The Owner’s Story

During December 2025 and January 2026, Allan sailed from Paynesville to Sydney and back again. The plan was to see the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

He has documented his journey in this Youtube video

(from Allan Coulter 2025):

In the early 90s I went out and bought a windsurfer. This was kind of ironic because the only place I could find in our part of town to sail it was Lillydale lake which certainly doesn’t boast as a prime sailing ground, in fact it isn’t even a lake. A good run would take you end to end in 3 Minutes. What it was however was the start of an addiction that would soon have me sailing during work lunch hours.
The feeling of speeding across the water purely driven by nature was something beyond anything I’d experienced prior, in short I couldn’t get enough of it.
My first windsurfing experience in Port Phillip Bay took it all to a whole new level. Blasting out across the blue at a time when most boats were getting out; sail pulled back as tight into the wind as I could get it, my ass skipping across the water, occasionally sailing over the shadow of a Sting ray or trying to get on the wake of the Spirit of Tasmania.
This desire was never going to go away, from small catamarans to a 20ft trailer sailer which saw every corner of both port Phillip bay and Westerport, making its way out to bass straight, Gippsland lakes and to Wilson’s prom on several occasions.

Interaction with local clubs and regular attendance of races such as the Marley Point only reiterated there was way more to this than simply sailing. This was becoming a lesson in team-ship, weather, navigation, planning, improvisation, preparation, maintenance and a healthy respect for the water.
When 20ft wasn’t enough she got replaced by Sonata 8 (26ft) The drive seemed to be to get more people on board while going faster and further.
This extended to keel boat crewing, both here and also several months in America where they seem to be of the belief that all Australians are great sailors. I’m not totally confident I upheld the name but all this was a great reminder that the same things I had stuffed up on in my time had happened to pretty well everyone at some point.

The ultimate dream was to own a keel boat and this leads me to now. The proud owner of my S&S 34 Morning Bird currently moored on a berth just opposite the pub in Paynesville Gippsland lakes.
The plan is to sail the area to death, hopefully do a run to Sydney and back time permitting then eventually move her elsewhere (Maybe Tasmania) and do the same thing all over again.As always the challenge – finding the time.

Interestingly when I bought Morning Bird in Sandringham I was at the end of a huge list of Yachts between Melbourne and Brisbane.

Morning Bird needed some boat love and appropriately I have plenty to give.
As it turned out I got way more than a yacht. I got an S&S 34. This was not my intention by the way. My vision was a fancy helm in front of a sugar scoop looking over a beamy cabin with all the mod cons

But when I hopped on morning bird and then studied the legacy of the S&S34 it became pretty obvious that this was a boat made to take a beating, a boat with proven capability over and over, be it the Sydney to Hobart or global circumnavigation, the S&S34 has proven itself over and over and over again.
I wasn’t buying a boat. I was buying a piece of sailing history that could take me as far as I dare to go.

To top it off her first sail out of Sandringham to Blairgowrie in winds exceeding 25knots taught me really quickly that despite the years I’d put into learning my sailing craft that through the lens of this boat I was strictly an Amateur.
All we needed do on this run was set the sails and point her in the right direction set the auto tiller and she did all the rest.

I genuinely to date do not have a real understanding of what this boat is really capable of.

For anyone who has not sailed an S&S 34 I can only best explain this boat as sailing itself. Their center of balance and smoothness of motion through the water is incredible.
Once you have the sails balanced even with the tiller totally unassisted she will hold her line and without complaint.
Later on the journey, which eventually took us to Paynesville, we practiced heaving to only to discover she will do so solely under the main sail. Like wow
The leg out of Westerport heading to Wilson’s prom put us in weather and swell way more aggressive than anything I’d previously experienced and she continually reassured us that this was nothing in the eyes of an S&S 34.

I’m sure you get the jist of where I’m going. There is a very real reason why the Jesse Martins and The Jessica Watsons of the world chose the S&S 34. And while still in my infancy of owning her I’ve now had taste enough to know that this was the right boat for me.

My challenge now it to take her where she deserves to go, but as a boat that is equally at home being single handed or with seven on board she has certainly won me over.

YouTube video

Allan Coulter
0417 308 727

Photos (click photo to enlarge)

The Yacht’s Story from previous owner John McCormack

Mr Neil De Cean ordered an S&S 34  from Swarbrick Bros Yachts in December 1983 and Morning Bird was launched about May 1984. Neil fitted her out at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and raced her successfully at the Royal Motor Yacht Club, Pittwater until about 2001. Unfortunately, Neil then experienced a severe illness which caused Morning Bird to be left idle. Since buying Morning Bird I have been fortunate to get to know Neil quite well and he has been able to advise me about many details of the boat. As far as I can deduce she only left Pittwater once, to go to Sydney for a weekend, although Neils memory is not clear and she may have never ventured to sea until I bought her.

Neil has given me all his correspondence with Swarbricks on the build and all the maintenance history during his ownership. He has also given me numerous spares, sails and lots of  valuable bits and pieces. Tim Dallas advises in the Discussion Forum (Miscellaneous) that Mrs Swarbrick has records that indicate Morning Bird was hull number 119 and the last complete boat built by Swarbrick Bros before the moulds went to Maybrook.

When I acquired Morning Bird in August 2005 she had been left at the mooring for about 5 years. She was in poor condition overall but a sound boat, as to be expected with such light use and recent neglect. The engine hadnt turned over for years but had had minimal usage and I thought (hoped) was OK.

She was a basic boat, no deckhead lining and only a main, Nos 1, 2 and 3 headsails.  However, the sails were in good condition and she has 300 litres of water in three tanks (hot and cold with pressure), 80 litre fuel tank, excellent interior and a galley that was like new with a huge compressed natural gas cylinder for the stove (excellent cooking and completely safe but a bit of a nuisance for refilling so I have acquired and fitted a second cylinder). Morning Bird is now in very good condition. The engine only had a couple of hundred hours so I took it home and completed a top end overhaul and rebuilt starter, alternator, water pump, fresh water system, cooling water system, oil seals and new mounts.

All the standing and most running rigging have been replaced, a job that revealed a dangerously installed compression post which has now been fixed securely. There have been new deck clutches, tiller pilot, chartplotter, hand held VHF, EPIRB, repaired bilge pumps, jackstays, an inflatable dinghy and outboard and I am acquiring a life raft. I am currently fitting a Fleming 401 vane (brought from Wayne Fletcher off his S&S34 Miss Cath after her circumnavigation) and I am looking at fitting the radar Wayne also gave me. I installed a large dodger, not the most attractive but it is most practical providing excellent shelter from the elements. The deckhead lining is still to be done (Sep 08).

Like all S&S 34s she sails beautifully, fast and balanced and is a real pleasure to helm. An outstanding sailing yacht!

Note: Morning Bird was berthed at Salt Pan Cove. Pittwater NSW while John was the owner.

About the previous owner (John McCormack)

I started sailing in dinghies after I joined the Navy in 1972. It was only a couple of times but I must have enjoyed it and, while training with the RAAF in 1972/73, I crewed on an Endeavour 26 with my then girlfriends father at his sail training school at Metung on the
Gippsland Lakes. I spent most of the 70s and early 80s at sea flying Grumman Trackers from HMAS Melbourne and then in helicopters from frigates. From the comfort (???) of these ships and aircraft I experienced Bass Strait and the Bight in 70 knot winds and mountainous seas, went through the tail of a cyclone off Fiji and experienced various other storms, fogs and glassy calms. I also completed my Seaman officer pilotage and ocean astro nav training, but didn’t gain a full Officer of the Watch qualification.

My interest in sailing was renewed in the late 1990s when I bought a Duncanson 26. I day sailed her around Sydney and had an occasional trip to Broken Bay. I also did more serious sailing in Swarbrick S111s at RANSA, in the Pittwater – Coffs series and also completed a Competent Crew and an Inshore Skipper qualification on the Swarbricks. I then did longer trips in the S111s as mate and skipper from Mackay to Brisbane  via Bundaberg.

The little Duncanson is best described as hyperactive and too tender to go offshore. She was sold and I continued to sail the Swarbricks and crewed on a Clansman 30, Cavalier 32s and an X-41 in twilights. In mid 2005 I navigated Yendys, a 52ft race yacht, on a return trip from Southport to Sydney.

Matt Young, an ex Navy colleague, got me going when he told me of his cruising plans in his S&S34 Eucalypt. A casual word to my sister that I might look at buying an S&S34 and she told me of an S&S34 moored near her Compass 29 in Pittwater that might fit the bill, except it wasn’t for sale. I had a sticky beak and she did look ideal, sound but obviously not used for some time. The yacht was Morning Bird and, lo and behold, a few weeks later she came up for sale. After some hard negotiation I acquired her for a very good price because of the risk the engine was scrap.

As noted above I bought her off the original owner, Neil De Cean, and have all her  original documentation. As can be seen in the Discussion forum it is quite likely she was the last S&S34 built by Swarbricks, a possibility confirmed by Glenn Swarbrick in discussions I had with him in Aug 08 while at his factory looking at a new S&s34 being built for Simon Torvaldsen. Since buying Morning Bird I have also sailed two handed to Coffs in a friends boat (I enjoy shorthanded sailing), helped deliver my sisters Valiant 40 from Bundaberg and now I help crew, when I can, with a charity called Sailors with Disabilities.

We  have been cruising Morning Bird around Pittwater/Broken Bay/Sydney and offshore
in various weather conditions up to 35 knots. I know her idiosyncrasies pretty well now and am ready to do some more serious sea miles. Once my work gives me the freedom I want to venture up and down the NSW/QLD coast and go to Lord Howe Island, probably next year (2009). If there are other 34s interested we may be able to organise a sail away.

Photos by the previous owner (John McCormack)