Darcy Harvey dies

Port Lincoln sailing legend Darcy Harvey has died. Ann Clarke from the Port Lincoln Yacht Club, advised this morning: “Our dear Darcy Lloyd Harvey passed away in his chair at home on Saturday night.

“We are very sad … as you know; he was not your typical 89-year-old and has had a wonderful full life.”

Darcy was a wonderful contributor to the club and the Port Lincoln community. For more than 50 years he helped run the Holdfast Trainer junior program at Port Lincoln Yacht Club and was a strong supporter of Port Lincoln’s Waybacks Football Club as a player, coach and administrator.

Last year he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for his services to junior sailing, Australian Rules football and the Port Lincoln community. 

His sons Neil and Michael Harvey, who are both working the US boating industry, flew home to attend the award ceremony with Darcy at Government House, Adelaide.

He was a life member of the Port Lincoln Yacht Club and the Holdfast Trainer Association of South Australia, in recognition of his service to the class. He had started the Holdfast fleet in all weathers, missing only when he had a spell in hospital.

He also mentored the young sailors and their parents on sailing and boat care. He initiated a can and bottle collection (these items are worth money in re-cycle-conscious South Australia) to raise provide a constant income flow to the Port Lincoln Holdfast fleet.

This meant spending several hours up to his armpits in rubbish bins, sorting through the club’s garbage after weekend activities. 

Darcy, born and bred in Port Lincoln, joined the club in 1933 and was made a life member in 1954. In World War II, he served in a Special Forces unit behind enemy lines on Sakala Island tracking Japanese troop, air and naval movements.

For many years until recently, he ran his famous “shed party” every Thursday night for relations and friends. The shed in the backyard of the Harvey home was more a Maritime Museum than a handyman’s refuge.

Besides the bar, a barbecue for the sausages and on special nights King George Whiting fillets, it was filled with photos, pictures, burgees and other memorabilia from sailing events around the world sent home by Mick and Neil.

I got to know Darcy well from my visits over a span of more than 20 years to Port Lincoln for Adelaide-Lincoln race and Lincoln Week regatta that followed. 

Over dinner at the Marina Tavern there during this year’s Lexus Lincoln Week regatta, he told me of his excitement at the prospect of seeing Mick sail as boat manager on George David’s US maxi Rambler 100 in this year’s Rolex Sydney-Hobart race.

One of his three daughters (Ann-Maree, Helen and Julie) had all the travel arrangements in place, accommodation booked, to take Darcy to see the start and the finish.

Sadly Darcy will not be there. But I am certain that strong memories of him will be. 
- Bob Ross