Classic Yacht Association Journal

www.classicyacht.org.nz

ISSN 1175-804X Issue 134 – June 2021

Above: Waitangi and crew watch Race 5 of the America’s Cup, while the Cup foilers joust (below). Grand old Dame shares limelight with Cup sprites

By Penelope Carroll

Both are marvelous examples of world-leading New Zealand boat design and construction, both are monohulls (just a foot apart in overall length), built solely for racing, and both were racing on the Waitemata on Saturday, March 13. But that’s where the similarities between Waitangi, built in 1894, and Te Rehutai, our victorious America’s Cup defender, end. Old heavy displacement kauri boats with long keels do not race around the harbour in the same way as their carbon-fibre fin-keeled sisters – let alone when the latter, with their wings, flaps and foils, are foiling!

After competing earlier in the day in the Duder Cup Regatta (first held in 1881 as the North Shore Regatta and renamed the Duder Cup in 1923), Waitangi dropped her sails and joined the ring of spectator boats watching Te Rehutai and Luna Rossa battle it out for Race 5 of the 36th America’s Cup.

Weaving slowly amongst the watching flotilla of all shapes and sizes, Waitangi was by far the oldest vessel – and a grand sight.

This is not the first time Waitangi has turned heads at an America’s Cup regatta. During the Millennium summer of 2000, Waitangi returned to Auckland after half a century in Australia.

As New Zealand went about its first successful defence of the America’s Cup with state-of-the-art 21st century technolgy, Waitangi represented a wooden masterpiece from the 19th century – and created a stir wherever she went.

Just as she did 21 years later, when New Zealand successfully defended the Cup for a second time.

Oyster’s a pearl

By Gavin Pascoe

Oyster was conceived in April 1899 in a design competition run by the British journal The Yachtsman. She was built by Charles Bailey Jr in Auckland for John Glasgow, a native of the Isle of Wight but resident in Nelson. She was launched in 1903.

Although the published design was for a doubleender, Glasgow added a counter to carry a dinghy on her stern when cruising, adding a couple of feet to the designed length of 30ft. He kept a longer boom so he could easily unstep the small mizzen and carry a larger main for racing.

In 1924, Glasgow sold Oyster to Nigel Blair of Wellington. In the ensuing decade-plus of cruising and occasional racing, she changed hands several times before being purchased by Ralph Millman in 1937 and renamed Ariki.

After 35 years, her centre-case was feeling the strain and a deadwood keel structure with external lead ballast designed by Archie Scott was added. Scott also drew a Bermudan sail plan, and somewhere along the line a deckhouse was added.

Oyster remained in Wellington until the early 1950s, when she returned to the South Island.

A 1970’s restoration by Dick Young in Nelson saw a return to her gaff yawl configuration and to her original name. With a stepped topmast and deadeyes for the standing rigging, she is more 1880s style than ca 1900.

Mike Roussow purchased her in 1999 as part of his Lyttleton charter business.

We bought Oyster as a family cruiser on a rather spur-of-the-moment decision. Some frenzied weeks ensued with visits to Lyttelton to purchase and borrow gear, sort some engine issues and wrangle crew – followed by a rather anxious wait for a weather window to sail back to Wellington.

We left at last on Friday, 29 January 2021. Sailing an unfamiliar 117-year-old boat up a coastline with nowhere to hide and across Cook Strait is a daunting prospect. I took along all my good luck charms collected since childhood to complement the new EPIRB, top-end lifejacket, a mate’s liferaft and three experienced sailors.

We almost didn’t make it out of the marina in the 30+ knot south-easter funnelling down the harbour. After ducking an incoming ship, we finally got the main up, gybed and sailed to the Heads and clear water. A 3m swell dead on the beam rolled us all the way to the top of the South Island.

We were diverging a bit from the mainland, but as the forecast was for a northeast breeze at Castlepoint and a light southerly in Cook Strait we thought we would hook back in.

It didn’t quite happen. At 5pm on Saturday the wind died altogether. The swell on the beam was still enough to shake the rigging all to hell. We dropped the main and motored in against the tide to finally reach Clyde Quay marina on the Sunday afternoon.

No-one got hurt, nothing broke – and she’s a great little ship! • A note of thanks to Mike Roussow, Andrew McGeorge, and Matt Blythe for their support at the Lyttelton end.

Virtual and real enjoyment in Covid-interrupted ABD Regatta

Our 2021 three-day ABD Classic Yacht Regatta got off to a great start. At the skippers’ briefing on Friday, February 27, Martin Ryan and the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria sent virtual greetings, as Covid prevented them from attending in person – but they also contributed a real bar tab! Two great races followed on the Saturday with a strong fleet of 28 yachts.We went home looking forward to another day of racing, but those plans were thwarted when we went into lockdown at 6am, Sunday. It was only a temporary interruption, however. By the time this journal comes out, we will hopefully have sailed the remaining three scheduled races over the weekend of April 11-12. And enjoyed our prizegiving at the RNZYS. Racing in the ABD Classic Regatta.

CLASSIC YACHT ASSOCIATION CONTACTS – GENERAL ENQUIRIES: Joyce Talbot, admin@classicyacht.org.nz CLUB CAPTAIN YACHTS: Richard Cave, yachtcaptain@classicyacht.org.nz CLUB CAPTAIN LAUNCHES: Jason Prew, launchcaptain@classicyacht.org.nz