Born Perth W.A.
21 March 1926 – 22 June 2012
Rolly Tasker earned international recognition as a yachtsman by achieving two notable first for Australia.
In 1954 he became the first Australian skipper to win a world yachting championship when he and forward hand Malcolm Scott sailed Falcon V to victory in the Flying Dutchman two-man dinghy class in Lake Attersee, Austria.
Two years before that, at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic games he became the first Australian to taste success at the Olympic level.
Competing in the 12 square-meter sharpie class with Malcolm scot as forward hand, he was a model of consistency, finishing either first or second in each of the first six heats on Port Phillip Bay. He also crossed the lone first in the seventh heat, only to be deprived of the gold medal on protest. Even so, Tasker’s silver medal was Australia’s first medal in Olympic yachting.
Tasker began sailing competitively in 1943 and in the year’s dorm 1952 to 1956 he won 11 Australian championships in Heavy weight Sharpies, international sharpies, Flying Dutchman and catamarans.
In 1962 tasker was second d in the world Flying Dutchman championships in Florida and in the same year he served as a crewman aboard Gretel in Australia’s first challenge for the Americas cup. In 1966 he won the world B-class catamaran title.
Tasker designed and built his own yachts, made his sails and masts and won international acclaim at the helm of 26 yachts ranging in size from one man boats to giant ocean racers. From 1969 he performed more remarkable exploits in his Siska series of five yachts, the most successful of these being Siska IV, which set long-distance sailing records in Australia, Hawaii and Britain.
These included the fastest time under sail from Plymouth to frmantle-57days, 13 hours, 41 minutes- in the 1979 Parmelia race held as part of Western Australia’s 150th birthday celebrations. In 1979 Tasker also won the coveted Queen Victoria’s Cup and Cowes.
Tasker pioneered sailing from Fremantle to Sydney via the Great Oceanic Bight, completing 133 of these voyages. He also circumnavigated Australian five times under sail between 1979 and 1983.