady; she was always picked out of the crowd.
“He said to me there was a sailing competition in Queenscliff and the whole Sorrento Yacht Club were sailing over here and someone said to my grandfather ‘Look, those boys are coming over from Sorrento on the weekend, you better make sure you’re dating Nancy’.
“Before they got over here on that weekend, he asked her out on a date to make sure that she wouldn’t get snapped up by someone else.”
An avid jazz musician and drummer, Gil was known for saying ‘I came to Queenscliff to marry Nancy and belt drums’.
Liam said his grandfather inspired him to build a design career of his own, and that his firm “All Design” was named in his honour.
“He taught me everything I know about design. He was a public figure in Queenscliff but never on council.
“He and my grandmother founded the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum, and he would speak at history events and was always reeled out… he was quite proud of himself.
“He played drums at the Queenscliff Music Festival for 19 years on the big stage.
“My grandmother loved the theatre and so they came up with the Lighthouse Theatre Group, which is pretty successful. My grandfather wanted to be involved so he organised the music side.
“He had a really interesting history in life. He wasn’t an old man, he looked old, but he was with it right to the end.”