Mele Bilo II

In the 1920s and 1930s, yacht racing on the Swan River was a very popular spectator sport. The most popular yachts were the 18 foot skiffs, and Melo Bilo was particularly well known as the 1922 National Champion. The skiffs, with twelve crew double-banked on the gunwhale (edge of hull), would struggle to keep their over-canvassed boat upright and charge to windward. They had to have tough, powerful crew because once they had rounded the top mark and headed downwind, they had to wrestle aloft close to 280 square metres of sail and somehow stay balanced on the skiff.  

Tragically Melo Milo was totally destroyed in a mysterious boat shed fire a month after the 1922 Eighteen Foot Skiff Championship on the Swan River. It was less than a year old. The yacht spectacularly displayed here is Mele Bilo II. It was built as a replacement for the champion yacht of the same name.

The following is an account of the 1922 Championship and the fanfare that surrounded the Eighteen Foot Skiff events at the time:

Thousands of people...assembled on the bold bluff of King’s Park facing the starting line and upon the beach at Mill Point, while along the Mount’s Bay Road were dozens of motor cars and dense throngs of people, many of whom followed the fleet by road as far as Crawley, returning by the same route as the boats came back. At various vantage points along the course were stationed flotillas waiting to see the champions pass, and lusty were the cheers when they saw the local boat (Mele Bilo) leading the way.

Source: Second February 1922 edition of the Western Mail 

'Mele Bilo on the Swan winning 18ft Championship. Photo A. Orloff.' 
Credit: Izzy Orloff collection, State Library of Western Australia, BA1059/623