wellington classic yacht trust

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New Zealand Classic set to make waves again

One of New Zealand’s classic yachts, Atalanta - one of the 5 raters was on the move this month as she headed back to a former home port of hers – Wellington. 

The journey from Port Chalmers, where she has been for over 34 years, was not by sea this time but rather by road on an Exclusive Boat Haulage truck.  She is now on the hard at Evans Bay, Wellington under the stewardship of the Wellington Classic Yacht Trust who have wasted no time in commencing the restoration project which will see Atalanta restored to her former racing glory days.  Her previous owner Julian Matson who purchased her in 1974 has recently donated Atalanta to the Trust for them to restore.

Atalanta, also known as ‘Attie’, was launched in Auckland on the 7 th May 1894 having been built at the yard of Charles Jr Bailey and Walter Bailey.

Her dimensions are:      

LOA        40’ LWL        27’ Beam    9’ 6”

Originally she was build with a centre board but this was replaced in later years with a deeper keel.

She was built for Messrs J H Smith and J Canning in Napier though she didn’t stay there long for they sailed her down to Wellington to compete in the prestigious Wellington Anniversary Regatta in 1895.  She arrived in Wellington on the 16 January 1895 the same time as Rona, a Logan yacht of the division, which she would soon compete against. 

Atalanta’s owners left her in Wellington eventually selling her.  She competed regularly in both the off shore racing and within the harbour.  Atalanta had a high degree of success over her many years of racing.

In 1937 under a new owner, Bill Cunningham, her rig was replaced with the more modern Bermuda rig and she was stripped out for racing and was soon again a competitive yacht on the Wellington scene.

After WWII under another new owner, Hugh Askew, her rig was again replaced, this time with a larger Bermuda rig and her keel was further deepened.  She competed at the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club with good success eventually winning the most prestigious Cup that was to become known as the Mill Askew Trophy in 1948.

Subsequent owners continued to race her in Wellington at both the RPNYC and Evans Bay up until the early 1970s. In 1974 Julian Matson purchased her taking her first to the Marlborough Sounds then down to Port Chalmers when he relocated to that area.  During the 1980’s she was a regular race starter at the Port Chalmers Yacht Club with 1985 being a successful year for Julian with Atalanta taking away most of the silverware that was on offer that season.

In the early 1990s Atalanta remained at her berth in Careys Bay, Port Chalmers, as business commitments took Julian away from the racing scene.  In 2002 she was taken from the water and placed in a storage building of the Port Chalmers Yacht Club.  11 years and five days later she reemerged a bit dusty but still a solid and sound boat.  On the 15 August she was craned on to the truck and headed north.

The journey was not without incident.  The truck driver reported that he was crossing the Seddon Bridge at the time of the recent 6.6 earthquake centered at Seddon resulting in Atalanta fishtailing her way across the bridge.  She however reached Evans Bay Wellington none the worst for the shake up.

The Wellington Classic Yacht Trust has started immediately upon the restoration with re caulking working taking place last weekend.  The progress of Atalanta’s restoration can be seen on the Trust’s Facebook page or visit their website www.wcyt.org.nz   or contact their President, Gavin Pascoe on [email protected]    The Trust would love to hear from anyone who may have early information about Atalanta, memorabilia or may be in a position to contribute toward the restoration of this piece of New Zealand yachting history.

Find out more about Atalanta here. For further information yachting historians Harold Kidd & Robin Elliott have written articles about the 5 raters that have been published in Yachting Magazines, also Gavin Pascoe is a great  source of information on Atalanta. 

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Tag Archives: Wellington Classic Yacht Trust

A flashback to the late 1920’s – early 1930’s.

A Flashback To the Late 1920’s – Early 1930’s

In Wellington there is a wonderful group of classic wooden boat enthusiasts that ‘reside’ under the umbrella of the ‘Wellington Classic Yacht Trust’ – they excel at everything and outshine the Auckland based Classic Yacht Association on so many fronts, particularly the 3 F’s – fun, friendship and fraternity. Recently the WCYT publicised on their website http://www.wcyt.org.nz/ a photo essay of classic craft from the Dow Collection. The photo above is one of the featured photos and is of Ngakuta Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound. The collection viewable in the link below is a selection from two albums owned by Doug Gow. It appears the person who took the photos was a crewman (name unknown) on the D Class cruisers HMS Diomede and HMS Dunedin and when off duty a crewed on various boats. The photos date to between 1928 and 1931.

LINK   http://www.wcyt.org.nz/abode/getCategoryProducts.do/_siteId__708/method__getCategoryProducts/_categoryId__6608

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Clyde quay boat harbour .

Clyde Quay Boat Harbour 

Wellington woody admirer Geoff Fiebig sent in the collection of photos that he snapped off while wandering around the Clyde Quay Boat Harbour , Wellington on Sunday.

Can we put some names to them – • I’m sure the top photo is well know, but the bigger question has to be – how come its so unloved?

• The blue open double-ender looks very salty, and cared for.

• The tender is probably best overlooked, several sheets of ply on display. But no doubt a very useful work horse to get to & from a bigger moored craft (love the boat sheds paint scheme).

• The smallish woody yacht at a guess would be Lizzie the 1909 Edwin Bailey built 19>22’ gaffer. Read more about her below:  http://www.wcyt.org.nz/abode/getAdminCategoryProducts.do?_siteId=708&method=getCategoryProducts&_categoryId=4436 

Oyster – Sailing Sunday

OYSTER – Sailing Sunday

The photo gallery above of the 1903 Charles Bailey Jnr. yacht Oyster comes to us from her new Wellington owner – Gavin Pascoe’s fb page. Gavin recently sailed her back from Lyttelton to Wellington. Gavin is one of the leading lights at the uber cool Wellington Classic Yacht Trust, so Oyster is a very lucky woody to be in such safe hands.

Most of the photos are from her early days in Wellington c.1920’s>1930’s. The cover of the NZ Yachtsman magazine is dated August 10th 1912 and shows her in Nelson. Oyster is 32’ in length, with a 9’ bean and draws 3’ (she is a centre-board ketch).

Photo below taken by Andrew McGeorge of Oyster in Lyttelton just prior to her departure north.

The Wellington Scene

THE WELLINGTON SCENE

photos & details ex Harold Kidd & Gavin Pascoe

Some Wellington launches for a change.

Harold recently bought a postcard of a “launch on Auckland Harbour” which was clearly Wellington. Harold keeps in touch with Gavin Pascoe of the Wellington Classic Yacht Trust on anything Wellington so sent him off a copy. Between the two of them they identified her as Phyllis but in passing discussed images of two other similar craft, Doris and Wai-iti.

You can see that they all have a modest  ketch rig and similar configurations.

Phyllis was a 21 footer built at Kilbirnie to a Rudder Mag design by G. Dennis, starting in December 1910 and launching in August 1912. She was still around in early 1916.

Doris was built in Auckland as the 28ft mullet boat Dorothy but was sold to Charlie Moore in Wellington in 1912. He converted her to a deadwood keeler with an auxiliary but she became solely a power boat pretty soon. She was still around in 1929.

Wai-iti was built by Simmonds and Hutson of Wellington in late 1924 and they also built her semi-diesel engine. She was 28ft x 9ft. She lasted until at least WW2.

Harold Kidd Update

PHYLLIS certainly is very pretty, but you’d expect that of a Rudder design. DOROTHY/DORIS’s cabintop is a bit lumpy, but it was put on in Wellington after she had been converted to a Cook Strait-capable launch from a very basic Auckland-built 28ft fishing mullet boat and form follows function most adequately. WAI-ITI’s hull form is very sweet but I still can’t get my head around the way her cabin ports are placed, equidistant from the top of the coaming rather than in the middle between the top of the coaming and its bottom (sheer) as is the case in most boats of the time. To me, that’s a little awkward and unsympathetic. This has been commented on before in WW in relation to a possibly amateur-built Wellington launch.

Ever Wondered Whats Inside Those Sheds?

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A Peek Inside The Clyde Quay Boat Sheds

In my real life, I have one outside of ww 🙂  ,  I get to work with some very talented people, in 2013 one of my clients partnered with New Zealand’s award winning consumer lifestyle magazine – ‘NZ Life & Leisure’ on a marketing initiative. Just before xmas I was in their offices & they said “hey we have an article in our upcoming Jan/Feb issue that would interest you & your ww readers. So folks here it is a pictorial insight into the Wellington’s Clyde Quay boat sheds, where several CYA members (Phillipa Durkin & Gavin Pascoe) hang out. The passion & enthusiasm that the Gavin & Phillipa, along with the other Wellington Classic Yacht Trust members have is amazing & we should all take a lead from them.

The mag goes on sale today so grab a copy at your local, you can also see more at their never cool website http://nzlifeandleisure.co.nz

You can find out more about the WCYT  here http://www.wcyt.org.nz

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  Wellington Classic Yacht Trust

We are a Registered charitable trust dedicated to the preservation, restoration and above all, sailing of small vessels with a significant history to Wellington and the region. We exist to share our passion for the history of these vessels and the sport of yachting with the wider community; and encourage ownership and use of such vessels to ensure their continued useful existence. The Trust researches and publishers on local vessels and the people who sailed them, and is growing a small library and collection of artefacts. A database of yachts of the classic era can be found on our website.

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