‑yacht.asn.au issue 27 – june 2009 – classic ......2013/02/27 · issue 27 – june 2009 –...

Issue 27 – June 2009 – Classic Yacht Association of Australia Magazine

www.classic‑yacht.asn.au

Our aim is to promote the appreciation

and participation of sailing classic

yachts in Australia, and help preserve

the historical and cultural significance

of these unique vessels.

CONTENTS

CYAA REPRESENTATIVES 2

COMING EVENTS 2

END OF AN ERA – THE CLOSURE OF SEARLES BOAT YARD IN PORT ADELAIDE 3

IMPORTING SEA MIST 7

QUEENSCLIFF MARITIME WEEKEND 2009 10

NOTES ON AS YET UNFULFILLED TRIP TO QUEENSCLIFF 12

THE NEW ZEALAND RUDDER CUP LAUNCH RACE 12 DECEMBER 2008 13

CROSS TASMAN EXPORTS (PART II) 15

ANOTHER GREAT SEASON IN NEW ZEALAND 16

NEW ZEALAND CLASSIC SERIES 17

COUTA MULLET 18

THE HEART OF TASMANIA – THE WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL 19

ALEGRIA –THE VOYAGE HONOLULU TO FANNING ISLAND 21

HEAD TO HEAD WITHOUT A TACK 28

DECKS FOR CLASSIC BOATS 28

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION 32

Classic Yacht Association of Australia

CYAA REPRESENTATIVES

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERCYAA Officer

343 Ferrars St

Albert Park

Victoria 3206

admin@classic‑yacht.asn.au

EDITORIALRoger Dundas

Mobile 0419 342 144

[email protected]

Design and Production

Blueboat

www.blueboat.com.au

NEW SOUTH WALESPhilip Kinsella

Tel (02) 9498 2481

[email protected]

QUEENSLANDIvan Holm

Tel (07) 3207 6722, Mobile 0407 128 715

[email protected]

SOUTH AUSTRALIATony Kearney

Mobile 0408 232 740

[email protected]

TASMANIAKelvin Aldred

Mobile 0412 108 994

[email protected]

VICTORIAPeter Llyod

Mobile 03 9431 1611

[email protected]

COVER PHOTO: SLIPWAY DOOR, SEARLES BOATYARD PHOTO: GABRIELLA SZONDY

COMING EVENTS

QUEENSLAND CLASSIC SAILING SEASON 2009 Queensland

Kicks off 6 – 7 June 2009

Dan DeBuriatte – [email protected]

CLASSIC SUMMER SAILING IN NEW ZEALAND New Zealand

29 January – 14 February 2010

www.classicyacht.org.nz

THE 2010 WHYTE JUST & MOORE, GEELONG WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL Geelong, Victoria

6 – 8 March 2010,

Ph: (03) 5229 3705 or email [email protected]

SWEDEN CHALLENGES AMERICA IN CLASSIC SAIL RACE www.thechallengesverigeamerica.com/en/news

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Issue 27 - June 2009 © CYAA

ENd Of AN ERA ThE ClOSuRE Of SEARlES bOATYARd IN PORT AdElAIdE

GAbRIEllA SzONdY

A 170-year tradition of boatbuilding at Birkenhead, Port

Adelaide, ended on 15 April 2009 with the forced closure of

Searles Boatyard, the last of the Jenkins Street boatyards.

Searles went down with full order books, its half dozen

employees hard at work to the last.

Boat building, repairs and maintenance have been carried out

continuously in the Jenkins Street boatyards since the start of

European settlement in South Australia, with one of the yards,

A McFarlane and Sons, managed by the fifth generation of

the family.

These boatyards were integral to the establishment of the

colony of South Australia through the role they played in

import, export and settlement of the state. In the 21st century

they were still profitable businesses providing full time

employment to skilled artisans servicing the many timber

boats owned by members of the Royal South Australian

Yacht Squadron, Port Adelaide Sailing Club, Cruising Yacht

Club of SA, Port River Sailing Club, Largs Bay Sailing Club,

Small Boat Club of SA and Garden Island Yacht Club, as

well as working boats such as fishing boats, police craft and

pilot boats.

But the South Australian state government’s plan to remake

the Port waterfront as an upmarket residential development

with private marinas had no room for traditional boatyards.

The government’s Land Management Corporation insisted

they be moved; boatyards and the type of work associated with

boat building and repairs were not visually appropriate and

did not present the right image for a waterfront development

such as Newport Quays.

SA Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and

Energy, Pat Conlon, did not consider the boatyards

worth saving and commented: ‘I don’t believe that

the historical value that they pretend exists in the

boatyards is actually there.’

SA Treasurer and Member for Port Adelaide Kevin Foley said

the end of boat building activity in the Inner Harbour was

necessary to make way for the regeneration of the waterfront,

‘It’s been a proud part of the Port’s history and, as the new

Port emerges, it is a sad but understandable progression which

meant the boatyards had to close.’

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During the consultation process between the LMC and the Port

Adelaide community, the community repeatedly voiced their

concern about the sanitised redevelopment of the Port eroding

the area’s maritime heritage. The community also made clear

their desire to retain the history, character and culture of the

Port by using the boat building activities and maritime heritage

as an attraction with the boatyards as a working museum.

Yet SA Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy, Pat

Conlon did not consider the boatyards were worth saving and

commented: ‘I don’t believe that the historical value that they

pretend exists in the boatyards is actually there.’ And, despite

Searles having an EPA license valid until 2012, Mr Conlon

concluded, ‘On environmental reasons alone, the boatyards

should not be there.’

The fight to save some of the Jenkins Street boatyards included

an application by the National Trust to have the boatyards and

sailing club sheds listed on the State Heritage register, and an

open letter to the South Australian Premier Mike Rann signed

by a group of prominent people concerned by the imminent

demolition of the historic boatyards. The signatories included

yachtsman Sir James Hardy, ABC political satirist and former

Birkenhead resident Brian Dawe, Australian National Maritime

Museum director Mary-Louise Williams and Editor of Classic

Boat Magazine (UK) Dan Houston (see letter published in

CYAA Issue 25 July 2008).

According to the National Trust, Searles Boatyard, A McFarlane

and Sons and the Central Slipping Company were rare

survivals of the continuous maritime activity in Jenkins Street,

Birkenhead, while the Port Adelaide Sailing Club buildings

were a physical reminder of the pleasurable side of boating.

Among the boatyards, the Jenkins Street location also housed

at times the early premises of the Royal South Australian Yacht

Squadron and the Adelaide Rowing Club – manifestations of

the new colony’s growing wealth and sense of establishment.

The National Trust application for heritage listing reads:

‘Among the early shipwrights and boat builders at the

Jenkins Street site were McKendrick, Taylor, Jenkins, Playfair

and Pickhaver. As the boatyards changed hands, the trading

names changed, but the undertaking remained the same – the

building and repair of small ships and boats.

The LMC ordered Searles to cease trading by 15 April

2009 and to quit the premises by the end of May with

the boatyard to be demolished in June.

Pre-eminent in this early group was Samuel Jenkins from Nova

Scotia, an impatient man known as ‘Shove-along Jenkins’ who

in 1868 established a large yard to which he added in 1881 a

powerful mechanical slip known as a ‘Scotia Marine Railway’.

The yard employed up to 25 local artisans and gave its name to

the present Jenkins Street on which the subject places stand.

The small vessels which were the primary concern of the

boatyards were essential to and indicative of the development

of the Port Adelaide community. The working craft supported

the growing importance of the fishing industry and of coastal

trading, while pleasure yachts and launches were built for

the rising class of successful colonists who had the time and

money to enjoy recreational boating.’

Despite intensive work by the National Trust and its new Port

Adelaide branch under chair Tony Kearney, the application

for heritage listing was rejected and one by one the boatyards

have been closed and demolished. The last yard standing

in Jenkins Street was Searles Boatyard, owned by Kingsley

Haskett who had started as an apprentice at Searles in 1963.

The LMC ordered Searles to cease trading by 15 April 2009

and to quit the premises by the end of May with the boatyard

to be demolished in June.

Richard Tuson ‘Dick’ Searles founded Searles Boatyard as

R T Searles in Jenkins Street in 1913 after first working with

Ben Weir and Alf Pickhaver in their boatyard next door. R T

Searles was also a member of the committee that built the first

clubhouse of the Port Adelaide Sailing Club. During the First

World War, Richard Searles lived with his family in a cottage

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on the Jenkins Street premises while working as caretaker for

the RSAYS, then set up his boatbuilding business at Largs Bay.

When his sons R W ‘Bill’, E G ‘Ted’ and L G ‘Les’ joined him,

the business was renamed R T Searles & Sons and in 1929 it

was established back at Jenkins Street on the current site. The

last of Richard’s sons retired in 1977, selling the business to

the yard’s senior shipwrights Brian Mellors and Roger Knill.

Kingsley Haskett, returning from a career in the merchant

marine in 1989, obtained a third of the business in 1993 and as

senior shipwright bought it outright in 2000.

Searles had three slipways and slipped around 120 boats

per year. In addition to recreational boats, Searles also built,

refitted, repaired and maintained many of the ‘Mosquito

Fleet’ of local ketches, as well as trawlers, fishing vessels,

lifeboats for the Australian Shipping Board, patrol vessels

and minesweepers used by the RAN during World War II,

Australian Army, police and pilot boats, Lake Alexandrina

ferries, and some of the original Popeye cruise fleet for the

Torrens Lake including No. 4 which was used as the Royal

Barge on the Queen Mother’s visit.

The many yachts built at the Jenkins Street boatyards include

the following, some of which are still in use today:

Sayonara, a 58 ft topsail gaff cutter designed by William

Fife III, built by A J McFarlane and launched in 1897 for G F

Garrard, then commodore of the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria.

Still racing in Melbourne.

Nerida, a 45 ft gaff cutter designed by Alfred Milne of Glasgow

and built by R T Searles & Sons in 1933 for Thomas Hardy of

the RSAYS. She was constructed of grown frames and blue

gum from Kangarilla near Hardy’s winery in McLaren Vale.

After being sold to Colin Haselgrove in the 1940s, Nerida

competed in several Sydney to Hobart races, winning the race

in 1950 and going on to win the first Adelaide to Port Lincoln

race in February of the same year. After life in South Australia,

she went to the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, then to Victoria

in 1953, where she served as an official starting boat for the

1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. In 1971 Sir James Hardy

bought back Nerida and she is now in Sydney.

Nautilus, a 56 ft ketch designed by John Alden along the lines

of the Gloucester fishing boats and built by R T Searles & Sons

in 1928 for Frank Verco of Verco Milling Company, a member

of the RSAYS. Nautilus was constructed of 1½ inch jarrah

planking with New Zealand kauri topsides and deck. Frank

Verco sailed Nautilus for several years before selling her to

brothers Frank and John Livingston of the South Australian

South East who renamed the yacht Kurrewa III. The brothers

sailed her in several Sydney to Hobart races and won the

1947 Trans-Tasman Auckland to Sydney yacht race in record

time. In 1949 they and their sister Emily – together with Bill

Gordon and Alan Bath – were the first Australians to take part

in the Trans-Pacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

During the war, Kurrewa III was taken over by the RAAF and

served in the Darwin area. She was last heard of back under

the name Nautilus in Sydney.

Roama, a 54 ft yacht designed by Edward Slater and built by

R T Searles & Sons in 1951 for Roy Tilley of Sandringham,

Victoria, with a 70 ft mast and sails by Ratsey and Lapthorn.

Roama’s 7-ton keel was the heaviest keel cast on the premises

at Searles – most of the lead keels were made by Searles on

the premises, from the pattern to the casting. Roama has twice

circumnavigated the globe.

Martindale, a 66 ft luxury motor yacht launched in 1932,

designed and built by R T Searles & Sons for John Andrew

‘Jack’ Tennant Mortlock of the Mortlock pastoral family and

named after their Martindale Hall property at Mintaro. The

interior featured mahogany panelling and she was fitted out

with two staterooms, a saloon with accommodation for four,

a large galley and a bathroom. Part of her teak steering wheel

came from the old South Australian gunboat Protector and

part from a yacht once owned by the King of Norway. Her

original engine was a twin cylinder semi-diesel Petter taken

from the first Martindale, which was later replaced by a 100

bhp 6-cylinder Gardiner L3 type diesel. In 1941 Martindale

Kingsley Haskett

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was loaned to the RAN for use as an auxiliary patrol boat

to carry out patrol and sea–air rescue duties in New Guinea

waters. In 1951 she was returned to her owners and refitted at

Searles to pre-war condition. Subsequent owners included Mr

H Halstern of Willunga Reef, Sir Thomas Barr-Smith of Mount

William Station at Willaura, Victoria, Mr Perc Puckridge of

Port Lincoln, Mr Godeon Abbott of Hawkesbury River, NSW,

and Mr V Nash of Potts Point, Sydney.

Anyndah, a 29 ft Bermudan cutter built by R T Searles in 1928

to an Albert Strange design for Norman Ford of the RSAYS.

Robert ‘Captain Bob’ Smedley bought Anyndah in 1994 and

after an initial major refit at Searles Boatyard the same year,

the yacht has been returning there regularly for service and

maintenance. ‘When you are on the slip, they allow you to

work on your own boat if they have work to do too. I won’t

get that again. Good advice, good facilities, that’s what I get at

Searles from people with a rich knowledge of wooden boats,

especially this old boat. They know the boat, they’ve worked

on it for years,’ he explains.

A tradition of Friday barbecues at Searles Boatyard also played

an important social role, enabling people interested in boats to

get together and exchange knowledge. Captain Bob comments:

‘It was a meeting place for the boating community in Port

Adelaide, I’ve been going there since 1994 when I haven’t

been away at sea, you would meet up with people from the

Cruising Yacht Club, the Port Adelaide Sailing Club and the

Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron. I will miss that.’

The demolition of Searles and four other traditional

boatyards can be expected to hasten a demise of a

highly skilled trade in South Australia.

Many of the shipwrights working in the Jenkins Street boatyards

had been employed there most if not all their lives. Between

1945 and 1968 R T Searles trained 18 apprentices including

the three latest owners. Kingsley Haskett remembers the days

when the Ruston stationary engine would be powered up

every morning to drive the bandsaws and other machinery.

The demolition of Searles and four other traditional boatyards

can be expected to hasten a demise of a highly skilled trade in

South Australia.

Alone on Jenkins Street, and adjacent to R T Searles, the

expensively developed wharf and training facilities of the

Royal Australian Navy will continue operating. The LMC says

that the Newport Quays consortium is five years away from

developing the Jenkins Street site, but in the present economic

climate and with the project stalled at Stage 2, it is possible

we will not see any construction activity on the site (‘Stage

7’) during our lifetimes. According to the LMC, until then

the land may be used for storage of materials, car parking or

stockpiling of contaminated soil excavated from other stages

of the Port development.

One has to wonder at the urgency with which the South

Australian government has closed down the major part of the

state’s once thriving timber boat industry.

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Anyndah on the slipway

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IMPORTING SEA MIST

MARk RObERTSON

I have always had a love of traditionally-designed two-

masted schooners. The gaff rig, the clipper bow and all

of the traditional trimmings have intrigued me for years.

While my eye has always been looking out for such a vessel,

I had not actually seen one in Australian waters. I have

been lucky enough to sail with friends on the west coast of

the USA, and had seen a few schooners over there, but of

course they were there, and I lived in Australia.

My old American mate Lanny Allmaras and I were in Sydney

having a beer one afternoon, and he told me about a schooner

that was for sale in Washington State. He thought that it was

what I was after. I saw a couple of pictures of her, and noted

that she was in fact a Sea Witch, a gaff rigged ketch. The clipper

bow, the gaff rig and a beautiful shape had hooked me.

I flew to the USA on business, and made a point of visiting the

ketch while I was there. I was sadly disappointed to find her in

poor shape and not worth pursuing. The disappointment and

waste of time was tempered by the fact that I spent five days

on Lanny Allmaras’ boat, where we motored out of Seattle

and up to Port Townsend, and everywhere in between. Port

Townsend is known as the wooden boat capital of the world,

and is a great place for any classic yacht lover to visit.

After three months at home pondering the Sea Witch market,

I stumbled on another Sea Witch named Sea Mist. After

numerous emails with the previous owners, and bunches

of pictures, I decided to try again. Once again with Lanny, I

drove north from Portland to Bellingham, Washington where

Sea Mist had been for the last three years. Walking onto the

dock I was fully expecting to be disappointed once again, and

to have that feeling of frustration at having made a long trip

for nothing. I was delighted to find that Sea Mist looked even

better than in her pictures, and that she had been ‘babied’ for

her whole life.

Once aboard I marvelled at the amount of beautiful and

carefully maintained bright work. Her external paint was in

showroom condition, and was so good that she looked as if she

had a fibreglass hull. While I was delighted and amazed at her

quality, I also felt a sense of doom and had the very sobering

thought about whether I could maintain her to that standard.

I realised that she is a lot of boat, and I felt a sense of being

overwhelmed by it. I almost said ‘No, this is too much for me.’

Lanny and I checked into a hotel where we ate, drank wine

and discussed what I was letting myself in for.

Upon returning to Sea Mist next morning, I had a clearer picture

of what she was, but the traditional rigging had me tricked,

and the gaff rig was something that I had no clue about. We

took her out for a sail, and the previous owner showed me the

ropes so to speak. I realised quickly that the gaff rig is not as

imposing as some people had told me, although having three

arms would help!

While standing on the dock and discussing various aspects of

Sea Mist, I made an offer to buy, subject to a successful survey.

The owners agreed and we shook hands. Deciding to buy a

boat 8000 miles away from home brings forward quite a few

questions ...

Who do I get to do her survey? How do I find someone to

ship her to Australia? How do I deregister her from the US

Coastguard register? How do I have her transferred into my

name after paying for her? What about insurance? Do I have

her brought out on a ship, or do I have someone sail her out?

How and who do I have prepare her for shipping?

Then there is the whole question about what I do when she

gets here.

I immediately went to work finding a surveyor. The boat yard

in Bellingham gave me three different names to choose from,

one of whom had not seen or worked on her before. So I called

him.

I found a very experienced shipwright who specialised in

surveying wooden boats, and would be ideal for my purposes,

but he could not start for two weeks. Luckily for me, once again

Lanny came to the rescue and agreed to drive the six or seven

hours back to Bellingham to be there when Mike McGlenn did

the inspection. This allowed me to go home.

While I waited for the survey to start I set about finding a

company who could ship her to Melbourne. This was easier

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Sea Mist on Port Phillip


said than done. There is a company which specialises in

shipping boats aboard a ship that sinks to allow the boats to

be floated onboard. Then she is raised up and starts motoring.

The problem was that they only sailed out of Fort Lauderdale

in Florida, and via the Panama Canal and Tahiti. They would

land in Brisbane. This left me with two problems, getting

her to Fort Lauderdale by road, and then from Brisbane to

Melbourne, and all for something like $US65,000 plus the cost

of the additional road transport etc, etc, etc.

As I mulled over the transport issue, I set about finding an

escrow service that could deregister her, act for me to ensure

that she had a clear title, hold the funds while the paperwork

was done, and then give me official title of ownership once it

all cleared.

Fortunately I found a service in Portland, Oregon who could

do all of that, and so I put them on standby for my request to

come through shortly.

I was very lucky to have the sellers acting for me as well. I

know that this was partly to assist them in selling their

boat, but they really did go above and beyond their duty to

help me find a shipping company, work with the boat yard

at Bellingham to have Sea Mist prepared for shipping, and

generally look after my interests. This saved me flying back to

the USA to supervise these activities.

The survey revealed Sea Mist to be in very good condition,

with some annoying electrical issues, some plumbing issues,

and a few minor snags which were not deal-breakers. The

sellers agreed to a reduced price to cover the snags, and next

thing I knew, I was the new owner.

Following the transfer of title, I had just about got the shipping

question organised, and had engaged a company to get her

to Melbourne. The process seemed a little convoluted, but

the dollars dictated the method and departure point. I had a

vision that she would be shipped out of Los Angeles direct to

Melbourne, or even Vancouver, Canada, which was only 30

miles north of Bellingham, but it appears that the amount of

shipping between the west coast and Australia is huge and at

the time, the economy had not fallen over, so it worked out to

be cheaper to truck her 3000 miles to Savannah, Georgia, then

ship her to Melbourne via the Panama Canal.

The shipping company JTC Global was very good to deal

with and arranged everything. They are an experienced

boat-shipping company, and seem to know all the pitfalls and

methods, and at the risk of sounding like an advertisement,

they really did take the worry and effort out of the

shipping process.

Working in conjunction with the ex-owner, the boat yard,

and the shipping lines, JTC Global had a steel cradle made

in Savannah, had the special extra-low float to truck her, and

also arranged insurance, although I later organised my own

insurance through my own broker, Rob Viney, at PSB Group.

It was a little cheaper doing it from our end than from the US. I

was guided by Rob’s knowledge of such things and felt secure

about the whole process.

Because you pay for the shipping on a cubic foot basis, it is

best to reduce your package to as small a size as possible so

I had her masts, half of her bowsprit and the davits removed.

Heaps of gear was stored below, and two tenders were stored

on deck around the cockpit. All of this is good sense, but

it does make you nervous and you hope that nothing will

be damaged. The thought of Sea Mist travelling half way

around the world made me nervous, and so, although I was

now well organised, I wouldn’t be happy until she arrived

safely into Melbourne.

When taking on any great project, it helps to be a bit naïve

or you may not go ahead with it. I thought that I had all

bases covered, and that the most difficult part of putting this

together remotely was done and dusted. I didn’t expect my

main concerns to be here in Australia. Because the ship was

delayed into Savannah by hurricanes in the Mexican gulf, her

departure was delayed and so she arrived into Melbourne on

22 December.

In consultation with my customs clearance agent here in

Australia, things were looking pretty good until he advised

me about the possibility of quarantine being difficult, and that

we would have to just ‘see how we go when she gets here’.

Quarantine said that they would want her fumigated, which

would mean her being held over Christmas. Then they added

that they may want to ultrasound her hull.

This presented two problems. The first was how long she

would stay on the dock. The stevedoring companies give you

about five or six days free but after that they start charging like

wounded bulls. Once again the charges are based on cubic feet

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or cubic metres. This worked out to be about $US2000 per day,

and I was potentially looking at two to three weeks, or maybe

even more.

The second problem was the cost of an ultrasound. I envisaged

it costing thousands of dollars and that I would have basically

no say in it. Obviously I wanted to get Sea Mist off the docks

ASAP and with Christmas just a couple of days away, this was

looking unlikely. Some good news was that quarantine would

inspect her at 9 am on the 23rd. The bad news was that they

walked up to her, a quarantine officer looked up and said, ‘I

am not climbing up there,’ and walked off.

It was now likely that they would not look at her until after

Christmas, and my best laid plans were stalling. Some fast

talking from my customs clearance agent Tim Carlton had

them agree to have different officers inspect her at 2 pm. They

looked at her, but wouldn’t climb a ladder, so I had to hire a

‘man basket’ to lift them up onto the deck. When they saw

how much gear was onboard they refused to look any further.

Can you see my face going red with anger and frustration?

With some more fast talking, quarantine agreed to have her

moved to a privately owned quarantine inspection station

in Footscray. This did not speed up the process, but at least it

got her off the docks, and the potential for a $20–60,000 storage

bill was averted. So instead of hiring a crane to lift her onto

a truck, and truck her to Williamstown, she was trucked

to Footscray, where two other cranes were hired to lift her off.

The private quarantine service was helpful but slow, and

of course didn’t work between Christmas and the New

Year. Because New Year’s Day was on a Thursday, they had

decided to have the Friday off, and not return to work until

5 January.

In the meantime, Sea Mist was baking in the summer sun as

she had for a couple of months at that stage.

Around 6 January I was allowed in to see her in a dusty

industrial yard. I was shocked to see how the travel had taken

a toll on her, with numerous cracks in the paint, covered in

road grime. The beautiful bright work was suffering, and the

timbers below the waterline had opened up. A very sad sight,

and one which I am sure the previous owners would not want

to have seen.

The private service had removed all the gear from down

below and had quarantine come to inspect her. As I suspected,

they wanted to see her cleaned and fumigated, so they once

again went away and I once again suffered the frustration of

not being able to get anyone motivated. Another inspection

was done about ten days later, and she was finally cleared to

go. Luckily no ultrasound.

The cranes and truck were arranged again, and this time

she made it to Williamstown. In case you’re wondering, that

little exercise added about $10,000 to the costs. GGM Marine

put some work into the hull below the waterline, applied

new antifoul, and put her back in the water. The masts were

restepped, rigging was once again in place and she started to

look like a classic yacht again.

It has taken a lot of effort cleaning, polishing and adjusting

things, but she is going well and turning a few heads.

I am about to get into the bright work and some areas of

paint which didn’t travel well, and she will be almost as good

as new.

For your interest, insurance is not quite as straight forward as

you might think. Marine insurance covers the vessel while it

is on the ship, then you require separate cover for when it is

on the truck bound for the ship, and of course, another cover

for leaving the wharves to the marina, or in my case, wharf to

quarantine, and then to the marina.

So, the question is, would I do it all over again?

The answer is yes, but not so close to Christmas!

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QuEENSClIff MARITIME WEEkENd 2009

CARMEN bEll

Queenscliff is a genuinely delightful seaside resort which

has plenty of 1880s charm and enough attractions to seduce

the most curious visitor.

The area was originally inhabited by the Wathawurung

Aborigines, who in 1803 befriended a white man, William

Buckley, a convict who had absconded when a party under

the command of Lieutenant Governor Collins established a

settlement at Point King, Sorrento. Buckley, in fact, married

a woman of the tribe, had a daughter by her and lived in the

area for 32 years before returning to Europe.

In 1838 George Tobin was licensed to operate a pilot service

from the beach below Shortland Bluff (then a heavily wooded

headland) where he and his crew lived. The pilot boats steer

ships through The Rip at the entrance to Port Phillip as the

waters between the Port Phillip Heads are regarded as highly

treacherous and the area is known as ‘ship’s graveyard’ due to

the number of wrecks that have occurred over the years.

The area was named Whale Head in 1836, but was soon

renamed Shortland Bluff after a midshipman on the vessel

which carried out an early official survey of Port Phillip. A

pastoral run was established on the future townsite in 1850.

However, the discovery of the Victorian goldfields in 1851

caused shipping to greatly increase and, when the pastoral

licence expired in 1852, the government resumed the land and

a survey for a prospective townsite was executed. Land sales

proceeded in 1853. Governor Charles La Trobe renamed the

townsite Queenscliff in honour of Queen Victoria. The first

hotel and an Anglican school were erected in 1854 (the father

of renowned artist Arthur Streeton was headmaster here in

the late 1860s).

A lifeboat service was established in 1856 and a jetty and

a planked roadway across the foreshore to the pier were

built when bay steamers began plying back and forth from

Melbourne. It was extended in 1860, and a crane and tramway

were added the following year. Further extensions were added

due to siltation and the need to accommodate larger boats.

As Queenscliff overlooks a major shipping channel relating

to Melbourne and Geelong, it quickly developed a role as a

garrison town and strategic defence post with the installation

of three cannons during the Crimean War. Volunteers manned

them from 1860 and a Fort proper was constructed in the 1880s

amid scares of a Russian invasion.

Fishermen began to move to Queenscliff circa 1860 and a sizeable

couta fishing fleet soon developed as demand had been greatly

increased by the massive influx of immigrants associated with

the goldrushes. Some were Chinese anglers who supplied

dried fish to their countrymen on the goldfields. In 1865

The Geelong Advertiser reported 130 anglers at Queenscliff,

including Maori, Italians, Dutchmen, Frenchmen and Chinese.

Complaints about their occupation of the sand flats led to the

subdivision of the area into allotments (Fisherman’s Flat) for

lease to men licensed under the Fishing Act.

Queenscliff became a Borough (incorporating Point Lonsdale)

in 1863. In 1879 a railway line connecting the town to

Melbourne opened. This was the beginning of dramatic

growth and Queenscliff become a popular holiday resort on

the western shore of the Bay. In the 1880s and 1890s the town

became a very popular weekend getaway for the wealthier

classes of Melbourne society who rode paddlesteamers such

as Ozone while newspapers reported on the families who

were holidaying in the resort and which of the elegant hotels

they occupied.

Ironically it was the motor car which also saw Queenscliff fall

from favour as access to other coastal resorts was facilitated.

However, this decline of internal dynamism meant that the

Victorian resort feel of the town has been preserved.

The 2009 Queenscliff Maritime Weekend is in its sixth year

and incorporates Fishy Tales in the Couta Boat Shed of the


Queenscliffe Maritime Museum, the Blessing of the Fleet in

the Queenscliff Harbour, Benito’s Treasure Hunt on the beach

between the Ferry Terminal and the Queenscliff Pier, and

the Queenscliff Couta Boat Regatta. This year, for the first

time, members of the Classic Yacht Association of Australia

were invited and indeed brought some of their yachts from

Williamstown to Queenscliff.

The new Queenscliff Harbour basin is able to accommodate

visiting boats easily and provides good and secure facilities for

overnight berthing. Harbour staff had diligently cleared the

Central Basin to accommodate the boats attending the Blessing

of the Fleet which was conducted by ‘Barefoot Fisherman’

Lewis Ferrier from his couta boat Rosebud. The Queenscliff

Sea Scouts and the Queenscliff Coastguard participated in the

ceremony, and the Pilot Boats were also blessed by virtue of

their permanent mooring location in the Central Basin.

It is always heart-warming to see couta boats gather in a group,

particularly in their port of origin, Queenscliff. They are most

attractive boats despite their origins as working boats, and

they are thrilling to race. Low freeboard, large sail areas and

heavy handling test the skills of the skippers and crews – and

the bowsprits ought to be classed as lethal weapons.

The Queenscliff Couta Boat Regatta and Queenscliff Classic

Yacht Regatta 2009 was conducted on Saturday, 21 February

2009. Conditions were breezy at the start, with a strong ebb

tide against a brisk south-southeasterly wind, but settled in

the course of the 1_-hour long race.

Couta boat Regina C34 was built by Peter Locke on Beach

Street in Queenscliff in 1934, sailed to Melbourne, loaded on

the coastal trader Casino and delivered to Port Fairy where

she fished for couta for many years and was also used as a

cray pot boat. She was found in 1984 in Portland and restored.

Jeanette Ellis was the only lady skipper who participated in

the Queenscliff Couta Boat Regatta 2009, and she won not

only the coveted white jumper for the ‘first boat home’ (line

honours) but also the Fisherman’s Trophy for the ‘first old

boat’ (over 50 years of age) over the line in Division 2.

Couta boat Romy C2003 was built by the Wooden Boat Shop

in Sorrento in 2003 and was originally named after the first

owner’s wife Vivienne. The Sorrento Sailing Couta Boat Club

Captain Nigel Abbott re-named her after his daughter Romy,

and once again won the white jumper for line honours in

Division 1. The Fisherman’s Trophy in this Division however

went to the handicap winner Lola C43 whose previous name

was Edna. Lola C43 was built by Doug Walton and his 12-

year-old son Jack at the Rhyll Pier from 1939–1943 and has

also been re-named after her current skipper’s daughter.

It was good to see that the old working boats in the fleet were

holding their own against recently built racing boats, and this

is a credit to the Couta Boat Class Association design rules

which attempt to provide a level playing field by restricting

design development in this type of boat.

Classic yacht Mercedes III (skipper Martin Ryan) won over

Boambillee (skipper George Fisscher) by a mere 26 seconds on

corrected time. The classic yachts started after the couta boats

but, because of their size and consequent faster hull speeds,

overtook many of the boats in front. This they did in a most

gentlemanly manner, as is befitting these beautiful wooden

yachts.

All up, there were 25 boats providing a feast for the eye for the

public watching along the beach and on the Queenscliff Pier,

and plenty of photo opportunity for spectators on Mia Mia,

a 25-metre sailing ketch built in Melbourne in 1965 whose

aboriginal name means ‘resting place’.

The Memorial Sail-Past on Sunday, 22 February 2009 had

special meaning as it did not only honour the fishermen and

sailors who are no longer with us, but it also commemorated

those who lost their lives in the recent bush fires. Lew Ferrier

was on his boat’s foredeck and crews saluted him as they went

past him and then proceeded to Portsea Pier and from there

to their individual home ports of Williamstown, Martha Cove,

Mornington, and Sorrento. An old Tiger Moth plane circled

the boats while they were waiting for their start signal, which

was given with a proper starting cannon from the end of the

Queenscliff Pier by the President of the Queenscliffe Maritime

Museum. And, as the first boat rounded the Queenscliff Bluff,

the Queenscliff Fort detonated one of its large cannons as a

salute – a great gesture.

Yes, Queenscliff certainly can accommodate big groups with

ease – wide streets with very little traffic, generous parklands,

good boating facilities and friendly locals. And lots of

interesting stories about the past, such as this one:

A great story about Queenscliff from the 1930s involves

the famous Australian painter Sidney Nolan. Apparently

Nolan and a friend stowed away on a ship in Melbourne in

1934 hoping they could get a free passage to France. They

decided that if they were caught they would insist they were

missionaries who were trying to get to Tahiti to bring the gospel

to the locals. Unfortunately neither Nolan nor his friend had

a working knowledge of The Bible and neither of them had

much of a desire to remain teetotal for the duration of the trip.

They were discovered before the ship left Port Phillip, were

removed and taken to Queenscliff where they were gaoled.

Carmen Bell

President

Couta Boat Association

www.coutaboatclub.com.au


NOTES ON AS YET uNfulfIllEd TRIP TO QuEENSClIff.

MIChAEl MACTAVISh

This is not meant to be an exhaustive critique but a few

relevant lessons learnt, which may make the next longer

trip more trouble free, even within the confines of Port

Phillip Bay.

This story is about ‘Ella’ and the series of events that meant

we could not take part in the racing and fun we had so looked

forward to.

Mistake number one; we had to turn back an hour out of

Williamstown as the upper shroud just dropped to the deck

and needed to be repaired, before we could depart again, three

hours later. Do not rely on experts, maintenance is always

important.

Mistake number two; the skipper (me) did not take enough

extra fuel resulting in us not being able to make it to Queenscliff

on the Friday. An hour from the west channel in 20/25 knots

of head on sea and at 6.30pm we realized we did not have

enough fuel to get us there. At this point we were motor sailing

with our number 3 headsail. We changed tack reaching back to

Portarlington in the early evening without the engine which

made for a pleasant sail. Nibbles at the inner jetty followed

by egg and bacon pie for dinner saw us just settling in for the

night when Richard MacRae’s ‘Claire’ appeared with all sails

up and no engine working due to fuel problems. Eventually

with our assistance and some good sailing he was snug on the

jetty as well.

Mistake number three; Saturday morning and I checked the

engine oil – nothing on the dipstick – two litres more and just

a hint of oil on the stick, further investigation, lots of oil in the

bilges then a leaking oil filter is found. Richard by now had

discovered a local mechanic who magically finds an oil filter

for ‘Ella’ together with more oil and we are ready to go – well

maybe. At that point my engine is suspect so I decide to head

downwind to Williamstown. Hindsight says that turning off

the engine and sailing to Portarlington definitely saved the

engine from a complete meltdown.

Richard’s fuel problems fixed he decided to drive to Queenscliff

and have a relaxing day with the others.

The lessons I re-learnt are;

• Carry twice as much fuel as your worst estimate says

you need because you cannot assume you can sail out of

trouble.

• Always carry a complete set of fuel filters and an oil filter

and plenty of engine oil. I did have spare fuel filters but no

oil filter.

• Regularly drain the fuel tank and check fuel filters as rough

trips stirs up the water in the tank.

New Lessons learnt;

• The filters particularly are not robust and are probably

the weakest part of a diesel engine. I am told original

manufacturers filters generally have thicker metal in the

filter but good marine mechanics usually rust prime and

then paint the outside of filters they fit in boats to prevent

corrosion.

• Get a good marine engineer to test the engine alarms etc at

least once every couple of years or do it yourself if you have

enough knowledge.

Rigging;

Do not assume that professional riggers do not make mistakes.

If not happy with the rigging get a second opinion. ‘Ella’s’

upper shroud came down on Friday morning due to a section

of near new stainless chain failing. This was only a year old.

Regularly get up yourself and check the rigging at the mast

top.

Having ocean raced various boats over a ten year period prior

to buying ‘Ella’ I knew the rules so it was very relevant over

this weekend to be reminded that racing ‘Ella’ mostly at the

top of the bay is not enough preparation for a trip down the

bay. We had become complacent and sailing to Queenscliff

was a big reminder which took ‘Ella’ and crew out of our

comfort zones.

Safe sailing.

Ella (left) and Eva (right)

Phot

o: R

oger

Dun

das


RuddER CuP lAuNCh RACE

12 dECEMbER 2008

hAROld kIdd

Around 1908 the editor of the influential American yachting

magazine Rudder donated several magnificent trophies

for offshore racing to yacht clubs around the world. Two

came to New Zealand, one to the Royal New Zealand

Yacht Squadron in Auckland and one to Otago Yacht Club in

Dunedin. The RNZYS decided to run a race for motorboats,

around Sail Rock and back, at night, with the benefit of

a full moon on 12 December 1908. Sail Rock is an ancient

volcanic core jutting out of the sea in Bream Bay 20

kilometres offshore, south east of Whangarei Harbour.

The journey from Auckland’s downtown wharves, around

Sail Rock, and back is 108 nautical miles, in waters that

are relatively sheltered from the prevailing westerlies but

hellish in an easterly blow.

The 1908 race was a great success; there were 14 entrants and

the weather was kind. First home was James Reid’s Seabird,

first on handicap and the winner of the superb silver Rudder

Cup was the Matheson brothers’ Maroro, itself a design from

Rudder magazine and home-built by the Mathesons. Another

entrant in that first race a century ago was H.H. Adams’ husky

Bailey & Lowe double-ender Eliza which was hampered by

engine troubles in the race, but subsequently challenged

Seabird to a race to Russell, much further north, in the Bay

of Islands, and back. Eliza won that race, held in rough

conditions.

Eliza was subsequently bought by the Frankovic winemaking

family of Whangaparaoa who changed her name to the

Croatian Kumi. Taupaki veterinarian Haydon Afford now

owns Kumi and floated the idea to me of a centenary Rudder

Cup rerun. Two of my Boating NZ articles on the race later, the

vintage launch community was abuzz with the idea, and the

Classic Yacht Association of NZ picked it up and ran it.

Boating NZ were sponsors and we had great help from the

RNZYS, Coastguard and Auckland’s Harbourmaster. We

cajoled Steve Thomas, Seabird’s present Nelson owner to bring

her up by coastal ship for the race, with generous assistance

from various shipping, haulage and crane operators. We gained

the enthusiasm and involvement of the Matheson family, who

still hold that original Rudder Cup won by Maroro in 1908.

Grandson Andrew Matheson led a Matheson contingent who

not only lent us the precious original cup but also crewed in

the event.

As for the race, it was just bloody magic. We had 26 launches

in several classes, two of them built in1905, taking part in a

mass start off Westhaven in Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour

at 1900 on Friday 12 December 2008. The Waitemata rocked

with the wash of elderly hulls streaming towards North

Head and then sweeping round north into the Rangitoto

Channel as daylight faded. The relatively modern planing

hulls like Murray Gatt’s big Pelin Rakoa and Bruce Webb’s

early Jim Young Vindex Delmar soon cleared out. In a sweet

Rudder Cup start

Phot

o: H

arol

d Ki

dd


RUDDER CUP

OVERALL HANDICAP WINNER

Joan (Ray and Jill Russell)

VETERAN (PRE 1919)

1st Seabird (Steve Thomas)

2nd Mapu

3rd Ferro

VINTAGE (1919 TO 1949)

1st Falcon (James Mobberley)

2nd Moanalua

3rd Lady Gay

CLASSIC (1950 TO 1978)

1st Rakoa (Murray Gatt)

2nd Delmar

3rd Waimiga

SPIRIT OF TRADITION (1979+)

1st Lucille (Alan Good) Logan 33.

nostalgic link, Delmar was skippered by Geoff Cooper, whose

grandfather Alf Cooper had competed in the 1908 race in his

Winsome. These two hot ships were closely tailed by James

Mobberley’s 36 footer Falcon, built by Lane Motor Boat Co

for G.R. Chamberlin of Ponui in 1924, now powered by a

180hp Hino and tuned to perfection by her owner, one of our

leading marine engineers. Falcon was touching 17 knots as

she thrummed through the night.

The weather stayed kind. No one who took part will ever

forget the thrill of approaching Sail Rock, standing sheer 455

feet out of the sea, in the dark, just a gentle slop around its base,

the rock echoing the roar of the engines. Kevin O’Sullivan,

navigating Seabird, thrilled the fleet with his clipped, precise

RT sked, ‘Coastguard, Coastguard, Seabird has rounded Sail

Rock for the second time in a hundred years.’ Skipper Steve

Thomas says he felt builder James Reid’s presence with him.

Kumi had some engine problems and there were other minor

discomforts, but 26 old launches started and 25 finished. Tony

Stevenson pulled Wild Duck out at Kawau for a refreshment

break after some overheating and decided to stay once the top

was off the rum bottle. Romany II from Whangarei gamely

plodded around the course at reduced revs after similar

problems, finishing at 1043 on Saturday morning!

The Prizegiving was another thrill as the handicap winner,

and extremely popular winner of the new Rudder Cup Trophy,

proved to be the lovely 1918 Bailey & Lowe-built 45 footer

Joan owned by Ray and Jill Russell.

Seabird won the Veteran class, bettering her 1908 time by

90 minutes. Falcon romped in third overall, out-performing

launches a fraction of her age in a magnificent performance.

Maybe we have rekindled the flame of launch racing, for so

long a feature of Auckland sporting life, but which died in the

Depression of the 1930’s. What a good time to start it again

and ‘look Ol’ Man Depression right in the eye’, as Dick Powell

sang in 1932.

Will we do it again? Of course we will, but maybe not around

Sail Rock every year!


CROSS TASMAN EXPORTS (PART I I)

hAROld kIdd

In the last issue I dealt with the Sydney yacht Annie Ogle

which was imported to New Zealand in 1864. Apart from a

handful of small centreboarders imported to Dunedin from

Melbourne during the Otago gold rush of the 1860s, Annie

Ogle was the last Australian import until the Walter Reeks

yawl Volunteer in 1893. Our local builders were more than

capable of satisfying local demand.

Auckland was where the major shipbuilders and shipwrights

were in business, partly because Auckland was on the shipping

route between the southern Australian colonies and the west

coast of the United States, but mainly because it was the hub

of the western Pacific island trade and because it was right in

the centre of the kauri milling area. Kauri was by far the best

indigenous ship and boatbuilding timber, light, strong, highly

resistant to sea water and available in straight grained lengths

up to 100ft. However its range did not extend more than 80

miles south of Auckland. Vast quantities were available and it

soon became a commercial reality that it was cheaper to build

a ship or boat in Auckland than to ship the timber to another

port and build the vessel there.

One of the earliest shipbuilders was Henry Niccol, a Scotsman,

who set up in Auckland soon after it was founded as a European

settlement in 1840. The staple products of his yard were

cutters and schooners for coastal trading and for the Pacific

islands trade. The first serious yacht built by the yard was the

11 tonner Lizard for Henry’s son Tom in January 1865.

In January 1875 Tom Niccol launched the 31 ton cutter Secret

for a local syndicate. She went across to Sydney in 1875 to

race Magic and then down to Melbourne, but failed to sell in

Australia. She returned to New Zealand and spent a season

sailing around the coast attending Regattas and, for sizeable

prize-money, cleaning up the local cracks, none of which

approached her in size, of course. In 1877 she was sailed back

to Sydney and sold to John Newton. In early 1880 C. and A.

Millar of Melbourne bought Secret. She was one of the trio of

large yachts, the other two being Richard White’s May Queen

and the Hon. W.J. Clarke’s Janet, that attracted public attention

to the sport. Secret raced in Victorian waters with distinction

for many years. A later owner was W.R. Virgoe, Commodore

of the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria. He laid Secret up in 1890

during the savage economic recession and she was eventually

sold for transporting fish from the west coast of Tasmania to

Melbourne.

One of Niccol’s Auckland competitors in the cutter and

schooner building trade was Charles Bailey Sr. who took over

George Beddoes’ yard on the North Shore of Auckland in 1872.

He built the 10 ton cutter Erin for Joy of Melbourne in January

1877. Joy kept her in Auckland for several months, racing and

cruising, but shipped her to Melbourne in the winter. She was

later owned by A.W. and W.S. Fergie.

In September 1878 Tom Niccol had another go at export with the

29 tonner Waitangi which was commissioned by John Newton

of Sydney and sailed across the Tasman on 12th October 1878.

She was well ahead of Secret in design and probably owed a

lot to the crack English yacht Vanessa. In Sydney she won races

against Sirocco and others. Alfred Milson bought her in 1881.

After extensive remodeling by Walter Reeks her crowning

achievement was winning the Intercolonial Yacht Race of

1887 against Janet and Fairfax’s Magic. She was eventually

sunk in Nouméa in 1904 in a collision.

The last yacht built in Auckland for export to Australia in

this first wave was Taniwha, again built by Tom Niccol in

November 1880 at a cost of £1,500. The yard built her on spec

for a local syndicate, specifically to compete in the Melbourne

Intercolonial Regatta of January 1881. She was a large vessel

of 36 tons, 65ft overall by 55ft waterline by 13ft beam. She

arrived on her own bottom from Auckland in December

1880, just a shell inside, ready to race. In the Regatta Taniwha

was involved in the famous race against Janet and Secret

in Melbourne in which Clarke’s Janet triumphed. Phipps

Turnbull then bought her from the Niccol syndicate. After a

spell in Sydney around 1885, owned by H. Underwood of the

RSYS, Dr Aubrey Bowen brought her back to Port Phillip Bay

but by 1893 she had languished unused for so long with her

other capital yacht sisters that she was sold to Queenscliff for

fishing.

In the next installment we’ll look at the two-boat Kiwi

involvement in the Victorian International Regatta of 1889 and

the second wave of exports.

Waitangi leading Clarke’s Janet and Fairfax’s Magic in the 1887 Intercolonial Challenge Yacht Race in Sydney


ANOThER GREAT SEASON IN NEW zEAlANd

ChAd ThOMPSON

The CYA of NZ continues to grow from strength to strength.

The number of restorations of gaff-rigged major yachts

hitting the water is amazing and there is no sign of let-up.

Our early boatbuilders built well in kauri timber so the

survival rate is fantastic. There is a looming crew problem,

however.

Every season recently, we have seen the diversity of the

opportunities for CYA activities broaden. This season has

certainly been no exception. We had an even stronger

contingent of Australian and other overseas visitors; we re-ran

the 1908 Rudder Cup for launches (see separate article) which

led to the formation of a broader based Launch Committee:

we sorted out Yachting New Zealand’s safety regulations

as they relate to the classics; we reintroduced the old alpha-

numeric numbering system, of immense nostalgic appeal,

as governing body; and we experienced a series of great

encounters of our legendary yacht Ranger of 1938 with her

latter-day challengers.

Our season started in earnest 1500 miles away in Melbourne

with the CYAA 2008 Melbourne Cup Regatta, the third year

New Zealanders have raced in it. It gets better every year with

the Australian fleet growing and a constant number of Kiwis

heading over there at the start of each season. Our West Island

cousins really turn on the hospitality and it is almost becoming

a rite of passage for us to participate.

The Couta boat revival in Melbourne provides a lesson for us

all and shows us how fantastic a similar revival of our mullet

boat fleet could be. We are looking forward to several of the

Couta boats being able to join us for our high season of racing

in 2010 and having them come up alongside the restored

mullet boats for some convivial trans-Tasman rivalry that we

have not seen since the heady days of the flying 18s and 12s.

Late January through until mid-February is the climax of our

season. This year we had the added interest in having two of

Ranger’s old rivals back in New Zealand. Fidelis sailed over

from Sydney and Ragtime (nee Infidel) sailed down from San

Francisco to race. The night race to Mahurangi was an insight

into what lay ahead for these larger yachts as was the actual

Mahurangi Festival race.

The Auckland Anniversary Regatta race home from

Mahurangi became an epic match race between Ranger and

Ta’aroa. Ragtime showed the way home. Although she has

been substantially modernised since her Auckland racing

days, her presence made for a great nostalgic spectacle.

This year’s CYA Regatta was highlighted by the Ranger

Challenge Division of Ranger, Ta’aroa, Ragtime, Fidelis and

Northerner competing against one another in a wonderful

sporting way. The other memorable sight of the regatta was

that of the Logan Bros yachts Moana, Thelma, Rainbow and

Iorangi racing in line astern, each yacht having been launched

originally in the same order from 1895 to 1901.

Two Robert Hogan built masterpeices at the 2009 Mahurangi Regatta. Jesse Logan 1880 (left) and Waitang 1894 (right)


NEW zEAlANd ClASSIC SERIES

29 JANuARY – 14 fEbRuARY 2010

Organised by: Auckland Anniversary Regatta and Classic

Yacht Assn committees

Two fabulous weeks of classic sailing and racing on the

spectacular waters of the Hauraki Gulf and Waitemata

Harbour, and the enjoyment of the warm hospitality and

camaraderie of kiwi Classic Yachties

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Friday Jan 29: Devonport Yacht Club Night Race to

Mahurangi. (24 miles)

Saturday Jan 30: Mahurangi Cruising Club Classic Yacht

Regatta & Classic Launch Rally

Sunday Jan 31: CYANZ Mahurangi to Auckland Race.

(24 miles) Start 10am

Raft up in Viaduct

Monday Feb 1: Oceanbridge Auckland Anniversary

Regatta

THE SOUTHERN TRUST CLASSIC YACHT REGATTA

Thursday Feb 11: Skippers briefing, followed by dinner at

the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron

Friday Feb 12: Race 1

Saturday Feb 13: Race 2 followed by Race 3

Sunday Feb 14: Race 4

Official Prizegiving

For further information please contact:

Joyce Talbot

e: [email protected]

p: +64 9 836 4747

m: +64 21 818 448

f: +64 9 836 4015

The remainder of the season’s calendar was well supported

in all classes and the racing was most enjoyable. The Robert

Logan 1880 centreboarder Jessie Logan had a real go in B

Division but was always a bit behind the Herreshoff Buzzards

Bay 25 Jonquil.

The CYA-sponsored Auckland Traditional Boat Building

School (ATBS), at the former RNZAF base at Hobsonville, is

now accredited to officially certify apprentices and continues

its steady progress under Robert Brooke. The apprentice

training and night school classes are still humming, while there

is a waiting list for the frantically popular hobby classes.

New initiatives for the growth of the Association this year

include:

• The formation of an expanded and vigorous Launch

committee. This is an exciting development, on the back of

the Rudder Cup.

• There are also similar moves afoot to see a dedicated

Modern Classic committee being formed over the coming

winter. This should see a significant increase in the growth

of the racing fleet run in such a way as to meet the needs and

interests of owners and crews.

• The CYA and the Auckland Anniversary Regatta Committee

are working closer and closer together each year, highlighting

our yachting heritage around the best period of sailing

weather we enjoy each season, January to March.

• Another significant milestone this year has been the CYA’s

Rescue Trust obtaining permission from our National

Maritime Museum to restore Corona, the famous 26ft mullet

boat of 1936, with luck in time to compete against some

Couta boats next February.

• The Rescue Trust will also, in association with the Matheson

family, restore the 1907 32ft launch Maroro which won the

Rudder Cup in 1908. Maroro has lain on the shores of Blind

Bay out at Great Barrier Island for years. Both boats will be

restored at ATBS.


a heritage Mullet Boat. My feeling is that modern materials

and modern equipment will be the obvious starting point.

The most likely way to ensure that the heritage values are

kept is to define a base set of values, demonstrate these in the

first restorations and then set up a process that allows future

restorations or new built boats to further the heritage project.

One of the common issues that will appear is difference of

opinion of what was around in days gone by, rather than have

a committee that needs to asses and define rules of what’s

allowed, I’d recommend the boat owner needs to present and

demonstrate the heritage of the change; this is 100% about face

from a development concept which allows anything inside a

set of rules. What I’d recommend is that nothing is allowed

unless the heritage is able to be demonstrated. From time to

time there will be some consensus about acceptable changes

from the heritage values, probably around safety, except for

these global changes the proof method helps to maintain and

where appropriate grow the heritage of the fleet.

What I can see for the development fleet is more innovation,

new aspects of craftsmanship and increased opportunity for

competitive sailors that want to see just how far can the Mullet

boat be taken, of course still within the rules.

Heritage fleets are about boats that have been built a long time

ago, either restorations or new built, boats with heritage that

can be sailed within the scope of their capacity. Contemporary

fleets are about new potential new ideas, new capacity and a

desire to evolve.

I’d suggest it would be hard for any mix of heritage and

contemporary boats to exist with these conflicting desires.

So it must come back to are we talking about heritage or

contemporary boats

COuTA MullET

MARk bERGIN

On a recent trip to Auckland I had the pleasure of sailing and

discussing Mullet Boats, a few months before this trip I had

the opportunity to introduce Harold Kidd to Couta Boats.

Although the Mullet Boat and Couta Boat might appear to be

similar I found there are quite a few differences.

Rather than go through all the small details I found there was

one interesting concern between the two types of boat, and

that was how to keep the heritage values in classic fleets.

After my conversations with the Mullet owners in Auckland I

came to one clear understanding; the Mullet Boat as we know

it today appears to be a development boat, that’s not a bad

thing after all the 18 foot skiff is a development boat; and we

have many eras of the 18 footers, some where the boats will

never be seen again and others that hark back to memorable

days the fit directly into the classic boat world.

I suppose my thoughts are that there is an opportunity to

have both, sorry if that sounds like I’m sitting on the fence

but two versions can exist and both assist each other; a classic

Mullet fleet would help promote the heritage roots of the class

and the contemporary fleet would allow the current boat

designers a chance to keep expanding and exploring what’s

possible in a moderately priced boat.

Some of the things that will be difficult here will be working out

is what makes up a heritage boat and what is a development/

modern boat; from what I understood there are a couple of

restorations underway; so there’s the first set of guidelines for

Sisters, or two eras of NZ boat design? You decide

Phot

o: M

ark

Berg

in


ThE hEART Of TASMANIA – ThE WOOdEN bOAT fESTIVAl 2009

kElVIN AldREd

The Wooden Boat Festival takes place every two years

in Hobart, Tasmania and wooden boat owners from all

over Australia register early to have their wooden boats

registered before close-off due to over-registration.

It’s a very exciting time vfor many woodworkers, boat owners

and boat builders who may be applying last minute varnish

to cabin sides in readiness for the opening of the Wooden

Boat Festival.

I was most eager this year to attend the festival to again

showcase the wonderful traditional wooden boat building

skills that created the 2006 major project boat of a 30-foot

classic motor sailer built in 1200-year-old Huon pine. Students

at the Wooden Boat School shed based in southern Tasmania

constructed her. I sponsored the project and was one of the

seven students who constructed her during the two-year

diploma course of traditional wooden boat building.

I had decided to take a leisurely two days to sail her

from Franklin to the festival based in Hobart and I was

accompanied by a fellow student with whom I had worked

during our two-year fulltime course.

The trip to the festival was about 65 nautical miles from

Franklin in the Huon Valley and we planned to overnight

on Bruny Island. We stayed at a spot called Barnes Bay and

anchored in the well-known duck pond area of Barnes Bay.

How amazing to row your tender in Barnes Bay to the shore,

use your galley knife to gather all of the oysters and mussels

you can eat from the rocks and row back for the preparation

of a seafood feast. How good it was. Oysters Kilpatrick still in

their shell with natural salt water and mussels boiled in the

clear waters from Bruny Island.

Sullivan’s Cove is the entrance in the Derwent for the Wooden

Boat Festival and as we arrived to be directed to our berth

in Kings Pier, volunteer dock crew attendants were on hand

to assist us into our designated pen. A rubber ducky with

volunteers also came alongside to assist with our tender

during tie up.

It was a wonderful start to the four-day festival and we were

most eager to go ashore and start the fun after boat registration

Tasmanian timbers afloat in Hobart

Phot

o: K

evin

Ald

red


and collection of our personalised boat description banner to

hang proudly on the transom.

There were over 400 boats on the Hobart waterfront and 164

boats ashore including the wonderful model boats.

Tall ships James Craig, Enterprise, Endeavour, Lady Nelson

and Windwood Bound looked wonderful on the Derwent

River. They were a spectacular backdrop for the hundreds of

wooden boats heading for their mooring.

If you wanted to get out on the water, this year’s festival

offered many options. There was kids’ mini-boat paddling

as well as rowing with Mission Afloat. The on-water activity

for bigger boats included a classic yacht rally and a closing

sailpast. The amazing 18-footers also raced twice a day.

The maritime market place, the ever-popular quick and dirty

dinghy building and community boat building added a new

dimension to the festival.

Current students from the Wooden Boat School played a large

role in demonstrations in the Shipwrights’ village, a fascinating

skills-attraction of the festival. They gave demonstrations of

copper nail roving, steam bending ribs, oar making, caulking

planks and clinker dinghy construction on a 12-foot dinghy

being constructed in Huon pine.

Excellent music and entertainment were provided from 200

entertainers including musicians, Morris dancers, puppeteers

and a magician.

Thirty-four trade exhibitors in the Maritime marketplace

added to the atmosphere and showcased everything from

anchors, engines, propellers to classic chromed deck fittings.

The sea taste stalls and numerous food outlets throughout

the three acres of boating activity catered for every taste of

festival visitors and their thirst was quenched from the two

bars onsite.

The of specialty timbers from Tasmania used in the construction

of so many entrant boats certainly showed that Tasmania has

the best boat-building timbers in the world. Many Tasmanian-

built wooden boats include Huon pine, King Billy, celery top,

blackwood, spotted gum, blue gum, swamp gum, myrtle and

sassafras in their construction.

Over 40,000 people enjoyed the wonderful four days of

maritime and woodcraft celebrations. Special thanks must go

to the 300 volunteers, sponsors and Tasmanian Government

for the total success of the 2009 Festival. Festival organisers

and staff should feel very proud.

According to many of the 550 boat owners who brought their

wooden boats to this year’s festival, it was the best ever.

How lucky we are that the 2011 Wooden Boat Festival is now

less than two years away. Put the dates in your diary, 11–14

February 2009. Congratulations Tasmanian Wooden Boat

Festival, you are a world-class event.


AlEGRIA ‑ ThE VOYAGE

hONOlulu TO fANNING ISlANd

STuART STubbS

With Maris Stuart Stubbs rocke my partner, and our two

crew, James and Amber, I steered a course from Honolulu

on Wednesday, 18 September 2007, after a flurry of good

byes from family and new-found friends, who’d been with

us during our long preparation of 10 months.

Barely an hour into our voyage, it seemed it might all come to

nought. As we sailed out of the lee of Diamond Head and Pali

mountain range, the northeast trade driven swells quickly

kicked in. Each time a beam sea came by, the propeller shaft

would produce an eerie grinding sound. I jumped on my

mobile phone to Mario but the connection soon died and I was

none the wiser. Opening of one of the two large and weighty

trap doors in the main saloon, there was more water than I

cared for sloshing from one side of the keel to the other, so I

pulled out the aft cabin steps to gain access to the PSV bearing

on the propeller shaft. Sure enough, water was streaming from

where the ceramic seal meets the steel face, but it didn’t take

too long to juggle the seal so that it sat correctly and suddenly

the flow of water stopped.

I looked at first mate Maris, whose face was quite pale.

She had been in the heads and would be comotose by the

evening. The seasickness took three days to fully abate, but

she stuck through all her watches despite the soporific effects

of Dramamine. Her misfortune was our fortune, though, as

there were now only three people, not four, to share the box of

mangoes Mario had given us as a departing gift.

Our first destination was Fanning Atoll (Tabueran Is, in the

Kiribati (pron. Kee-ree-bahs) chain) 900 miles away and

almost due south. The wind was from the Northeast at 20

knots and the rhumb line course 185 magnetic. We steered as

much to the east as the wind and current would allow; this was

typically 170 Magnetic. Over the four days from 19 September

to 22 September, we averaged 109 miles per day with a best of

127, not particularly impressive but very much a case of softly,

softly. The biggest seas we encountered came as we passed the

Alenuihaha Channel; even at 150 miles away, the winds that

funnel between the Big Island and Maui produce prodigious

waves. Only a day later, however, we were motoring across

the gentle swells in the rain.

The four of us settled into an easy routine of two hour watches,

three times a day. James and Amber, whom Maris insisted

share at least the first leg of our voyage as she gained her sea-

legs, proved their worth as friendly, diligent and responsible

couple. It took a couple of days, but the “Sailmail” email

program was finally sorted and daily updates to Yotreps of

our position, and emails to friends and family were sent; the

satellite phone was activated; and the car keys of our borrowed

Honolulu car were found. We hand-steered (leaving the

auto-pilot to the relentlessly flat seas of the doldrums to

come) and therefore experienced all weathers, together with

nights of vibrant stars overhead and the ubiquitous trailing

phosphorescent wake.

On Sunday, 23 September, the log shows I pulled in a 20-pound

plus blue fin Tuna. We simply trailed a 200-pound breaking

strain blue nylon line with a plastic squid lure, which just

bounced along 150 meters back in our wake. When the tuna

strike, you just pull them in hand over hand. We also had a

rod in a rod holder, and then you assumed the Lee Marvin role

and worked a bit, quite a bit, to haul them in. (To our chagrin,

we also managed to hook a few sea birds that were hauled on

board, detangled and released.)

At around the half way distance on that Sunday with 565

miles under the keel, we found ourselves approaching the

area of calms with the wind speed down to 2 knots. The

log shows 8 miles in 3 hours. On the Monday the log shows

thunderstorms, lots of rain, no wind; that day we achieved

only 58 miles. By Tuesday, 25 September, the wind was back

up to 15 knots, but on the nose. The only headway south was,

paradoxically, due west (east would have taken us backwards)

and so, consequently over the day, we lost most of our easting

advantage. My cryptic scribble at 1945 that day is “gusts to

30 knots in a rainsquall at dinnertime”. Then the note read

“big black cloud”. My memory of this was that the night

suddenly became pitch black, and then just being driven up

to windward for a few minutes as the squall came through,

quite an exhilarating ride, the boat being quite controllable.

I suspect we had a reefed main, the 90% headsail and the

mizzen up, which ended up being our choice of sail for the

Masthead view of Alegria

Phot

o: S

tuar

t St

ubbs


Fanning fronts the soccer field. It consists of a series of one

room offices for each of police, radio, etc.. No telephones

just a couple of utility vehicles and a monthly supply vessel.

On Fanning, or Taburean as it is now called, life goes on in a

largely islander manner. There are no doctors, sometimes a

nurse, and little understanding of western hygiene. The kids

go to school and are transported across the lagoon on a WW2

landing craft sans its forward drop down door. On their way

back home from school the children break into spontaneous

a capella singing - truly beautiful. There is one westerner

living on the Island, Bruno. He has built a white stone house

reminiscent of his native south- western France, and it is the

only western-style accommodation on Fanning. He introduced

us to the local coconut flower cordial served ice cold at “Bar

Tabatha”, that he runs with his Kiribati wife. I seemed to be

the only one who really liked it and bought the entire island

stock of three bottles from the local store.

After obtaining pilotage advice from Robby, we manoeuvered

around the coral bombies and moved the boat to the other

side of Cartwright point. Here the beauty of the lagoon was

somewhat compromised by a 150 foot rusting oil barge to

which Robby and Lorraine had warped their Southern Cross.

The upside was that for the week or so we were there we were

able to enjoy 2 or 3 “barge parties”, the steel deck of the barge

was ideal for lighting the wood fired barbecue.

In the shade of our boat a school of surgeon fish kept cool.

Maris and I amused ourselves fishing for them with pieces of

banana skin. We were successful and had a number of good

meals from them. Lorraine showed us how to explore the

underwater world in the pass. We would walk to the entrance

then with snorkel, flippers and goggles dive in and down and

be carried along by the flood tide. The pass was full of corals

and fish and very well ensconced lobster.

I joined Robbie and Lorraine for a walk to Whalers Point. We

came to a village where women dried fish in the sun on raised

rest of the trip. By this time, the radar had become a very

valuable for “squall dodging”.

I hate to say his but my log on Wednesday, the 26th, shows

we had run the engine for 68 hours since leaving Honolulu

consuming 75 US gallons of fuel. I assured the crew we

were indeed sailors, but had to eat my words the next day

when winds from the NNE and flogging sails resulted more

motoring, despite us being in the SE trade belt. We had 256

miles to go to Fanning, with Maris hoping for some relief from

the relentless rain and a boat full of wet towels and linen (just

a few minor leaks!! - Maris). The log shows “SS caught four

fish”. On the 27th, the log shows a big fish bit off the tackle.

The fish I caught were mostly metre long blue fin tuna with

one yellow fin and a small Mahi Mahi.

By 2030 hours on Friday we had 50 miles to go when Maris

had a “Twilight Zone” moment. About to turn the chart

plotter off to reduce radio interference, she realised our

position made no sense, with the boat pointing due east and

no speed registering whilst we were supposed to be chugging

along due south at three knots. Sighting the rising moon and

our trusty Danforth compass, she confirmed we were indeed

on course; it was an east-setting current driving us over two

knots sideways that was fooling our B & G equipment and

the chartplotter. The strong current meant my efforts to tack

up to the entrance into English Harbour on Saturday became

very frustrating. The ebb tide saw us zig zagging back and

forward, with the land perhaps 5 miles away for most of the

day. In frustration, at around 1500 hours I cranked on the iron

mainsail and we cruised along the fringing reef with dolphins

accompanying us. Finally at 1600, at slack water flood, we

headed for the pass with all crew on the foredeck keeping

lookout and me in the forward steering position. We held

our breath and powered through, to join three other yachts in

English Harbour. We made it!

FANNING

We had been in touch with our friends Robbie and Lorraine,

who were moored inside Fanning on “Southern Cross”,

an Angleman Sea Witch gaff rigged schooner, also built by

American Marine. They had left Honolulu in July bound for

Tahiti but strong winds gave them a washing machine ride and

they decided Fanning looked the goods for rest, recovery and

repairs. It was Sunday in Kiribati, so we couldn’t go ashore

until customs and immigration arrived, but Robby and Lorraine

gave us a warm welcome and we were able to go on to the other

yachts, which had a party organised for the evening. The other

yachts were all North American, one of which, Seducente, we

continued to meet throughout the Pacific.

The friendly Kiribati officials came out by boat to clear us on

Monday morning. The entire single story administration at

Stuart with lunch

Phot

o: M

aris

Roc

ke


platforms. The houses were one or two rooms often open

sided. A few had solar panels to power their DVD players.

A schoolteacher invited us to eat mango and banana in

her home and we sat cross-legged on the floor sharing the

food given generously by smiling cheerful people. In spite

of the odd American WW2 truck now entwined with trees

and vines the island is stunning in its beauty, just a ring of

palms (planted for copra) around the roughly eight mile long

lagoon, the colour of the water turquoise blue.

The only non-routine maintenance at Fanning was for me to

go up the mast and re-seize the port spreader to the upper

stay. I also ferried 50 gallons of diesel in jerry cans in the

dinghy. The Hiscocks stated that, “Situated at Cartwright

point we were cut off from the settlement only a quarter of

a mile away by the 5 knot stream in the pass. This made

it inadvisable to attempt the crossing in a dinghy.” On one

occasion, with three aboard our 10 foot Dyer dinghy crossing

the pass in a wind against the tide, small steep waves hit the

outboard and stopped it. I was able to restart and we made it

across the entrance, 100 meters across.

FANNING TO APIA

We planned to leave Fanning on Friday (justifying this taboo

by saying it was Saturday in Kirabati – the eastern islands

maintaining the same time as their parents in west of the

dateline). Stymied by a pubic holiday, it then took us a day to

clear on Monday, as Customs was visiting her sister in the next

village. So on Tuesday, 9 October we left Fanning at 11.45am.

The surf was rolling in and breaking with a thunderous roar

but we exited with no dramas. The weather was fine, with

wind from SSE at 15 knots. Some time in the afternoon the

log shows we caught a two-foot long blue fin tuna. The log

comment is “lovely dinner – Wow!” By Tuesday the wind

was up to 20 knots and we were achieving a course over

ground of 8 knots.

Late on Wednesday the 10 October, we crossed the equator.

Debbie, wife of our engineer, Mario, in Honolulu, had given

us a parcel. This contained a list of various activities required

to appease King Neptune. We sacrificed a libation to his wife,

Amphitrite; turned our clothes inside out and put on pirate

scarves after cutting off a lock of our hair; then ran three times

around the boat clockwise. Luckily at this time 0400, it was a

relatively calm night.

Our course was around 200 magnetic, headlining for Apia,

Western Samoa. During this period we achieved 312 miles

in 2 days. At 0400 hours on 10 October, with me steering, I

found no response from the wheel. I rang the ship’s bell to

bring all hands on deck. The steering quadrant attached to

the top of the rudderstock was positioned directly under the

cockpit floor and the only access was through a small cut out

in the bulkhead of the aft cabin. I went down and pulled the

bedding of our double bunk out of the way to gain access

to the removable panel. I crawled in with my torch. It was

evident that the bronze key way, which locks the quadrant to

the stock, had fallen out, resulting in the quadrant slipping

a couple of inches down the rudderstock. I realized that if I

replaced the key way and tightened the two quadrant bolts,

we should be OK. It worked and we were back in business.

Phew! In the meantime Alegria had quietly turned herself

around and faced into the trade winds where she sat duck like

awaiting further instructions. At this stage we were 700 miles

from Samoa, and the next day the same problem reoccurred.

At 1635 on the 12 October it went for a third time.

This time, James and I both got into the cavity under the

cockpit and while he held a spanner on one end of the cinch

bolts I tightened the other. At this point I noticed that the

emergency steering arm, which was connected to a Honda

civic steering rack installed by Mario, was broken where the

arm from the rack was welded to a stainless steel tang attached

by a clevis pin to the main steering quadrant. As it turned out,

the geometry of this auxiliary arm was not correct for some

positions of the main quadrant arm. Only sometime later

in Noumea, it dawned on me that if I used a stainless steel

rigging tang that allowed some movement where the arm

joined the tang, then there would not be any conflict between

the movement of the main arm and that of the auxiliary rack.

This meant that until Noumea we did not have any emergency

steering system should the main hydraulics or any mechanical

part of the system fail, although there was a hole in the trailing

edge of the rudder to which a pair of ropes could be attached

for steering using the headsail winches.

The next few days seem to be relatively uneventful; wind from

the SSE at 15 knots boat speed around 5 knots. Maris picked

up a Taiwanese fishing vessel on the radar and spoke to the

Korean crew. The ship was about 8 miles away and displaced

Fiji

Phot

o: S

tuar

t St

ubbs


a young woman in a four-wheel drive. She said she had seen

me in the bank and needed to speak with me. She told me that

her mother was in hospital and she needed $200 for an airfare

to visit her. She asked if I had a girlfriend and when I replied

in the affirmative this seemed to have little effect on her spiel.

I was on my way to purchase more diesel and a fan belt, so I

asked her to drive me to the store on the side of town. I gave

her an exorbitant taxi fare and did my best to extract myself

gracefully. I don’t think she was particularly pleased. Eric

Hiscock, on his visit in Wanderer IV, was woken by a shirt

being waved in his face by an almost naked young woman

who had swum out to their yacht (and with his wife in the

adjoining berth).

Back in the luxury of a marina, the one thing wrong was that

we were now in the world of 240 volts. After one false start,

I purchased a step up-step down transformer and we were

then able to keep the fridge/freezer going without running

the engine. No, I do not have a gen. set; just two 85 watt

solar panels on the pilothouse roof. My fun in Apia was

disconnecting these from their mounting hinges and angling

them to the sun to maximize input.

James and Amber were to leave us in Apia and flew back to the

States via American Samoa. Maris and I enjoyed a brief few

days snorkeling on the reef, enjoying some good meals in local

restaurants, and visiting Robert Louis Stephenson’s home. A

champion of Samoan sovereignty, Stephenson supported

the Samoans in their struggle against powerful colonial and

commercial interests. Samoa is one of the few island nations

in the Pacific that was never formally colonized and the pride

of the Samoans in their sovereignty is evident. We hired a

car and drove to the opposite side of Upolu. It was Sunday

and everywhere the islanders were dressed in their Sunday

best walking to and from church. They also relaxed in the

open meeting houses adjacent to groups of fales (open-sided

or partially screened houses).

300 tonnes. It was the first of a number of fishing vessels we

would see during our passage and we realized what a lonely

passage it had been to Fanning with nary a ship sighted. Our

Raymarine radar proved not only useful in picking up ships

over the horizon, but adept at imaging rain squalls; we were

able to dodge around the back or sometimes out run them on

a number of occasions. October 14, Maris’ birthday, Neptune

becalmed us, allowing the birthday girl to bake a cake. We

celebrated with dinner in the aft cockpit: wasabi, and lime

juice with freshly caught raw tuna for starters.

On Tuesday 16 October two more big tuna came aboard. Maris

claimed there was no more room in the freezer so I released

one of them somewhat reluctantly. On 17 October we had

traveled 2324 miles from Honolulu and had 124 miles to go

to Apia. Suddenly the round the compass winds of the the

southern convergence zone ceased, and brisk trades and seas

returned. On the 18th, the island of Upolu was in sight.

APIA, SAMOA

I had some difficulty picking up the leads into Apia. As we had

found with the Fanning pass, the charts in our Raymarine were

not accurate; the electronic charts were based on the extant

paper ones most of which have not been cross-plotted by GPS.

If we had followed the chart plotter into Fanning or Apia, we

would have end up on the reef at Fanning and be anchored on

dry land at Apia. We contacted harbour control on VHF and

they sent out a rubber duckie to guide us in to the new and

almost empty marina. A group of burly Samoans looking like

a SWAT team arrived with a pack of sniffer dogs. The dogs

had a great time exploring the boat. Nevertheless we found the

Samoan customs and immigration officers very friendly and

professional. Western Samoa is largely administered by New

Zealand and, like Kiribati, is part of the Commonwealth. This

is some benefit to Australians when clearing; our American

crew were treated with a little more formality.

First stop after clearing customs and immigration was to head

to the famous Aggie Grey’s hotel for a celebratory cold beer.

Aggie Grey’s lived up to expectations with its old world air

of a colonial past. Rebuilt after a fire, it was in great shape,

and still run by Aggie’s descendants. One of them hosted the

nightly floorshows, which featured traditional dancers from

Upoulu and the neighbouring, and more remote, Savaii Island.

Although somewhat commercial, the show and traditional

food were great fun. In the foyer of the hotel on one occasion, I

saw a tall distinguished looking Samoan dressed in traditional

lava lava, his face almost completely tattooed, and carrying a

leather-bound insect whip. He would not have looked out of

place to Captain Cook.

My only other ‘encounter” via Aggie Greys was while walking

past the hotel along the waterfront when I was bailed up by

Water storage

Phot

o: S

tuar

t St

ubbs


Samoa is a great place and one we both would like to visit

again in more relaxed circumstances.

APIA TO SUVA

At 0920 on Sunday 28 October we departed Apia heading

for Suva some 800 miles away. It was now to be just Maris

and me and our friendly B & G autopilot. We first had to

negotiate the Apolina Strait between Upoulu and Savaii,

a beautiful sail between the islands that took most of the

daylight. By 1835, and some 45 miles from Apia as we were

leaving the Strait, the log shows a “large rain cloud” and

“changed course to avoid”. The wind changed from 5 to over

20 kts in an instant and we spent the evening dodging large

squalls. Another note is “lightening”. Unfortunately, our

autopilot doesn’t like to many brisk changes of course and

a button jammed itself at 11pm. Both of us were exhausted

and we hand-steered through the night on half to one hour

watches until Stuart could re-set the pilot at dawn. With

the rough seas, Maris came down with another bout of the

dreaded seasickness.

Over Monday the weather cleared and Tuesday, 30 October,

distinguished itself as we sailed abreast of the inhabited

volcanic island of Niuafo’fou, 235 miles south west of Apia.

The log records, “wind in NE, hard to sail down wind,” and

it stayed in this NE quadrant for the next couple of days,

resulting in more motor sailing. Luckily mild winds prevailed

as a jam on the mizzen mast resulted in a climb to the top for

Stuart on Wednesday.

Just after midnight on the morning of the 1 November the

comment is “wind in all the wrong directions” and “some dark

cloud,” then, “wind building”. The approach and run down

the Nanuku Passage, the north- eastern approach through

the Fiji islands, brought an oppressive, overcast sky. At 1700

I recall watching the rain rush up from behind accompanied

by a 30-knot squall that resulted in a lively half hour sail. It

couldn’t have been too bad as Maris stayed sound asleep

below, so we charged on with the Fijian Island of Taveuni on

our starboard bow. This was the start of a 100-mile run down

to Mbatiki Island through the Koro Sea.

It was here that we crossed the international dateline early

Friday, 2 November, truncating that day to 2 hrs long when, at

2am, it suddenly became Saturday! To keep myself awake, I

checked the trolling line and discovered a drowned barracouta,

about three feet long. The night was very black with very few

lights and several unlit fishing craft showed up on the radar.

The next day I kept an eagle eye out for Thakau Momo, a

dangerous reef between Koro and Mbatiki Islands. In the end

I could just pick out the light tower a mile or so away.

On our final approach to Suva Harbour, rounding the island

of Viti Levu where we could see the lights of the airport in the

distance, we had a problem with the autopilot, and it wasn’t

the usual problem of stuck buttons. We finally realized the

impeller had become fouled with debris and with no boat

speed recording on the B & G log, the autopilot failed. As

we passed a light off Belcher rocks, a large “police”-type

helicopter flew over the top of us in the middle of the night.

By 0330, we reached our waypoint off the entrance to Suva

Harbour. I could not make out the leading light, so headed

back out to join a small convoy waiting for dawn. At 0500,

I made another approach as a large Chinese fishing trawler

came roaring past and I decided to sit on its tail as much as I

could to follow it in. This strategy worked and we contacted

harbour control on VHF to be told to anchor at the medical

examination anchorage and await pratique.

We had completed our first ocean passage as a couple. There

were four other yachts anchored around us including our friends

from Fanning on Seducente. Another arrival on a Sunday

meant this time a peaceful day of cleaning and resting. At mid-

morning Monday, a crowd of ladies and gentleman from Fiji

customs and immigration arrived by boat and cleared 3 yachts.

They all came aboard snapping photographs, with the ladies

pointing excitedly at our microwave. We were each charged

USD120 for the privilege of the visit. Maris liked the anchorage

with its full view of the sky and passing harbour traffic. Over

several nights the Indian festival of Divali fireworks could be

seen over the length of the shore after dusk.

Our dinghy with 3.5 HP Nissan outboard was pressed into

service to take us to the Royal Fijian Yacht Club about half a

mile away. There we bet on and watched the Melbourne Cup

and drank flaming Ouzos – the local special. We did not find

the atmosphere in the yacht club particularly friendly, with

no one really acknowledging our presence nor attempting to

make us feel welcome.

The taxi ride to town was $2 Fijian. Suva has a tremendous

market with excellent produce, but Maris found the town

Apia, Samoa

Phot

o: S

tuar

t St

ubbs


two white lights dead ahead at a distance which seemed well

under a mile. I summoned Maris and held course. I think

fatigue was getting to me. I contacted the ship on VHF and

asked it to change course. We ascertained that it was crossing

our bows and that we should pass each other port to port. I

could not see his port or starboard light and would not like to

ever go through that one again.

On the 16th at 1450 it read “rough seas, gusts to 30 knots”. At

1800 hours we were contacted on VHF by an unseen French

vessel. Without identifying itself, it asked for particulars of our

crew numbers, where we had come from and our nationality.

I later hailed them back on the VHF, knowing they were out

there somewhere though they didn’t show up on our radar,

and asked them to confirm the tide at the entrance to the Pass

Havannah which we had determined using the tide program

on our laptop. Identifying themselves this time as a naval

vessel, they confirmed that 0600 hours on Saturday the 16th

would be the ideal high tide to enter the Pass.

By 0700 the wind finally abated to 14 knots and we were in site

of the Pass. Dolphins came again to welcome us and the sky was

a brilliant blue. Suddenly the world was good again and we

enjoyed a glorious sail through the winding Havanna passage.

More confusion followed finding the leads into Port Moselle

but eventually at 1500 we were snug in Port Moselle marina

and were quickly cleared by the friendly customs.

All around us were Aussie and Kiwi monohulls, cats and a

power cruiser, waiting to make the final jump home. Port

Moselle has a brilliant dockside market open everyday with

almost everything and more you could want to buy. In

addition, the boulangeries were a magnet, with croissants,

baguettes a wonderful selection of crusty bread, and an eye-

popping patisserie. We had great fun in the supermarkets and

wine shops with fabulous cheese and I believe very drinkable

Bordeaux reds for $10 a bottle. I finally christened the oven

and cooked a roast duckling.

dispiriting with its fading infrastructure and security at the

entrance of many shops. Our friends on Seducente took their

boat to a cyclone proof anchorage at the top of the harbour

in front of the almost empty Trade Winds International hotel

(there’d been another period of political unrest in the not

too distant past). The setting was beautiful with tiny islands

surrounding the small watery enclave.

Eventually heart in mouth we took Alegria into the shallow

waters of the yacht club where we bunkered and filled the

water tanks. We shot out with the depth sounder on zero most

of the way back to our anchorage.

SUVA TO NOUMEA

We were officially in the pacific cyclone season so on

Remembrance Day 2007, having barely spent a week in

Fiji, we headed for Noumea via the Beqa passage between

Viti Levu and Mbenga Island. As we sailed through this

passage, a school of porpoises beckoning us to come to nearby

Vartulele Island. At 1700 hours it looked the perfect place to

lose your self for an indefinite period of time. Sadly we kept

on going.

By 1140 the next day the wind began to build. The log says

“headed”, also “avoided a rain squall”. At 1930 that evening

Maris’ comment was “changed course to dodge a squall” and

“auto pilot not working”. At 1933 on Tuesday, the 13th, my

comment is 20 to 30 knots, lumpy horrible seas. From then on

the wind pretty much stayed in the 20 to 30 knot range night

and day. This was not that bad but the sea state was like field

of giant 200-meter wide mushrooms. This mess was left over

from a deep low well to the south east of us. For the first time,

we did not have the consistent trade driven seas we were used

to. You could not stare transfixed as the waves march up to you

like huge phalanx of soldiers then passed harmlessly under the

keel. Alegria simply floated over each and sent them on their

way. Now you were pushing the boat through a sort maze of

waves never entirely sure of which was the best way through.

For a couple of hours I turned the boat more to the north away

from the rhumb line to our destination of the Havannah Pass,

taking the waves more on the quarter. I don’t know if it made

much difference but after a while I calmed down and gradually

brought the boat back on course. By lunch on 14th November

the comment is “we are getting back on the rhumb line”, and

“COG 8.1 knots”, helped by a 1-knot favourable current. At

0244 on 15 November it was still gusts to 30 knots and an

uncomfortable sea state. And so it went on.

Early on the 16th, it was still a 25-knot wind from the SE.

My log recalls a few thuds from waves and one that hit the

pilothouse roof with some water coming in the companion

way. At 0457 I record a large ship 6 miles dead ahead. I may

have dozed off for a few minutes but when I awoke there were

Suva Harbour, Fiji

Phot

o: S

tuar

t St

ubbs


We blithely went to the cinema and saw Ratatouille in French

(and Maris finally realized she was in France as there were

no subtitles). After Suva, Noumea abounded with good

restaurants; one called Zanzibar was excellent.

We hired a Renault Klingo and went into the hinterland to

find some beautiful rainforest and magnificent views of the

coastal islands from the hills. There are numerous eco-tourist

farms serving gourmet local produce such as venison.

We ended up staying in Noumea for three weeks, repairing the

emergency steering and waiting for an airfreight Admiralty

pilot that eventually arrived by snail mail. The main reason

for our delay is that we decided to sail in tandem with some

extremely cautious Aussies who were prepared to wait

seemingly forever for the right weather window – something

we had not really thought about before. Perhaps with cyclones

over Cape York and Fiji, their reasoning was sound. In the

meantime Seducente graced us with their presence and the

guys had lost none of their exuberant spirit.

NOUMEA TO BRISBANE

We finally departed Noumea on Sunday 12 December in

company with two other yachts, one of whom split off early

to head for Bundaburg. With Sashay II, we headed for Coffs

Harbour. For most of the first few days the wind speed was

around 10 knots and it was “motoring again” across the Coral

Sea on a gentle swell.

By late Thursday, the wind had climbed to 18 knots and was

almost on the nose. By 0800 on Friday, it was gusting over

20 knots. So, although we had set off in a sou’easter, the

wind was now from almost due south and we were finding

it heavy going in the 6 to 8 ft seas. Eventually at 1000 hours

on Friday the 14th, we changed course from 150 to around

300 M and immediately the ride became more comfortable.

From a position around 200 miles out from Coolangatta, we

bid farewell to Sashay II and plotted a course for Brisbane. We

rounded the top of the Queensland Tablemount, which comes

up to 290 meters below the surface in water 4000 meters deep

and there were certainly some currents around it.

It just so happened that Stuart’s sister, Angela, was in

Coolangatta, (she’d flown to Brisbane from Melbourne) and

was making her way to Coffs. Seeing our abrupt change of

course on our daily “Yotreps” track, she cancelled all plans

and set off back to Brisbane. Whilst our HF/Pactor modem

combination worked reasonably well, we believe the insulated

backstay that was removed in the re-rigging (when we thought

we would be relying only a sat. phone) would have worked

better than our uninsulated one (“don’t touch the rigging;

Maris is on the modem”).

Around 1800 on Friday, I pulled in a decent Mahi Mahi with

the wind blowing a nice 15 knots. On Saturday 15th at 0430 we

reached our waypoint 85 miles off Moreton Island, a little less

than a day from landfall. As the fine day progressed the wind

gradually died and a large pod of dolphins swam through the

miles of yellow-coloured coral spawn through which we were

now motoring. It looked like oil on the limpid sea. The only

excitement came in the mid-afternoon when Maris pointed to

the 800 pound billfish leaping out of the water 30 meters off

our starboard side. It had hooked the tuna line and that leap

broke the steel trace. The course on our chart plotter showed

that he had been pulling the boat in an arc for the last 5 minutes

until he got tired of that game.

As it got dark we continued to motor towards Caloundra

Head, the entrance to the shipping channel into Moreton

Bay. I did not feel like waiting until the next day to enter the

channel (not a good idea). Thanks to the Raymarine we had

no trouble picking up the entrance beacon and then at 2300

started the 9-hour journey to Manly. As midnight tolled, my

night vision became useless and I was beginning to hallucinate

from lack of sleep. The dinghy mounted on the foredeck meant

I couldn’t see the channel markers. Maris did a wonderful job

of piloting us by reading the Raymarine (just like a computer

game - Maris). We didn’t enjoy a close encounter with a

large ship coming the other way and learnt this time to sail

down the side of a main shipping channel, rather than down

the center as is more advisable in coral-ringed Pacific ports.

Finally dawn came and we were off Tangalooma on the inside

of Moreton Island. We steered between Green and St Helena

Islands and at 0700 arrived at the customs wharf at Manly.

Home at last! Our boat had brought us 4500 miles without

any breakages and looking as good as the day she left.

EPILOGUE

A friend said that now we are back we should sell the boat

as quickly as possible to recoup our costs – adventure over.

Having lived aboard for 18 months now, I am not so sure. We

are enjoying the fruits of our labour just living on the boat and

making further small improvements. After living in houses

for thirty years it is quite a change, but the boat feels like some

small Japanese apartment, only with sunshine and water all

around us.

And there is more: I could not have completed the refit, nor

made the voyage, without Maris and have great admiration

for her courage as a sailing newcomer to actually commit to

the voyage. Our adventure was about doing something that

touched our souls, and for that I thank the world of wooden

boats, and my partner who shares that world with me.


listening to John and Roger telling helicopter stories. For some

reason my Dad had developed an idea to go on a bike ride. But

he couldn’t work out why there were no bikes in Eden. And

when he found a bike at the information shop, he soon fond

out why there were no bikes in Eden. Eden has hills!!!

THE KIND FISHERMAN

We made friends with a fishing boat. They had just pulled in 4

tonnes of Salmon and had some to spare. So we ended up with

a huge fish that we gutted and filleted and ate for lunch with

some people that John had made friends with up in the town.

We heard more horror sailing stories from these people and it

started to make me wonder how safe it really was travelling in

a small 52 year old wooden boat, up the coast of Australia.

THE LOG BOOK

An hourly entry into the log book was compulsory on our

journey. At 2am in the morning it was about the only thing

keeping me from falling asleep. It even gave me a couple

of chances to helm. This was a pretty amazing experience,

having to watch the compass light for up to half an hour and

push and pull according to the waves was quite a strain on

my concentration.

FISHING

We tried fishing on the way up to Eden, but failed dismally.

So we decided that at Eden we would scrap the old reel and

tackle and start anew. We even built a makeshift rod holder

with PVC pipe and clips. Not very Classic but we succeeded!!!

Even though our fish was later deemed only fit for cat food

(by a so called fishing expert) I considered it a win.

WET, COLD, TIRED BUT HAPPY

We arrived in foggy Sydney. We were wet, we were cold, we

were tired but we couldn’t help being happy with a safe trip.

We pulled up in Royal Sydney and walked round the corner

to have a well earned breakfast at the café near Luna Park. Its

safe to say that it was an all round great trip.

hEAd TO hEAd WIThOuT A TACk

ARChIE ChEW

In December 2008 CYAA President took his 1956 Phillip

Rhodes sloop Fair Winds from Port Phillip to Port Jackson,

with the able assistance of his 13 year old son Archie, with

a following wind all the way. Archie Chew illustrates the

journey.

OUT OF THE HEADS

Our trip began at 5:30 in the morning. With the steady groan

of the motor in the background, we made our way down to

the heads. After an uneventful trip, we came in to contact

with some fairly big waves. This being my first open sea trip,

I was told that there are generally big waves at the heads

(John Donati later explained to me in great detail) but I think

everybody was a bit surprised, when the boat ended up half

way out of the water. We had made it out of the heads more or

less in good health.

FOOD, DRINK AND HAPPY HOUR

I first learnt the importance of happy hour (from 6-8pm) on

our first day. Everybody was up and about. Dinner was put

in our pathetic excuse for an oven (I think Dad might have a

bit of a soft spot for it though) and helming duties were given

to anyone whose dinner was ready last. This may have been

a sailing trip but with two Italians on board it quickly became

a fine food trip; the menu consisted of Lamb Rogan Josh,

Lasagne, , spatzle with a beef stroganoff (Spatzle is German

pasta) gourmet sausages mash and baked potatoes and many

many pots of 2-minute noodles. Mum still can’t work out why

there is Lamb Rogan Josh still stuck to the back of the oven”

EDEN

We stopped in the sleepy seaside town of Eden. We pegged out

the washing, scrubbed up at the local showers and sat around

Phot

o: M

ark

Chew


dECkS fOR ClASSIC bOATS

RICk MITChEll

In this article I will look at the three main kinds of decks

that you are likely to find on a classic wooden boat,

examine their strengths and weaknesses, and point out the

things that indicate when a deck is in need of maintenance

and/or repair.

TRADITIONAL LAID DECKS

A laid deck is made up of planks that are laid fore and aft,

and directly fastened to the deck beams that run athwartships.

(The deck beams are comparable to the joists that support the

floorboards in a house, and the deck planks are comparable

to the floor boards.) But deck planks butt up against one

another, with no tongue and groove, and, once fastened

are caulked and paid with pitch (on larger boats), or putty

(on smaller yachts).

The main advantage of a traditional laid deck is that it is very

easy to see when there is a problem. When there is a problem

with the deck, water will drip into the cabin. When this

happens it is easy to either harden up the caulking, or replace

a specific plank if it has begun to rot.

Fair Winds leaking deck

Phot

o: M

ark

Chew

AN ASIDE

Traditional wooden boats are made up of individual

components that are fitted and fastened together, and the

design of these components allows for the wooden pieces to

move in relation to each other as the vessel works in a seaway,

or as their relative moisture content alters. Because traditional

boats are made of individual pieces, they are relatively easy

to repair.

The main disadvantage of a laid deck is that to maintain

its watertight integrity it is necessary to make sure that the

planks have a fairly constant moisture content. In the past

most vessels with a laid deck were either working boats that

were often at sea, or yachts with live-aboard paid hands who

were responsible for wetting down and scrubbing the decks

daily, something not many of us can afford these days.

CANVASSED DECKS

In the past smaller boats often had canvassed decks. These

decks were made of tongue and groove planks, fastened to

deck beams, which were then covered in stretched canvas

which was bedded down in a lead-based paste and then

painted until the weave of the canvas was almost filled. In

this case the canvas provides the watertight membrane, and

the deck planks the structural strength. This kind of deck was

cheap and effective. However, there are very few boats that

still have canvassed decks.

Currently the idea of a waterproof membrane stretched

over a structural substrate has morphed into a plywood

deck over which is laid fibreglass cloth bedded down with

epoxy resin.

EPOXY SHEATHED PLYWOOD DECKS

The structural component of a sheathed deck is the plywood,

which replaces the planking of a laid deck. Plywood by itself

is not a particularly hardwearing material, and once worn

is susceptible to rot, (as the surface of the plywood wears it

exposes endgrain which will draw water into it, encouraging

the growth of fungus or rot). So while it is possible to make

a plywood deck without epoxy sheathing, it is not advisable

to do so on a deck where there will be reasonably constant

foot traffic.

The advantages of an epoxy sheathed deck is that it is easy

(and relatively quick) to lay, easy to maintain, (just paint it),

Timber over ply deck


Indeed most classic yachts that have been restored recently

have this kind of deck. But it does have one major drawback.

If, for some reason the watertight seal of the surface of the

deck is broken, water will penetrate the join between the solid

timber and the plywood, and if this water penetrates the ply,

rot will occur. The real problem with this rot is that it will not

be visible, trapped as it is inside the plywood, underneath

the solid timber, until it works its way through the ply and

emerges on the deckhead. When that happens a major repair

will be necessary. Often a substantial part of the deck will

need to be ripped up just to locate the source of the water and

to trace its path before the repair can begin.

Here at Michael Hurrell Shipwrights we believe that when

building a new yacht, or fully replacing the deck on an old

one, the best way to avoid this potential problem is by making

sure that where the deck will be penetrated, the deck substrate

is blocked out with solid timber, not plywood, which resists

rot much more than ply. If this is done, and rot does occur, it

can be cut out and repaired from underneath the deck without

disturbing the timber planking.

THERE ARE TWO MAJOR CAUSES OF WATER PENETRATION.

First, it is inevitable that there will be fastening and fittings

that will penetrate a deck. If the holes that are caused by these

fittings and fastenings are not completely sealing, water will

penetrate. Often these fittings (winches, runner attachment

points, etc) will come under heavy but intermittent load

which can work fastening loose. This can allow water to work

its way into the endgrain of the plywood.

The second major reason for water penetration is failure of

the seam compound. There have been great improvements in

the quality of seam compounds in the last 10 years, but some

early compounds have quite limited flexibility, particularly

if not applied correctly. This often resulted in one side of the

seam compound detaching itself from the edge of the seam,

and letting water penetrate under the solid timber, with the

potential consequences I have listed above.

It is critical when laying a timber deck that is being sealed

with a polymer seam compound that each edge of the plank

is rebated. This will place the join between the seams under

the middle of the seam. It is also critical that the seam is

and adds a lot of strength to deck structure, and, if laid and

sheathed well, gives years of service.

The main disadvantage of a ply deck is that it does not have

the look of a classic deck as it does not have the seam lines,

or the natural timber grain, of a laid deck. It is also not a very

easy deck to repair, as the plywood, once scarfed and glued

together essentially becomes a single entity. This kind of deck

needs to be inspected regularly, because, if for some reason,

the fibreglass is damaged and water penetrates the plywood,

rot can spread quickly along the veneers inside the plywood.

This rot may take some time to become visible on the deckhead

(bottom face of the ply), by which time a major repair may

be necessary.

When inspecting a deck like this for damage, you should look

initially for wear on the paint. If the paint has been worn away,

examine the fibreglass cloth to make sure that the weave of the

cloth is visible with no places where the individual threads are

worn away. If they are they will need to be repaired. The other

thing to look for are places where the fibreglass has lifted off

the plywood. These will appear as bubbles, the surface of

which you will be able to press down. Water penetration can

cause the epoxy to detach from the ply, which will cause these

bubbles and also allow water to gather and sit on the surface

of the ply.

PLY SUBSTRATE/SOLID TIMBER DECK

This deck combines the look of a traditional laid deck with

the low maintenance and strength of the sheathed ply deck. It

consists of an epoxy sheathed ply substrate over which are laid

solid timber planks. The planks are bedded down in a flexible

marine glue. The seams between the planks not caulked with

cotton but only paid with a polymer-based seam compound.

This is the kind of deck most restored yachts have.

This kind of deck is, at first glance, the most suitable for classic

yachts combining the strengths of two other decking systems.

Laid deck

Fair Winds deck nearing completion

Phot

o: M

ark

Chew


fOR SAlE: CONCERTO 1969 TEd hOOd 50’ CENTREbOARd kETCh

$265,000 Designed and built by Ted Hood as his own boat.

Fibreglass hull and deck moulded under Lloyd’s

supervision by Tyler Yachts UK. Shipped to Holland

for solid teak fit out by the famous Frans Maas’ Yard.

(Including beautiful and practical tiled open fireplace).

Originally rigged as a ketch or “racing yawl” under the

CCA Rule of the time, her mizzen has been removed and

stored and as a result she has a lovely long and roomy

cockpit. For the past 7 years she has been a much loved

family boat and weekender on Pittwater and her standing

and running rigging were replaced in 2008 before a

1500nm Queensland cruise last Christmas school holidays.

Numerous photographs, articles and full details are

available at http://www.directorspot.com/concerto.php

or by contacting her owner John Lamble on 0408 970 087.

primed correctly and that breaker tape is laid into the bottom

of the seam, before the seam is paid. These three steps will

ensure that the compound adheres to the sides of the seams

for maximum flexibility while making sure it doesn’t stick to

the bottom of the seam which will reduce the ability of the

compound to flex horizontally.

To avoid this kind of damage, the consequences of which

may not become visible for years, it is extremely important

to regularly examine this kind of deck and the items that are

mounted on it. If a fitting is loose it should be rebedded and

refastened. If the fitting becomes loose again, it may be that

the fastenings are too small, or the blocking out under the

deck needs attention. If some seam compound has come away

from the side of a seam, is should be repaired immediately

before water has a chance to do any damage.

This is first in a series of articles that Michael Hurrell

Shipwrights will be contributing to this magazine. If you have

any further questions about decks please drop us a line.

In the next issue we intend to look at timber planking,

(traditional and modern), construction methods and repair

processes. We would welcome any questions readers may

have about this, or any other, aspect of wooden boats, their

construction, maintenance and repair. We can be contacted at

[email protected]

MElbOuRNE WOOdEN bOAT fESTIVAl

fEbRuARY 2010 dOCklANdS

The inaugural Melbourne Wooden Boat Festival will be held

at Docklands in early Feb 2010.

This event will bring together all of the major Wooden Boat

and Classic Boat associations in Melbourne an opportunity for

all Wooden Boat fans to participate.

The program is 2 days of display in Docklands and 1 day at

Williamstown. The Docklands program will feature in port

sailing for the smaller craft, public interpretative displays

featuring boat builders, working boat and recreational history.

The Williamstown program will be a classic rally, heading

down towards Portarlington (a delivery leg for those intending

to visit the Queenscliff Maritime Weekend)

The event is designed to help promote Wooden Boat

heritage and connect a broader public with the spirit of

boating heritage.

For registration, program info and news visit

www.woodenboat.com.au

For sponsorship or event information contact Mark

Bergin – Festival Director [email protected]

+61 418 565 848

woodenboat.com.au

woodenboat.com.au

woodenboat.com.au

woodenboat.com.au

woodenboat.com.au

woodenboat.com.au

woodenboat.com.au

woodenboat.com.au


MEMbERShIP APPlICATION WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT - BECOME A MEMBER!

Your support makes all the difference, and costs so little.

To ensure you never miss another issue of this newsletter,

why not become a member of the Classic Yacht Association

of Australia. Full membership costs just $75, or crew/

friends membership for $50 including GST.

APPLICATION FOR FULL MEMBERSHIP

I ....................................................................................(Full name of Applicant)

Of .................................................................................(address)wish to become a member of the Classic Yacht Association of Australia and apply to have my Yacht accepted on to the Yacht Register for the annual fee of $75

Signature of Applicant ..............................................

Date .............................................................................

Please supply the following details:

Phone Number ..........................................................

Fax Number ............................................................... Email Address ............................................................

Boat Name .................................................................

Designer .....................................................................

Date of Build .............................................................

Construction .............................................................

LOA ................................ Rig ................................... Sail Number ..............................................................

Details of other Yacht Club Memberships:

......................................................................................

APPLICATION FOR CREW MEMBERSHIP

I ....................................................................................(Full name of Applicant)

Of .................................................................................(address)wish to join the Classic Yacht Association of Australia as a crew member / friend for the annual fee of $50

Signature of Applicant ..............................................

Date .............................................................................

Please supply the following details:

Phone Number ..........................................................

Fax Number ............................................................... Email Address ............................................................

Boat Name ..................................................................

Details of other Yacht Club Memberships:

......................................................................................

Return this completed form to the following address:

CYAA Membership Officer343 Ferrars Street Albert Park Victoria 3206

‑yacht.asn.au issue 27 – june 2009 – classic ......2013/02/27 · issue 27 – june 2009 –...

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