MYC 50th anniversary, remembering Bill Cutts
The big pavilion at the Mooloolaba Marina was named in 2004 after a highly respected member of the Mooloolaba Yacht Club. This is his story.
Vale Bill Cutts, Author unknown, Ahoy November 2003
Bill Cutts, one of the club’s stalwarts has made his last cruise north, and passed away in the Greenslopes Hospital on October 14, after several weeks of intensive care.
The last we saw of Bill was the day he left on his annual trip to Lizard Island aboard his motor cruiser Moose, acting as the mothership for the yachts in the inaugural Cruising in Company to Great Keppel Island.
He signed off at Keppel and kept heading north, and not long after he arrived in Townsville, an open engine hatch deposited him in the bilge setting off a chain reaction which saw him admitted to the Cairns Base Hospital and finally transferred to Brisbane.
Bill had a long retirement after his service with the diplomatic corps and spent many years in South Africa, before coming home to Australia.
He acted as club starter for some time and only gave up ocean racing a few years ago to go powerboating.
In his last Brisbane to Gladstone race in 1998 as the skipper of Seaduction, he won his class and finished third overall. Not bad for a guy in his mid eighties.
Bill joined the Mooloolaba yacht club in 1974, before the days of marinas, and sailed a pretty little 30 footer Alisa, which for many years was moored off Bulimba Point in the Brisbane River and sailed with the Brisbane Sailing Club.
The last I saw of Alisa she was moored opposite the Carrington Rocks Boat Club on the upper reaches of the Brisbane River.
Bills introduction to boating was rather abrupt. As a government officer he was in Malaysia at the time of the Japanese advance, and was co-opted into the Malaysia Navy to skipper a tug.
He spent several years so, did to the Malaysians forces during the height of hostilities, then later went to South Africa where he became interested in local yachting.
From his early years in the MYC he served as a starter and in his latter years, made his boat Moose available as start boat for major regattas.
He was always a giver to this club, and Cutts’ Corner, where he enjoyed his regular morning glass of white, will be placarded in his memory.
In addition, his sons Alex and James have donated a perpetual trophy, the Bill Cutts Memorial, which will be sailed every year in the old traditional fashion.
All yachts should carry the mandatory black ribbon from their backstay.
Bill Cutts was an inspiration and we will miss him.