1949 – The Beginning
Rolly Tasker was born in Victoria Park, Western Australia in 1926 and was introduced to sailing at an early age. His hobby as a young boy was building model yachts and aeroplanes. By the time he was 6, with the help of his father, he built his first siling canoe and then at 10, his first sailing dinghy. Sailing then replaced these hobbies and quickly became his life-long passion.
As a result of determination and a willingness to learn he went on to design and build 26 racing yachts, personally manufacturing the sails, masts, rigging and marine hardware for all of them. His name became synonymous with high quality, affordable, trouble free equipment which was available worldwide.
In over 60 years of competitive sailing, Rolly Tasker has not retired from a single race as a result of sail, spar or gear failure and has won over two thousand races without an insurance claim. By the year 1990, Rolly held 16 long-distance sailing records worldwide. This and many other sailing achievements have earned Rolly Tasker worldwide respect and given him unrivalled knowledge of his sport and profession.
1956 – First for Melbourne Olympics and World Sailing Championships
2 years after Rolly Tasker opened his sail loft in Claremont, Western Australia, Malcolm Scott (pictured) teamed up with Rolly to sail in the Melbourne Olympics in Falcon IV which finished first or second in all 7 races. They lost the Gold Medal for disqualification on Port and Starboard ruling in Race 7. Falcon IV was the only home built yacht.
Ian Palmer and Rolly Tasker teamed up to sail in the World Flying Dutchman Class Championships at Lake Attersee, Austria. Ian Palmer, a 16-year-old school boy from Perth, was also new to this class of yacht and they were competing in another home-built yacht, Falcon V, but still convincingly won the world Series beating 47 yachts from 24 countries.
1961 – Hong Kong Sail Loft (#3) opens
It was a bold decision to open a sail loft in Hong Kong, he was half a century ahead of his time however Rolly Tasker could clearly see the benefits of moving to a country where technology and labour were infinitely cheaper than in in Australia. His natural entrepreneurial skills and his capacity for hard work facilitated this risky move and made this loft a success and by the end of 1963 he was receiving regular orders from the US for various popular boat classes including ocean going yachts.
1966 – The birth of Siska
Rolly Tasker bought and re-designed the 21-year-old yacht Kirribilli and turned her into a magnificent 50ft (15.24 m) ketch, called Siska. She was either first or fastest in scores of events, mainly on the Australian south-west coast. The 576 km Fremantle to Albany race proved to Rolly that he could build not only strong and durable yachts but also winners.
After encountering severe weather conditions for 26 hours without a lull, Siska crossed the finish line with line honours and in one piece. Siska also famously survived the horrors of the 1979 Fastnet Race where 30 yachts floundered or sank. Siska was the 3rd boat to cross the finish line despite suffering a snapped main boom.
1992 – The First Thailand Loft
In 1992 Rolly Tasker Sails opened their first loft in Thailand. There would be 3 more after this one before the current set up in Phuket, which today employs more than 100 staff.
2006 – Sail Loft No. 12
Rolly Tasker designed and built sail loft no. 12 on Phuket Island, March 2006. He fitted out the interior layout of sail cutting floors, sail design tables and engineering machinery by June 2007. The floor area is 100,000 square feet and employs 155 sail staff – 6 sail design specialists, riggers, spar manufacturers, rope makers, engineers and office workers, exporting a suit of sails every 7 minutes to 60 countries. On February 2nd, 2007 he exported his 2 millionth sail to Norway.
2012 – The Death of a Legend
Rolly died at 86 years of age. During his racing career he covered some 340,000 nautical miles. He funded and established the Australian Sailing Museum in his home town of Mandurah, Western Australia, containing records of the history of Australia’s most successful sailors since 1861. He was inducted into Australia’s Sports Hall of Fame for his sailing achievements and named as Western Australia’s Best Ever Yachtsman only recently. Rolly said that when he died, he wanted nothing to change. His greatest wish was for the company to continue growing, supplying high quality products.“We have supported Rolly in life and will continue to do so now he is no longer with us. He is going to be remembered as being a great sailor, entrepreneur, businessman and sailmaker by many. To those who he allowed to know him intimately, he was also an outstandingly loyal and personal friend.”
