Details

History / Story
A wooden classic yacht designed by Western Australian naval architect Len Randell, and built by Les and Barry Steel on Lake Macquarie New South Wales in 1965.
The boat was designed as a 33ft fast cruiser by Len Randell. He was the primary yacht designer and naval architect in WA for many years. Dawn Wind represents an excellent example of his design output. It is a classic long keel yacht of strong construction with a seaworthy hull shape and elegant overhangs.
The boat builders Les and Barry Steel were brothers working in a small family boatyard and Dawn Wind representing one of only 17 craft built by the Steels over a period of 35 years. The brothers from their small output built other classic yachts including SIMBA, an example of the slightly bigger Lion Class design, but also three Sydney to Hobart yacht race winners RANI, RIVAL and STRUEN MARIE. Some of these boats are now on the Australian register of Historic Vessels, including Dawn Wind of Kirribilli which, is a rare example from a boatyard with a proven pedigree as builders of boats that have become classics. Aboard there are historical racing plaques still present on the bulkheads of the vessel.
Len Randell is, without question, an extremely important part of the Australian Maritime History as he was one of the first people to be fully qualified as a naval architect in Western Australia and practised full time.
It was rare for a design by Len to be built outside of Western Australia, but the brothers built an extremely fast and elegant sailing yacht, which did Len’s 1950’s style design proud.

PROVENANCE – Dawn Wind was launched on Lake Macquarie N.S.W in 1965 ago. The first owners are understood to be Milas & Marjorie Sutton who won a number of races in the early 1970s.
On the 11th of November 1976 the boat was sold to JF & JM Bottomley. The boat was entered into the registry of small ships at the Sydney Customs House Register immediately upon the boat being purchased. The Bottomley’s carried on racing Dawn Wind extensively on Sydney harbour during their ownership and amongst their wins was coming first in the RSYS Extras race in 1978.
The Bottomley’s sold the boat on the 26th of February 1985 to a Mr J.R. Devers who registered the boat with the Customs Department in Brisbane. It appears that his ownership of Dawn Wind was short lived and that he sold the boat the next year to the Kelman family.
A few years later Mr James Kelman sailed the boat to England, sailing the boat the western route via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean and eventually to the United Kingdom. Here he registered the boat in London on the British Registry of Ships.
In 2007 she was purchased by the Jensen’s from Norfolk for £37,000, and remained in regular use, sailing around UK waters, eventually making passage along the Bay of Biscay, onto the straights of Gibraltar, and into the Mediterranean, where she was sailed extensively.
The current ownership has been since 2021. Dawn Wind is now moored at Benitses boutique marina maritime project, in Corfu, Greece. She has been used continuously around the Ionian Island area over the past two years. During this time she has had an extensive dry docking, a lot of work has been done and equipment added to her.
Named after the poem The Dawn Wind by Rudyard Kipling inspired by the coastal suburb in Sydney harbour.