Two Men Crossed Bass Strait in a 15-Foot Dinghy in 1974

Fifty years ago, two sailors did something so audacious that their own sailing club publicly called them foolhardy. Stephen Harris, then 20, and his friend Doug Fleming, 40, set out to cross Bass Strait in a 15-foot plywood dinghy.

Bass Strait separates Tasmania from mainland Australia and is notorious for dangerous conditions. The pair fueled themselves with boiled sweets and whisky, brought carrier pigeons for communication, and told almost no one about their plan until the day they left.

They departed from Stanley, Tasmania on May 23, 1974, but turned back the first night when waves grew too large. Sheltering on Three Hummock Island, they met a fisherman who landed his plane on the beach and told them they were mad before his crew towed them back out to sea the next morning.

For nearly 40 hours, they sailed through mountainous waves with no cabin, no water, and a broken sail halyard. Their safety raft flapped behind them "like underpants on a clothesline" until it emptied. They were officially reported missing.

When they finally reached Melbourne, walking into a house and asking to use the phone, they had succeeded. Harris believes no smaller boat has made the crossing since.

Why This Inspires

Harris, now in his 70s, readily admits the journey was foolhardy. He never attempted another ambitious voyage and never returned to competitive racing. But he still watches the Sydney to Hobart yacht race every year, thinking of his friend Fleming and their epic adventure.

The story took a tragic turn when Fleming died attempting to repeat the crossing a few years later. Yet Harris doesn't regret their original journey, calling it simply "an adventure."

His cousin Roger Williams, who sailed with Harris often, wasn't surprised by the audacious plan. "He's a bit crazy," Williams said with obvious affection.

In an era of meticulously planned expeditions and constant GPS tracking, their approach was refreshingly simple. Why did they go in May? "I had holidays in May," Harris explained. Why start from Tasmania? "If we went from Melbourne, we might have missed and ended up in Antarctica."

Their adventure reminds us that exploration doesn't always require perfect conditions or elaborate planning, just courage and a friend willing to share the journey.