There were races for Maori waka taua, swimming sports, tugs-of-war, kapa haka, and whare-building competitions. But the crown in the jewel for yachtsmen was an ‘Intercolonial Championship Yacht Race for One Rater Yachts’ with a prize of £100.
One Raters had been developing overseas as fast, light yachts, around 28ft loa, 18ft lw. Because of their modest dimensions and weight they were relatively easily and cheaply shipped. There were two Australian entries, Sam Hordern Jr’s Bronzewing IV from Sydney and Rymill brothers’ Geisha from Adelaide. A lot of Australian sportsmen and newspaper people came across the Tasman to check out the rumours of a vibrant yachting and boatbuilding scene in Auckland sparked by the successes of the Bailey Bros’ 5-rater Uira for Melbourne in late 1896 and their 2½-rater Meteor which local dentist-entrepreneur Arthur Pittar had exported to Sydney earlier in 1898.
Because of problems over a contract to build a coastal steamer, the Bailey brothers had declared bankruptcy in the October 1898, but by December each was well into the process of re-establishing, Charles on his own, his brother Walter with the yard’s foreman Bill Lowe, as Bailey & Lowe.
By the time of the event, Logan Bros had produced a knock-out yacht in the 60ft cutter Thelma for the Jagger brothers. Launched in October 1897, Thelma had been in the water for a year. She was a magnificent showcase for Auckland yacht building. Under International rules she was a 10-rater (English terminology) or a 40ft Linear Rater (American). To cement their emerging prominence as world-class designers and constructors, Logan Bros had also just launched the fabulous 50ft loa Rainbow, a 36ft Linear Rater for local dentist-entrepreneur Arthur Pittar, who had thoughts already of taking her to race in Sydney. In November 1897 C. & W. Bailey had launched the 36ft Linear Rater Heartsease for Pacific Island trade merchant A.B. Donald. She was a handsome yawl, built as a rater, but as a comfortable cruiser rather than a racer.
I will deal fully with the smaller raters and the One Rater Championship in a later article. It is enough to say that a couple of outstanding yachts were produced by Auckland builders, Laurel by Charles Bailey Jr and Mercia by the Logan brothers, which blitzed the Aussie entrants. Sydney yachtsmen snapped up both boats; John Chinnery bought Laurel and Fred Doran bought Mercia.
In February 1899 Arthur Pittar made contact with P. Hordern of Sydney, the owner of the new W. Fife-designed 36ft Linear Rater White Wings built by Ford of Sydney, with a view to a challenge race between Rainbow and White Wings either in Auckland or in Sydney. The result was that the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron announced an Intercolonial Yacht Race to be held in Sydney in January 1900.
Thanks to Pittar’s energy, a chain of high-quality exports then followed; Logan Bros were first with the 2½-rater/30ft Linear Rater Aoma for C. T. Brockhoff of Sydney, shipped on the Waihora in October 1899. With a view to beating White Wings, Chas Bailey Jr launched the 5-rater/36ft Linear Rater Bona for John Chinnery, and had her shipped immediately on the Elingamite in November 1899.
On 15th January 1900 Pittar shipped Rainbow on the Waihora for Sydney as deck cargo. On board too, was the crack Bailey 2½-rater Zinita which C.P. Murdoch had just sold to W. Jagger and who, in turn, had sold her on to Griffiths of Sydney.
The Intercolonial Yacht Race on 26th January in Sydney was won by Rainbow with Bona second and White Wings third. In the following days Bona dead heated with Rainbow and beat her, showing herself to be her equal. In a much-publicised race they collided, but that’s the stuff of a complete article of this length. Pittar then shipped Rainbow home. It was now clear to Aussie yachtsmen that Auckland designer-builders were of world class.
The export flow of Auckland-built raters to Australia now really got under way. In September 1900 Logan Bros shipped the 30ft Linear Raters Petrel and Heather on the Waihora for Syd Dempster and Dr Gordon Craig respectively. They were built off the same moulds and were clones of Aoma. They were followed by the radical fin keeler Sunbeam which Pittar commissioned and had sent to Sydney in early January 1901. Pittar sold her to Fred Doran, Mercia’s owner, who in turn sold her to A.W. Crane, who now owned Laurel.
Chas Bailey built two radical 30ft Linear Raters for Sydney, the spade-ruddered Cooya in October 1900 for A.W. Crane and Janet, in January 1901 for J. McMurtrie, both probably to designs by the influential English designer Charles Sibbick. Janet was built of cedar. The New Zealand Herald described her as “like Sunbeam, of extreme racing type.”
Logan Bros then built another Aoma/Heather/Petrel clone, Culwulla for Walter Marks and shipped her in November 1901. But Culwulla was the last of the Logan/Bailey exports for this was the end of the glory days of Aussie exports.
Until January 1, 1901 New Zealand had been a British Colony with the same status as New South Wales and Victoria, for example. On that day, all six Australian colonies banded together under a new flag as the Commonwealth of Australia. New Zealand had been offered a part of the union but scorned it. Now the cows came home. The Australian Federal Government put a protective tariff on all sorts of goods manufactured overseas to protect local industry: and that included yachts.
Culwulla cost Walter Marks for Logan Bros’ construction plus the American Oregon spars and the Ratsey and Lapthorn sails, enough to buy a new suburban house in Auckland. The new Federal Tariff announced just as she arrived added £40 or 8% to that total. And that priced Auckland-built yachts off the market.
Thanks to the building boom in the preceding decade and the Bailey/Logan rivalry, Auckland was now well-stocked with up-to-date racing yachts. Now too, so was Sydney, thanks to the efforts of Pittar, the Logan Bros and Chas Bailey J,. For example, on January 23, 1901 the Sydney Referee reported on a Prince Alfred Yacht Club race for the Horden 100-guinea Cup at length. The entrants were (Auckland-built yachts in bold) Bona, scratch; White Wings, 5.5 minutes; Isca, 21 minutes; Petrel, Heather, Fleetwing, Magic, 26 minutes; Cooya, Aoma, Meteor, 27 minutes; Herreshoff, 30 minutes; Bul Bul, 33 minutes; and Carnassie, 42 minutes.
Auckland builders produced only two yachts specifically to the International rating formula after Culwulla. There was Iorangi, launched by Logan Bros in September 1901 for A. H. Turnbull of Wellington to replace his Logan-built 5-rater Rona. She was a development of Arch Logan’s Rainbow, a 52ft Linear Rater, but her rating was of academic interest only in Wellington waters.
After Arch Logan’s masterpiece, the 54-footer Ariki of October 1904, which boasted no rating, Logan Bros had a final export rater, exactly a year later, October 1905, the 40ft Linear Rater Rawhiti for Arthur Pittar, now living and practising dentistry in Sydney. She was conceived to beat Bona in Sydney and the Melbourne crack, Sayonara, Alfred Gollin’s Fife-designed 58-footer that had beaten Bona in Sydney in the Intercolonial race in January 1904. To avoid the Federal tariff she was sailed to Sydney “on her own bottom” under reduced rig. These races were fascinating but are outside the scope of this article. It is sufficient to say that Rawhiti acquitted herself well in this tough competition.
Back in Auckland a revolution was under way. Reasonably powerful, safe, reliable internal combustion marine engines were finally available, mainly from the United States. There was an exponential growth in motor-launch building, for pleasure boats, workboats and racing. All the big money was going into comfortable petrol-engined cruisers – “stink boats” the yachties called them. The death of yachting as a sport was predicted; but the Logans and Baileys had their launch order books full.
As a last gasp of interest in raters, in 1900 the Logans, Chas Bailey Jr and Bailey & Lowe between them produced another fine batch of smaller Linear Raters which I will deal with in a later article, as well as some tentative essays local builders made into building to the new Metre Rule of 1907.
Next month I’ll change gear and describe a little launch from the Far North, an interesting Bailey & Lowe survivor.
