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Lack of power for starting. 100 year plus restored yachts in NZ


DandV

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Whilst you were suffering an excess of wind on Sunday we spent most of the day awaiting enough wind for a start of the last race of the annual Classic Yacht regatta in Auckand.

A bi annual trans tasman event, alternating between Melbourne early November, and Auckland, Early March.

For this regatta we had a record six starters for the A class (greater the 50ft on deck) Gaff Rigged Yachts. More restorations are though enlarging the fleet

I was crewing on the oldest, and biggest the 58ft 1894 built Waitangi 

The youngest was the 1905 built Rawhiti that was a crack Sydney boat up to WW2, 

The fastest the 1904 built 58ft Ariki was the crack Auckland yacht until eclipsed by Ranger in 1938. 

Ranger was built and raced by two watersider brothers who bought two adjacent wooden houses in a run down inner city suburb. They lived in one and demolished the other to provide both the boat building space and the timber for her construction. She was the crack New Zealand keeler until 1966, and was racing too but in the modern rig class.

Above the door at the prize giving is the oldest internationally contested sporting trophy in the world. One that we are pleased to welcome your frighteningly competent and well resourced team  to try and wrest from us in 2011.  As well as the America's Cup some J class Mega Racing yachts will hold a series, and some veteran classic yachts will be over from Australia. It will be quite an event spreading over quite a period.

(Actually I think that may be a replica cup, the real one may be in a more secure location but in the same building)

  

 

141934596_Mayaswellbecomfortable.JPG.477083ff1a11257d9ecb5b043b9cf5b5.JPG.

 

Looking for wind.JPG

Pre start jousting.JPG

Racing 1.JPG

Racing 2.JPG

regatta prize giving.jpg

Edited by DandV
  • Greenie 1
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Trouble is - in NZ you're at the bottom of the world, so whichever way you go its uphill.

Now if you brought it to the UK, you would find it much easier, cos everywhere is downhill, so you don't need much wind here! ?

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Huh. Its perishing cold here and raining. But am I jealous? Yeah, too right. But seriously, there is nothing quite like the sight of a gaff igged boat. I sailed on a gaff rigged Morecombe bay Prawner ages ago, pretty much original except it had been given a cabin years before, not quite the pedigree of those boats maybe but still unforgettable, The smell of old canvas , rope and rot with undertones of diesel and tar. If you could only bottle that you'd sell gallons.

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1 hour ago, Bee said:

Huh. Its perishing cold here and raining. But am I jealous? Yeah, too right. But seriously, there is nothing quite like the sight of a gaff igged boat. I sailed on a gaff rigged Morecombe bay Prawner ages ago, pretty much original except it had been given a cabin years before, not quite the pedigree of those boats maybe but still unforgettable, The smell of old canvas , rope and rot with undertones of diesel and tar. If you could only bottle that you'd sell gallons.

I would suggest that the Morecambe Bay Prawner has just as much of a pedigree, and I seem to remember someone saying that the later ones built by Crossfield of Arnside were the earliest working boats to be designed by a naval architect. I photographed this one in Albert Dock, Liverpool, in 1978, as the last example still with traditional round-ended coamings.

prawners 069.jpg

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2 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

Connection with canal world is ?

Well its all about boats / history /boatbuilding  and stuff. Some of those north country keels and canal craft seem to have had a family resemblance to the Dutch Tjalk and maybe some of the Viking craft and Yorkshire cobles. On the face of it a narrowboat and a prawner haven't got a lot in common but just a few strands of DNA might be shared, who knows, the bloke who drew out the fore end of an FMC boat might have been a Viking on holiday in Saltley.

  • Haha 1
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5 hours ago, Pluto said:

I would suggest that the Morecambe Bay Prawner has just as much of a pedigree, and I seem to remember someone saying that the later ones built by Crossfield of Arnside were the earliest working boats to be designed by a naval architect. I photographed this one in Albert Dock, Liverpool, in 1978, as the last example still with traditional round-ended coamings.

prawners 069.jpg

Agreed.

Our Auckland competitive yacht racing started with boats developed for commercial fishing, out to the grounds and return quickly to market using  "Mullet Boats", which are still raced as a class, mainly new builds but some veterans.

Likewise a similar class was developed for fishing out of Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne, their "Couta Boats" which are still very actively raced there.

I am sure there are many other local varients around the world given the imperatives and parameters would have been remarkably similar.

Barge races under sail likewise occurred here as in the UK.

Course constraints probably ruled out canal racing by working boats!!

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5 hours ago, system 4-50 said:

Connection with canal world is ?

It was fully tagged. Your choice to open or not. 

Would you have sooner it was posted under "General Boating -For general discussion on waterways of the world!"?

Edited by DandV
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