The sailor behind the trophy… My brother, Harold Victor Dean, passed away in 1961 aged 20. He was five-and-a-half years older than me and a wonderful brother. He was also exceptionally gifted in one of the most expensive sports you could choose—sailing. Our family was in no way wealthy but, nevertheless, Harold’s ambition was to become an Olympic sailor, representing Australia. Harold’s sailing career began at the Cleveland Yacht Club. Our father, Harding Dean, was one of the founding members of the club, which was located directly across the road from where we lived at the time. The club was initially an all-boats sailing club and Harold’s first boat was a Vaucluse Junior VJ called ‘Flash.’ There were also Thorpe dinghies, an Yvonne catamaran, sailing canoes and other craft. As time went on the club focused on a South African design called “Sprogs”—14ft-long Sharpies similar to the 19-foot heavyweight Sharpie class. They became the class to race. In a short time, there were six or seven on the water. Sprogs class rules were such that the name of each boat should start with the letter “S” ... Sinbad, Satan, Spitfire are some of the names which I remember. Dad scraped together the money to build a Sprog for Harold. As he already had brand-new jumpers with “Flash” on the back, to save money Harold’s new Sprog became ‘Sea Flash.’ Harold was only about 13 years old and quite light, but he had an experienced sailor as his forehead hand by the name of Ron Liscombe, a strong, solid bloke of around 30. A competitive combination, they went on to win many of the club’s races, crowned Club Champions three years running, 1955–1957. After a third in the 1957 Queensland championships, Harold won in 1958, competing against seasoned sailing veterans, becoming Queensland state champion at the tender age of 17… Time went on and I remember RQYS supplying six brand-new Finns which were an ‘up-and-coming’ Olympic class at the time (I guess they were trying to build up their popularity!). Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Yearbook Mainsheet 2026 55 Tribute: Harold Victor Dean
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