YACHTING legend Rolly Tasker will never forget the day Prince Charles hitched a ride on his racing boat.

“We were lining up off Cowes for the Queen Victoria Cup in 1979, when one of the crew called out to ask me if I was prepared to take a passenger,” he said.

“He said ‘Prince Charles is on the radio and he says wants to bum a ride on your boat’.

“I couldn’t say no to the next king of England, could I, so I let him come on board.
“But it was nearly the end of him.

“A cable came loose and swung around and almost decapitated him.

“A crewman pushed him out of the way in the nick of time, and ordered him to spend the rest of the race in the cabin.

“He spent the entire trip down below, but we went on and won the race anyway.”

Rolly, now 82, discovered sailing in 1934 and since then, his sailing career has blossomed.

“When I was eight, my father, Percy, took me to Mosman Bay and we watched a regatta,” he said.

“I was hooked.”

Rolly’s father taught him to make model yachts, and his first designs were crude copies of wind-powered boats, such as the early Vikings’ longboats with their simple square sails, and Arabian dhows with their more efficient triangular sails.

Then he started designing his own yachts, which he regularly ‘raced’ on Perth’s Swan River.

Since then, he has competed in more than 2000 races, without ever retiring, and he has sailed more miles than it is from here to the moon.

His recent biography, titled Sailing to the moon, Rolly Tasker, Australia’s greatest all round yachtsmen details his many achievements, including a silver medal at the 1956 Olympics.

He became Australia’s first World Champion in 1958, he was made a member of the Australian Order in 2006, and in 1996, he was inducted into Australia’s prestigious Sporting Hall of Fame.

Rolly was stationed in the Pacific during World War II, and on his last trip back to Australia, he finally signed up for his army health benefits, 60 years after he was demobbed.

“I’m going to have to live to be 100 to justify the benefits,” he said.

In April last year, Rolly opened the Australian Sailing Museum in Mandurah, in Western Australia.

The museum features sailing artifacts dating back to the 1850’s.

“Australia has never seen anything like this,” he said.

“There are thousands of photographs, scale models of Americas Cup yachts, and a complete set of paintings of yachts ever to race in the Americas Cup.”

The museum also features a collection of Rolly’s own drawings and paintings.

But pride of place in the collection goes to Miss Longtail, a custom-built copy of Thailand’s famous longtail fishing boats.

Rolly had the boat made in 2004, and it is one of four, Tasker-made boats moored outside his house.

“People love her, she’s a tribute to my love for Thailand, and she definitely turns heads when Aussie sailors see her,” he said.

“They have no idea what they are looking at,” he said.

Rolly has built a total of 26 yachts, all of which are still sailing today, albeit with new owners and new names.

He said his 100,000 square-metre sailing loft in Phuket was the largest sail-making facility in the world.

He estimates there are more than 60,000 rolls of sailcloth in stock at the factory.

“There is more cloth in here than in the whole of Sydney and New Zealand put together,” he said.

The loft now makes as many as 80 sails each day which are exported to more than 60 different countries.

General Manager Michael Tasker, who is not related, said the loft also makes rope, rigging and injection moulded plastics, and builds masts. “There is nothing like this anywhere else in the world,” he said.

Rolly has devised a special colour-coded uniform system for his predominantly female staff.

“The uniforms come in four different colours, one for each floor,” he said.

“At first the girls had no idea how I knew when they were in the wrong place, but they figured it out pretty quickly and began swapping trousers to try and catch me out.”

Many of the workers have been with the company since it started in 1994, when it was little more than a workshop on the eight floor of the Phuket Shopping Centre car park.

Rolly’s transition from athlete to the world’s most successful sail-maker has won him accolades and praise from all corners of the globe.

Veteran sailor, John Sanderos OBE, said the quality of Rolly’s sails was outstanding.

“I have used Rolly Tasker sails to circumnavigate the world three times, and they are still in good enough to condition to go around again,” he said.

Mr Sanderos’ sails are now on display at the Sailing Museum.

Rolly even has a funny story to tell about international newspaper magnate, Rupert Murdoch.

Rolly’s yacht, Siska, was on show in Sydney Harbour, and was moored in a pen next to the then 38-year-old Rupert Murdoch’s yacht.

“There were always lots of ladies in swimming costumes on Murdoch’s boat,” said Rolly.

“One night we had a big party on Siska and Murdoch asked us how come we had so many pretty girls on board.

“They probably came for the boat, it has a very big deck,” Tasker replied.

“Then I’ll buy it from you,” Murdoch said.

But Siska was not for sale.

Life hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Rolly Tasker, the old man of the sea.
He contracted skin cancer when he was 40, and had to have part of his ear removed.

He knows he could have prevented the cancer by covering up his face and body when he was out at sea, but he refused.

The reason was simple.

He loved the feel of the wind on his face and in his hair, and it helped him to read the subtle changes in the wind.

Covering up and not sensing them could have cost him race wins.

Those many victories, and first across the line finishes, meant too much to him, but he says if he were to do it all again, he would use more high-level protective sun cream, and he would make concessions with a hat or hood.

Rolly has dined with US President John F Kennedy, he has made sails for His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, he has hung out with John Wayne, and he has skippered a race with the Prince of Wales on board.

Not bad for an old bloke.