Souvenir of the Anglo-Australian Challenge on the river Medway

This is a commemorative souvenir of the Anglo-Australian challenge on the river Medway, dated October 1898. The embossed card features photographs of Mark Foy, IREX and its crew. The program features a crew list, signed by Mark Foy and addressed to his brother Francis, with "the season's compliments from the Captain of the IREX" printed on the cover.

During lengthy business trips to England, Foy boasted to one and all about the great speed and sail of Sydney’s big open boats. When his brother-in-law shipped the old champion 22-footer IREX to him in England in 1898, Foy issued a challenge.

William Wyllie, Commodore of the Medway Yacht Club, accepted and built a new boat of the same waterline length as IREX, named Maid of Kent. They were to compete for the Anglo-Australian Challenge shield.

Wyllie’s new, lighter, skimming-dish style boat carried half the sail of IREX. It was skippered by Wyllie’s wife Marion, an experienced sailor, against Foy and his crew of 16 Australian expats in England.

In a five-match series on the tidal Medway River, Marion Wyllie soundly beat Foy in every race. He was clearly outclassed. Foy, who relentlessly petitioned the Medway Yacht Club for a rematch for nearly a decade, finally claimed the shield in 1911.