The South Australian Maritime Museum preserves the oldest nautical collection in Australia. In 1872 the Port Adelaide Institute began a museum collection to complement its library and its educational and social programs. That collection grew over the following century reflecting the seafarers and the ships that visited Port Adelaide. It is now held in trust at the South Australian Maritime Museum.

The Maritime Museum’s collections ranges from the Port Adelaide Lighthouse that was first lit in 1869 to a plaque that explorer Matthew Flinders left at Memory Cove in 1802 to mark the loss of eight seafarers. It includes figureheads, nautical instruments, bathing costumes, shipwreck artefacts, paintings, models and vessels.

Our scope is the maritime heritage of South Australia from the coast to inland waters. The collection of over almost 20,000 objects and over 20,000 images is at once a window to the heritage of the local community and to the ships of the world.

The Collections

< Back

Tintara

Tintara is a 12 square metre International Heavyweight Sharpie built by Sir James Hardy and friends for the 1956 Olympic Games selection trials in Melbourne. Constructed mostly from western red cedar, the deck also incorporates strips made from timber taken from a sideboard belonging to Hardy's mother. It is rigged with a Roly Tasker Egyptian cotton jib and mainsail.

The Heavyweight Sharpie class carried a two person crew and Hardy chose fellow South Australian Bob Baldock as his crewmate for the Olympic trials - in his words 'the biggest and strongest bloke I could find'. But the Olympics trials were to prove disappointing for Hardy. Tintara was disqualified in the qualifying trials after a win and two seconds because metal brackets had been put round the pumps and the planking extended 2cm beyond the transom. Tintara went on to win the Australian Sharpie Title championship in Perth in 1959 and Hardy left the 12 metre Sharpie class soon after.

Caption: Sharpie , TINTARA

AccessionNo: HT 1987.3094

Material: wood, steel

Date Created: 1956

Physical Description:
12 square metre heavyweight wooden sharpie owned by champion South Australian sailor, James Hardy. Carvel construction. Roly Tasker made Egyptian cotton jib and mainsail. Red spinnaker. Tintara's decking strips were made using the top of Hardy's mother's cedar sideboard. The rest of the deck was crafted from Western Red cedar.

Significance:
Tintara was built and raced by South Australia's premier yachtsman, Sir James Hardy. It won several Australian championships. The Maritime Museum owns four vessels made and/or raced by James Hardy. They include Nocroo (built when he was 14 years old), Noctoo, and Black Bottle.

Provenance:
Built by Sir James Hardy and friends for the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956, Tintara was surveyed by Neil Cormack and was named after the Hardy family's famous South Australian winery. Hardy's ancestor Thomas Hardy purchased the Tintara Vineyard Company in the 1870s. James' father Tom Hardy was founding commodore of the Brighton and Seacliff Yacht Club from 1924 until his death in an aircraft accident in 1938. James Hardy began sailing as a teenager, building his first dinghy when he was 14. Nocroo is now in the museum collection along with Noctoo and Black Bottle. Hardy is one of Australia's highest achieving sailors. He has competed in several Olympic Games, won numerous state and national championships in various classes, and was part of the winning crew during the America's Cup in 1983. In 1981 Hardy was knighted for his service to yachting and the community. In 1956 Tintara was disqualified during the Olympic qualifying trials after a win and two seconds, because metal brackets had been placed round the pumps and the planking extended 2 cm beyond the transom. The boat won state and national championships. In the Olympic trials the class was raced as a two-man boat. In Australian championships it was raced with a crew of three.