WARREN Ruprecht jokes that he did himself a disservice by talking Troy Lewis into buying a sabre class boat for this season's sailing competition.
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For Lewis won the sabre State championship sailed at Teralba on Lake Macquarie a fortnight ago. Ruprecht finished second, making it a Manning quinella.
"That's the third time I've come second in a State title,'' Ruprecht said.
"The first was in a VS in 1972 and the second in the NS 14s in 1988. So if Troy hadn't bought the boat, I probably would have won.''
Ruprecht and Lewis dominated the championship that was reduced to three heats from five due to strong winds on the opening day.
Ruprecht finished with two seconds and a third, Lewis one second and two wins.
At 70, Ruprecht was the oldest sailor in the fleet.
"Troy's younger that my kids,'' he smiled.
Conditions were testing, with 18 to 20 knot winds and large waves.
"Put it this way, they cal it off at 22 knots,'' Ruprecht explained.
He was happy with his performance, but concedes the window to finally secure a State title is closing.
"I think I'm only a slim chance now,'' he admitted.
Ruprecht describes himself as 'a river man.'
"I never left Taree and one of the reasons was that I love the river,'' he said.
"When I was younger I'd water ski, I drove powerboats and of course, I sailed.
"When I was a kid growing up in Taree if you didn't play cricket in summer, you sailed.''
Preferring the water to the flannelled foolery of cricket, Ruprecht starting sailing on VJs in 1963. There were 28 boats in the fleet, making it one of the most competitive in the State.
Ruprecht won the prized club championship in 1966/67 and as was the way back then, graduated into the three-crew VS class.
"My first year in the VSs was in 1969 with Rex Solomon in Fiesta,'' Ruprecht recalled.
He remained a crew member until 1974/75 when he took over as skipper in Midnight Express.
This was a golden era for VS sailing on the Manning. Ruprecht matched wits with Australian and State championship winning skippers including Dallas Eggins, Mick Northam, Jimmy Dunn, Gus Buderus, Jack Barnard, Robbie Moore, Rex Solomon, Ian Ruff, Garry Hobson and Phil Lindfield.
The sport enjoyed a high profile in the community and the Manning VS club championship was fiercely contested, with battles on the river occasionally spilling over to the clubhouse afterwards.
Ruprecht noted that people who didn't know their starboard from their port side would take an interest in the race for the VS club championship.
However as the 1970s moved into the 1980s, the class started to wane in popularity on the Manning, for varying reasons including the cost of putting a boat on the water. Ruprecht moved into NS 14s, a two-crew vessel and in 1988 he gained his second, second placing in a State event sailed on Moreton Bay in Brisbane.
RELATED: Troy Lewis wins State sabre title
"My for'hard was (rugby league great) Danny Buderus - he was only a young kid then, maybe 10 or 11. I always tell him that I helped make him famous,'' Ruprecht laughs.
Now the single-crewed sabre feeds Ruprecht's sailing habit.
"You don't have to organise a crew and you can't blame anyone else when things go wrong except yourself,'' Ruprecht said.
He sails weekly in the Taree Aquatic Club events during summer and is regularly seen on the waterways around Harrington, where he lives, during winter. Ruprecht concedes that sailing here is now more of a social event, a far cry from the cut-throat days of the VSs.
"It's the same with any sport, you need juniors. These days there's just so many other things that kids can do,'' he said.
And he quickly adds there's more to sailing than just sitting in a boat and waiting for a puff of breeze.
"You learn to read the tide and the winds, there's a lot that goes into it,'' he said.
Ruprecht will continue to chase his first State title and assures he will be competitive.
"They'll know I'm there,'' he said.
But whether it be in competition or just social, Ruprecht will be sailing for as long as he's healthy.
"I love it,,'' he said.
"Absolutely love it.''
