MuzzaB
-
Content Count
113 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
2
Content Type
Profiles
Media Demo
Forums
Gallery
Calendar
Store
Posts posted by MuzzaB
-
-
Maybe this one doesn't qualify but it is interesting. Erehwon circa 1949. My father was regular racing crew on Erewhon but took this photo from Inyala on which he cruised regularly (see the book "A Modern Sea Beggar" by Temple Utley available to read online).
-
My first time solo on a Laser. I weighed about two feathers at the time and was 11 or 12 years old. I persuaded one of my father's friends to let me borrow his near-new Laser (check out that low sail number). Mid '70s Oakura Bay, Northland.
-
1
-
-
The Sprint was not successful and relatively few were sold. They first appeared around 1975 or 1976. There was a Seaspay magazine review at some point in 1976 if I recall. They were very unstable - getting in over the transom was needed if you capsized in light air. Avoiding a roll-over when righting the boat in a breeze was a skill to be learned. The P Class was the place to be. In the mini-Laser type boat there was competition from the Viking (also unsuccessful) and the Micron (slightly larger - more akin to the Starling in its target market). The Optimist was new to NZ in those days and there were very few around - all wooden at that point (as were the Ps and Starlings).
Anyway...
I have the following anecdote. I will not name the individuals - and especially the former owner of the Sprint dinghy in this story. Let's just say that he went on to have a very successful sailing career and became a household name. We'll call him "Bob" for no reason whatsoever.
As kids there was a group of us that lived close enough to the water, or stored our boats close enough, such that even though we were too young to drive, we could launch and sail our boats without "grown-up" help. So school holidays and summer evenings were filled with sailing.
Sometimes we would play a game of tag. The rules were simple: a boundary was set within some convenient mooring buoys (usually with boats hanging off them - I don't remember ever damaging them). You had to stay within the boundary or you were "it". If you capsized you were "it". The person who was "it" could get out of that by forcing somebody to capsize or getting them out of bounds. Deliberate boat to boat contact was not allowed (we loved out wooden boats!) The way to get somebody to capsize was to sail up to leeward of them and grab their boom - giving it a sharp downward tug as you went by. You often had to stand up in your own boat to apply sufficient force - so risked capsizing yourself. We learned great boat handling skills.
Most of us had Ps or Starlings, and there was the occasional Flying Ant - but "Bob" had a Sprint. The Sprint was by far the easiest boat to capsize so "Bob" did a lot of swimming (he may refute that).
Kids can be so cruel
-
The NZ mini powerboat was typically 9 feet long - so maybe not what he is talking about.
http://www.nzspeedboathistory.co.nz/index.php/en/ct-menu-item-19/ct-menu-item-21/ct-menu-item-23
I remember them well - racing on the Manukau and on the Tamaki River at Otahuhu in the mid '70s.
-
I guess we were just lucky. Dad had one when I was born - it is one of my earliest boating memories. Then he bought another, and it was the first outboard I learned to start and operate as a kid. The last one we had - purchased circa '74 or '75, was the 5hp model with a clutch, long shaft and a large 5-bladed prop. He called it the barge engine. It would push an 18' displacement hull along quite happily. [Oops - OK Boomer - you mean 5.5 metres].
Then in the '80s my uncle bought an old 2.5hp out of pure nostalgia and used it on a wonderful wooden dinghy he had built.
None of them ever skipped a beat. Ahh - memories.
-
She was a common sight around Waiheke in the '70s and early '80s when Johnny Wray was still active. This is sad to see.
-
Any news on the big old Spencer on the US west coast (name forgotten)
Do you mean Ragtime (ex Infidel)? She is entered in the Transpac this year - the first time for many years.
-
The live coverage on YouTube has been excellent. Although the winner has been decided, the last race will be streamed from about 2.30pm Sydney time (I think). 18footersTV channel on YouTube.
-
have a "Fazisi" shirt around here somewhere
Ah - those crazy Russians
-
Probably - she stayed in Australia after the 1981 Southern Cross Cup and is still there I beleive.
-
Here is a series of Whitbread boats from the 1986-86 race; all photographed on Auckland Harbour in January 1986.
First is Cote D'Or. The Javelin in the foreground is a Farr Mk II from the mid 70's. Several of this design did well - some that come to mind are Nice One, Jonathon Livingston Seagull and Worzel Gummidge.
The other boats are Atlantic Privateer, Drum, UBS Switzerland, and (of course) Lion.
-
Garden Cove, Waiheke, 1979. The Easterly is the late Tony Corbett's "Korona" which a few years later he would race to Mooloolaba and solo back.
-
Anniversary Day 1980. A little context here - Condor of Bermuda had just recently arrived in Auckland after crossing the Tasman from Hobart (2nd on line in the Sydney-Hobart that year - 1979). Skippered by Peter Blake with his new wife Pippa, she hove-to for several hours during a severe storm. Smackwater Jack, Paul Whiting and crew were lost in the same storm. We were in the shelter of Whangaroa Harbour when the worst hit, but that night our analog anemometer was stuck at 60 knots.
Condor was a great sight on the harbour that day, when maxi yachts were still relatively rare visitors to Auckland and could pull a crowd.
-
and the Breeze under North Head - early 1980s.
-
Pete and Ian with Pete's first Flying Fifteen circa 1983.
-
Plane Jane at the start of the Brin Wilson Memorial in 1983: Alistair, Pete, Don, myself, Donald and Ian.
-
A bad image of Marlin circa 1980. She was almost new then - only 31 years old.
-
The amazing Tweety Bird: Jane, Bern, Neale and - I can't remember his name. Winter racing 1983.
-
They are scanned with an Epson Perfection V700. These are just quick and dirty scans - with minimal follow-up work. I can take hours over a full negative restoration where the image merits it.
-
Here are a couple of Urban Cowboy during her pull-down test before the Suva race in 1983. She was under Jack Balemi's ownership then.
-
Finally in the White Island start series - Anticipation and Jipcho. And to think, Ants was already an old lady then (she was launched in 1975).
-
Sorry for the really poor condition of this one, but I can't leave out Swuzzlebubble III, chasing down Epiglass. Swuzzlebubble went on to be top boat at the Admirals Cup that year.
-
White Island Race start 1981: Feltex Roperunner and Epiglass set kites at the start, while in the same photo we have a Farr 38, two of which are competing in the Round NZ 38 years later.
-
White Island Race start 1981: here is Jipcho - love that horizontal panel spinnaker, while Ants (bow in view) is carrying what Lidgards used to call their "5 star" spinnaker. That looks to be their "Squadron" rather than IOR kite. Epiglass is beyond.
Old pics
in MarineTalk
Posted
I recall SeaBee Air coming onto the beach at Oakura at least once, but that required zero swell. I used to love exploring up Whangaruru.
But as you mentioned SeaBee Air, here is a one of those wonderful Grummans having just dropped Dad off to join the boat at Otehei Bay, Urupukapuka, 1979-80.