Rolland Leslie "Rolly" Tasker AM (21 March 192622 June 2012) was an Australian sailor who won Australia's first Olympic sailing medal, at the 1956

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

in Melbourne. He and Malcolm (Huck) Scott won a silver medal in their 12m² Sharpie after the New Zealander Peter Mander failed to disqualify himself and Rolly had not officially protested.''W.A. Hall of Champions'' inductee booklet. (2006) Published by the

Western Australian Institute of Sport The Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) is an elite sports institute set up in 1983 by the Government of Western Australia to support athletes in Western Australia. Previously, if elite athletes from Western Australian needed to train or ...

In 1958 Tasker won the

Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' ( nl, De Vliegende Hollander) is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myth is likely to have originated from the Dutch Golden Age, 17th-century Gold ...

World Championship. From 1969 to 1985 Tasker dominated ocean racing in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

with five sister yachts all called ''Siska''. In the 1978

Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is an annual event hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, starting in Sydney, New South Wales, on Boxing Day and finishing in Hobart, Tasmania. The race distance is approximately . The race is run in ...

, ''Siska IV'' was denied official starter status on a technicality. Tasker started five minutes ahead of the fleet and crossed the finish line 20 hours ahead of

line honours Line honours is the term given to the first boat to cross the finish line of a yacht race. This is in comparison to the handicap honours or corrected time winner, which is theoretically equally accessible to all boats as slower boats have a lower ...

winner ''Apollo''. He won numerous other ocean racing events in his career including taking line honours and first place in the Queen Victoria Cup off

Cowes Cowes () is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank. The two towns are linked by the Cowes ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. He competed in the disastrous

1979 Fastnet race The 1979 Fastnet Race was the 28th Royal Ocean Racing Club's Fastnet Race, a yachting race held generally every two years since 1925 on a 605-mile course from Cowes direct to the Fastnet Rock and then to Plymouth via south of the Isles of Sci ...

, finishing third across the line. In the Parmelia Yacht Race from

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymout ...

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

in 1979, he finished second in the line honours race, and was the fastest yacht for each of the two legs. Tasker was inducted into the

Western Australian Hall of Champions In 1983, the Sportswriters' Association of Western Australia proposed a Western Australian Hall of Champions to honour past athletes from the state who had made a significant impact in their sport. The Government of Western Australia asked the th ...

in 1986 and the Sport Australian Hall of Fame in 1996. He became a Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Go ...

in 2006 for his services to sailing. He operated a sail-making business based in

Phuket Phuket (; th, ภูเก็ต, , ms, Bukit or ''Tongkah''; Hokkien:普吉; ) is one of the southern provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, the country's largest island, and another 32 smaller islands of ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

called Rolly Tasker Sails. In April 2008 Tasker opened the Australian Sailing Museum in

Mandurah Mandurah () is a coastal city in the Australian state of Western Australia, situated approximately south of the state capital, Perth. It is the state's second most populous city, with a population of 107,641 as of the 2021 census. Mandurah's ...

, with exhibits of the America's Cup races from 1851 and famous sailors from Australian sailing competitions. Twelve lifelike icons of the sailing world form part of the display, along with over 200 model yacht fleet class examples on a scale 1" to the foot. His biography
''Sailing to the Moon''
was published in 2008. It is written by

Roland Perry Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

and describes Tasker's extensive sailing and business activities. In 2017, he was an inaugural inductee in the Australian Sailing Hall of Fame.

References

External links

Rolly Tasker AM
at the Australian Sailing Hall of Fame * * *
archive 2

archive 3
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tasker, Rolly 1926 births 2012 deaths Australian male sailors (sport) Olympic sailors of Australia Olympic silver medalists for Australia Olympic medalists in sailing Members of the Order of Australia Sailors at the 1956 Summer Olympics – 12 m2 Sharpie Sailors at the 1960 Summer Olympics – Flying Dutchman Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics Flying Dutchman class world champions World champions in sailing for Australia Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Sportsmen from Western Australia Sportspeople from Perth, Western Australia Sailmakers