It was one of those typical Waitematā days: a shifty 15-knot SW, with a flat sea and a brooding, changeable sky. It’s midweek with barely another yacht in sight. What a day to check out the immaculate restoration of the Townson 9.6 Makahu. Story by John Macfarlane. Photography & video by Roger Mills. Additional photography by Colin Boyd.
Owner Colin Boyd has owned and sailed yachts all his life. As a teenager, he owned an S Class mullet boat, later the X-Class Julie for 15 years, and then, since 1994, a succession of Townson keelers: the T25 Trill, the T34 Cara and the T9.2 Nush. Sadly, Nush became matchwood after her Northcote mooring dragged in a big storm in 2007.
Naturally, another Townson was required. Moving quickly, Boyd discovered the T9.6 Makahu for sale. While it shares similar characteristics with its T9.2 smaller sister, the T9.6’s 980kg of increased displacement provides a decidedly roomier interior.
Built by Vaudrey Miller Boatbuilders for the Mace brothers in 1984, Makahu was in sound but scruffy condition. Following her purchase, Boyd spent months repairing her teak decks and giving her a full repaint.
Fast-forward to 2021, when Boyd’s insurance company requested a survey as a condition of continued insurance – a situation becoming increasingly common with our aging fleet. The survey revealed rot in the starboard topsides and decks. The root cause was a collision with another boat that unknowingly broke the seal on a stanchion base, allowing rainwater to percolate into the end grain of the hull planking and plywood beneath the teak decks. Unfortunately, leaking stanchions are a regular cause of rot on timber boats of this vintage.
Boyd asked around for a suitable timber boatbuilder, and one name kept cropping up: Lees Boatbuilders at Sandspit. Under the ownership of Greg Lees, this company has earned an excellent reputation for sympathetically restoring classic timber boats. Besides a passion for classic boats, Lees is an enthusiastic collector of classic cars and motorcycles.
With an estimate of the likely costs to repair the rot and a complete repaint, Makahu was hauled into the Lees Boatbuilders’ shed for her restoration. The damaged planking was cut back, scarfed, new kauri glued in and glassed. The teak decks were removed and replaced with plywood of the same thickness, then glassed. The previously removed toe rails were rebuilt with new teak, with additional width at each stanchion base to keep them well off the deck.
The original estimate was exceeded early on – entirely normal for boat restorations – and Boyd decided the time was ripe for the Full Monty of restorations.
“Once I saw the standard of workmanship by the team at Lees, I just wanted to see everything done to that standard. It was never going to be easier.”
Makahu’s cockpit was modified, losing her port quarter berth in favour of a far more useful cockpit locker. Then came countless hours of sanding, fairing, spray painting, varnishing and sign writing.
With her exterior paintwork complete, the deck fittings were reinstalled. The original Ronstan deck fittings were pensioned off in favour of new Harken fittings; however, Boyd retained the original Wilke winches, which came up beautifully after being re-chromed and polished. The stanchions were all polished and reinstalled, while the teak rubbing strake was capped with flat bar stainless steel.
The anchor locker came in for some serious modifications. As designed, the shallow Townson anchor lockers struggle to house anything other than a Danforth. Additionally, they lack sufficient depth for a remote windlass to operate correctly without jamming.
The Lees team lowered the anchor locker floor almost to the waterline, converting what was left of the old locker floor into internal shelving. The locker’s now big enough to house any new-generation anchors easily. At the same time, the increased depth means there’s more than enough fall from the windlass to allow for reliable remote anchoring. Dixon Manufacturing welded up a custom anchor prod to hold a stainless Spade anchor, a gift from Lees.
“I think Greg buys the boat a gift once you spend over a certain sum at the boatyard, and we more than qualified,” joked Boyd.
The mast and boom were stripped, painted, and reinstalled with new 1×19 rigging. All running rigging was replaced with traditionally styled, modern double-plaited rope.
With the exterior complete, the Lees team – Dale, Chris, Khris and Vinny – tackled Makahu’s interior. The tired cabin sole was replaced with holly and teak plywood at a modest $1,500 per sheet – cough, cough, splutter – fortunately, only two sheets were required. Then, what was left of the port quarter berth was converted into extra galley storage, and the interior brightwork was revarnished.
Boyd couldn’t keep away, travelling an hour each way daily from his lifestyle property in West Auckland to Sandspit to work on plumbing and stripping varnish.
“It was great seeing the process every day, and I loved being a part of it.”
Go to whoa, the restoration took six months, and Makahu was relaunched in June 2022. After his previous experience with a swing mooring, Boyd wisely opted to keep her on a Westhaven Marina berth.
Within months, Boyd had decided Makahu’s original Bukh 20hp didn’t match the rest of the work, so he commissioned The Engine Room to replace this with a Beta 25. The Beta is a marine conversion of a well-proven, three-cylinder Kubota block, its 898cc displacement developing 25hp at 3,600rpm.
In common with most Townson’s, Makahu has a skeg rudder, and while these make for light, easy steering under sail, steering in reverse can be tricky, especially in a cross-breeze. Wanting full control when singled-handed, late in 2022, Boyd took Makahu back to Lees and had them install a bow thruster.
Onboard
Boyd has a well-established system for entering and leaving his marina berth single-handed, the bow thruster making this even easier. Under power, the Beta 25 is an ideal match for Makahu, pushing her to a comfortable 6.5-knot cruising speed. With the mainsail in a stack-pack type system and the headsail on a furler, it was a quick and straightforward transition from power to sail.
Makahu’s Evolution Sails are cross-cut Dacron, which, while hardly ideal for racing, are perfectly adequate for cruising. Similarly, Makahu’s sail wardrobe consists of two sails – the mainsail and furling headsail. Experienced readers will spot the smallish headsail. This was a deliberate choice on Boyd’s part to facilitate single-handed sailing, and it certainly made for easy tacking and a better view beneath. Despite being underpowered in our test conditions, Makahu still slid along easily at 6 knots, the sign of an efficient hull.
As with all Townsons, the helm felt light. The skeg rudder is mainly responsible for this and helps the yacht track, an advantage for family crews and self-steering. A skeg rudder feels better under power, whereas a fully balanced spade rudder can often feel twitchy.
The T9.6’s cockpit has improved ergonomics over Townson’s earlier T32/34 designs, which have cockpit seats virtually at deck level due to their lower freeboard. Due to the T9.6’s proportionally greater beam and freeboard, the seats are set lower in the hull, providing a feeling of sitting ‘inside’ the boat. The coamings are wider than Townson’s earlier designs, making them hugely more comfortable when helming from the side decks. Conversely, tucked down behind the dodger, the helmsperson is well-sheltered in adverse conditions.
Boyd has kept Makahu’s sailing controls simple and led the bulk of them aft via rope clutches to twin winches under the dodger. He specified a low, sleekish dodger, which looks great. If you’re going to own a graceful Townson, why spoil it with an ugly dodger? A Garmin chartplotter was installed under the dodger to port, with the sailing instruments and engine control panel on the starboard cabin bulkhead.
The primary winches are Wilkie two-speed, self-tailers. These New Zealand-designed and built winches are sadly now out of production. Dropping and putting the mainsail away with its stack-pack system on the boom was so quick and easy that I wondered why more cruising yachts don’t fit this system.
Downstairs, the increased beam means the galley and dinette are entirely located to port of the centreline, leaving an easy passage fore and aft to starboard. The main hatch is correspondingly offset to starboard, and like nearly all Townsons, there’s no bridge deck hindering access between cockpit and cabin.
The engine is located to port beneath the gally return and the rear of the dinette. The engine is slightly angled so that the propeller itself is centrally located. The rear panel and dinette seat are easily removed for routine maintenance, and access is excellent. The engine has been connected to a 15-litre hot water tank, a far safer system for a yacht than an LPG gas califont. The fridge and freezer are located beneath the chart table opposite the galley and are driven off the engine. There’s more storage under the cockpit and the starboard quarter berth.
As previously mentioned, while most of the port quarter berth became a cockpit locker, the forward part became extra galley stowage. Losing a quarter berth is irrelevant as the dinette table can easily be lowered to form a double berth, and who wants to sleep six on a yacht this size?
The head compartment is immediately forward of the mast to port, with a hanging locker opposite and the usual V berth cabin forward.
Summary
Unquestionably, the late Des Townson was the master of the modern classic style, and even today, his yachts add grace to any anchorage. It’s wonderful seeing his yachts being restored to once again sail the sparkling waters of the Hauraki Gulf.
It’s doubly so when the restoration is done to an impeccable standard, such as Makahu. Between them, Boyd, Lees Boatbuilders and the other suppliers have walked that tight line of retaining Townson’s timeless styling whilst incorporating enough modern fixtures to ensure low-stress, enjoyable cruising.
While Townson himself would probably give his typical understated praise of Makahu’s restoration, probably something like “Not bad,” we can be more generous, “Stunning effort, guys, just fabulous.”
Enjoy your sailing, Colin – you’ve certainly earned it.
Townson Opium Design
In 1979, John Kemp approached the late Des Townson for his third Townson-designed keelboat. Kemp wanted a beamier, more modern version of his previous boats, the T32 Nordlys and T34 Splinter.
At the time, Alan Wright’s Lotus 9.2 was proving extremely popular, primarily because its beamy hull provided excellent interior space on a relatively short waterline yacht.
Realising he had to change his design approach, Townson drew a proportionally beamier hull that retained the proven sailing characteristics of his earlier designs. The result was Opium, which, when launched, proved that any penalty in speed was more than made up for in comfort and space.
Over the next decade, Townson added a few tweaks to the Opium design: a stepped cabin top, a reverse transom, a slightly longer hull and a taller rig. Including the later derivatives, 11 were eventually built, which, considering the bulk of yacht buyers were by then buying production GRP yachts, was an excellent result.
Specifications Townson 9.6
loa 8.1m
lwl 9.6m
boa 3.3m
draft 1.65m
displacement 4,770kg
ballast 2,040
sail area 45m²
