Member profile - Gogs Manning
SYC Member Profile: Gogs Manning
Gogs needs little introduction to SYC members – he has been a vital club member since 1960.
He started sailing however in Western Australia at the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club when he was 8 on his father’s 30’ yacht called ‘Scud’.,
He sailed with him until he went to boarding school at Geelong School when he was 12. From Western Australia to Geelong seems a long way to go to school but Gogs said there were about 15 boys from WA there when he was – and the only time they went home was in the long Christmas holidays when they made the long train journey across the Nullabor. Needless to say sailing was put on the backburner at this time,
After school Gogs returned to Western Australia where he joined a bank – which he didn’t particularly like – but where he also learnt to fly in the local aero club.
In 1938, before the war Gogs joined the Citizen Airforce and consequently was called up a couple of days before war was declared. Early days of the war were spent as a flying instructor in the Camden Flying School.
Gogs married Ann (also a Western Australian) in Feb 1941 and that year the two of them moved to Geraldton WA. They were fishing in Geraldton harbour when the Sydney left on it’s last fateful voyage and they were among the last to see her. Ann comes from the country and she took her horse (appropriately called Wings) with her. While both Ann and Gogs say they enjoyed their time in Geraldton, Wings didn’t like the town and escaped from his paddock. A search for him proved futile so Gogs headed to the sky and tracked him down by plane some 40 miles down the road – horse blanket still on and cantering down the middle of the road on his way back to the farm.
From Geraldton, Gogs was posted to New Guinea with a Hudson squadron to oppose the Japanese landing on the north coast. He was subsequently promoted to Squadron Leader and finally became the Wing Commander of the 23rd Squadron based in Fenton in the Northern Territory. From here he flew B 24 Liberators in bombing raids against the Japanese across Indonesia.
From the Northern Territory Gogs moved to Bairnsdale where he saw out the war training other pilots.
Gogs was 29 when the war ended and he certainly wasn’t heading back into the bank – Initially he joined Australian National Airways (ANA) but left them to join the fledgling Government airline TAA. He and Ann moved to Melbourne in 1946 and became Victorians!!
The first 9 years in Melbourne were spent in Essendon and it wasn’t until this time that Gogs started sailing again. At this time he joined the crew of Bill Daggs on a 6 metre called ‘Yeoman’ and skippered by a young Jock Sturrock of America’s Cup fame.
The family moved to Were St Brighton in 1953 and this has been the family home for the last 56 years.
The move to Brighton brought Gogs closer to Sandringham Yacht Club and he became a member in 1960 and he bought “a small slow boat” called WINDSONG.
Handicapping boats for racing in these days was quite ad-hoc. John Chapman from Royal Brighton Yacht Club had introduced a system based on a percentage rating of the “top Yacht” of the day – a RYCV boat called ACROSPIRE. All other boats were allocated their handicap as a percentage of that boat.
Gogs was disappointed with this handicap system and felt it didn’t work as the ‘Top Yacht” didn’t sail enough…..so he designed his own system.
In 1963 Lou Abrahams was Sailing Captain at SYC and Gogs developed a performance based handicap system which Lou applied to SYC racing – this handicap system was called the VYC performance system and is still the most used Performance Handicap system used in Victoria.
In 1972 Gogs bought another keelboat – this time an S & S 30 named LULAGUI – so called because some of the money to buy the boat came from the sale of a West Australian pastoral company sold by the family.
This was followed by the boat most of us associate Gogs with – Rapid Transit was bought in 1996 and renamed FINAL FLING.
For years Gogs has been a force on the race track – he has always been a competitor in Saturday races, and was one of the instigators of both the Wednesday Wonders series and the Thursday Twilight Series. Ann sailed with him in the Thursday Twilight series and really enjoyed the BBQ’s afterwards.
Gogs kept sailing until he was 90 – although admits his best sailing days were before he was 85 – says you loose a bit of agility after 85. FINAL FLING is now sailed by Gogs son Tony.
So what now for Ann and Gogs ….. After 56 years in their Brighton home it is now on the market and they are moving to Mansfield to live close to their son Rod and their daughter in Kerryn in Benalla.
My last question to Gogs was about his name…… was it a nick name ….
His real name is Lucius – a name handed down for 3 generations of Mannings – but as a baby, his nurse thought one Lucius (his father) in the house was enough so gave him the name of ‘Goggles” …. shortened to Gog and used exclusively ever since.
