AQUATICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 239, 6 October 1923, Page 21

AQUATICS.

(By SPEEDWELL.!

The adequate police protection for our pleasure fleet, which promised to become an actual fact a few weeks ago, when the Harbour Board offered to provide a launch for use onre or twice H week if the Police Department would find the necessary men. has come to an abrupt end through the difficulty of providing a launch which can be used by the police at all times. The Department, of Justice now aska to what extent the. association was prepared to assist in this matter. The question may be discussed at the forthcoming annual meeting, 'but it is hoped that the matter can be fixed up between the Harbour Board and the Justice Department. Will some publicspirited boating man come forward with the offer of a launch for patrol work? Mr. T. Tester's 32-foot launch Nukumare, which moors in Mechanics' Bay, sank at her moorings during the heavy eastern weather experienced in the early part of last month. The Harbour Board's men kindly raised her on Wednesday, and put her ashore in a safe position inside the breastwork. Mr. W. P. Endcan"s new 8-metre yacht is nearing completion at C. Bailey's yard. Her outside work is about finished, except for the final coat of white. The lead was run last week and is a good cast. Electric light is fitted in the main cabin, also in the fore-cabin, where a gimballed cooking stove is to be fitted. The mast is ready i for the rigging—it is a straight-grained i piece of Oregon, six inches in diameter. ' The main rigging will not rest on the ' croestrees, but is to be carried to substantial cleats on the mast 3ft. 6in. above the crosstrees. The running rigging will be of steel wire, set up with short tackles, thus eliminating tho sag and stretching always present with rope halyards. The cabin is finished in white, picked out with gold. Above the cushions on each sido is a shelf, about six inches wide, set off with a liesit nickelled rail. Three mirrored panels on the for'ard bulkhead add to the appearance of the cabin, while four good lockers on the after bulkhead make for convenience. Xow the boat is painted her symmetrical and powerful lines can be seen to better advantage. She will be ready before the end of this month, and her owner haa chosen the Prize as her mime, after the mystery ship commanded by Lieutenant Sanders, V.C. The 14-foot one-design boat which the firm is building for Mr. Eliot Davis will be finished decking to-day. She is to be named Queen March," and will fly the Victoria Club's burgee. The Whangarci Harbour Begatta Association held its annual meeting on Friday week. Mr. W. N. Jack presiding. The report and balance sheet showed that last annual regatta held at Onerahi

on New Year's Day was quite satis-1 factory in spite of adverse weather. A ' strong committee formed to carry j out the next regatta. Messrs. Eccles donated a cup for competition in the 14----foot class. A new cup was promised for the cruiser class, the present one having been won outright, while a large amount of detail work in connection with the [ next regatta was put through. It is to | be hoped that the three local clubs, | ■Rowing Club. Cruising Club and the Regatta Association, will join forces and , so make their annual regatta the biggest aquatic fixture outside Auckland, and one which will do honour to the wide expanse of sheltered water en- , closed between Marsden Point and the Heads. The good advertisement given to Whangarei and surrounding districts and the number of visitors it would I attract is alone worth a combined effort,' i while no better way of showing the appreciation of boating men for the great improvements effected in the upper reaches of the river by the local Harbour Board could be dfivised. j It was pleasing to see the interest' I taken in the small classes by the memj bers of the Squadron at the annual j meeting. A motion to limit the entrance fees to 5/- in the 14ft one-design class was carried unanimously. The report! of the sub-committee set up to consider the question of an additional class for racing purposes was also adopted. This committee recommended the ISft Patiki j • class, of which there are at present two ! boats, and it is hoped others may be j built before Christmas. In some clubs I the ISft M class as these boats are J termed, race with the V class and in ! spite of the increased sail area of the IV class, they do not always beat the ! round bilge boats. It was expected ttiat i a number of new V class boats would j be built, but so far there is only one, a sister boat to the Wizard, which is to j be called Magic. ! A member of the Akarana Yacht Club, Mr. J. Knight, who left last Saturday ' for Awanui, where he will be stationed, ! offered several prizes for one or more races from- Coromandel to Cowes Bay next Easter. The donor's idea is that the boats which compete at the Coromandel regatta on Easter Saturday, can race back acrbss the Gulf next day to Cowes. One of the club's officials who assisted at the last Coromandel Regatta, has undertaken to look after the starting and time-keeping for the race. Mr. Roy Henderson's new auxiliary cruiser is nearly finished at her owner's yard and is expected to be launched on Labour Day. This boat which has been named Arawa, will make a fine cruiser.

and it is to be hoped she 'trill take part j in some of our long distance races. Her I dimensions are 35ft- over aH, 31ft. 1.w.1., lift, beam and sft. 4in. draught. She will go out of the shed next week to have her lead keel, some 2J tone, cast. Her power consists of a 15 h.p. medium duty engine. Every advantage hae teen taken of the past fine week-ends to get our fleet of yachts and launches ready for the opening of the season. It is hardly to be expected that we shall not get some J boisterous weather between now and the opening date but "make hay while the sun shines" is particularly applicable to boating men. The very large fleet wintering in the vicinity of the Victoria Club's slip, the Squadron's slip, at St. Mary's and at Judges Bay, are mostly well forward. Some are just about ready for sea, while others are a bit behind hand, but Labour Day will see quite a, fleet once more swinging at their usual moorings—unless their moorings have sunk in the meantime, which is the case with several in Area A. By the way, it is a good time to have your moorings overhauled and got ready for use when you go off instead of leaving it to the last and then expect the Harbour Board's men to do impossibilities by attending to everyone at once. A visit to Judges Bay showed that the boats hauled out there are fairly well forward. Amongst the yachts wintering there we noticed Colleen, Mahoe, Twilight, Speedwell, Spray, Vanitie, Peri, Sadie, Rarere, Maybelle. Daisy, Waione, and the 14ft V class boats Sea Gnome and The King. The launches include Molly, Surf, Haku, Waimana, Pakeha, Manahura, Soda, Rona, Cyrena and Penguin, and all show signs of hard wor"k by their owners and crew. •T. H. Slattery, who iR located in tins bay, has just launched a 20-footer to the order of Mr. Leo Raynard of Ponsonby. She is a very big bodied craft, having over lift beam and a depth of 14ft 2in. She will carry big sails and I should help to make this class more j interesting. The new boat has been named Kowhai. The same builder has finished a 20ft launch and has a 32 footer on order. It will only be a matter of a year or two now when this lovely bay which has been enjoyed by i residents of Auckland for the past GO or ■70 summers and used by boating men during the last 30 years to haul out their boats for the winter or to put them ashore for a day or two before a regatta to get the final touches attended to will be lost to us for all time. The commercial needs of the iron horse must rule, we suppose, and the bay will be filled in to mark another so-called step in the advancement of Auckland. The writer cannot help wishing the late Mr. H. H. Metcalf was etill alive to stir the railway authorities into saving the ' beach for future generations by putting • a tunnel under Campbell's Point to take the trains. This would come out about I the centre of Hobeon Boy and should

Ibe a simple engineering feat, perhaps '•less expensive than filling in the fore- | shore. Only this week the Wellington authorities have decided to build a tunnel of over three quarters of a. mile to ensure a new eastern outlet for . the city. The length of a tunnel from I the present rails in St. George's Bay ! I through to Hobson Bay would not be I half this distance. Let us hope some I j one will be found to wake us all up to ! the value of Judges Bay in its natural j , state and not spoilt by huge railway I embankment*. j The Power Boat Association have lost I no time in getting undenveigh for ihe ! 1 season since their annual meeting. On Tuesday last House, Cruising and Rac- j ing Committees were set up and three i handicappers nominated. The Wanganui j I motor enthusiast who has a boat conforming to the lSlinch class was given | a hearty invitation to 'bring his boat ' here, a shed and other facilities being \ placed at his disposal. Messrs. liason I i and Porter have decided to give a cup | I tor this class value £50 and' it is | ' hoped to hold several races during the I coming season. The Motor Yacht Glub ! of New South Wales has also been in j communication with the Association ' about this class. j The annual meeting of the Auckland I ! Yacht and Motor Boat Association will I Imj held in the Squadron rooms on j I Tuesday. j The Ponsonby Club has lost no time ' in getting to work for the season, and ! at a meeting held on Wednesday it was ] decided to hold six races for all classes, j The prize money will total about £220, j a great proportion of which will be paid I in cash. A series of smoke concerts will j be held during the summer in the club- j ■house, and the prize money won on the opening day will be paid over at one or these gatherings. It was decided to keep a class for the I4ft. one-design boats i without handicap provided five boats enter and three start, otherwise they will Igo in the handicap class. There are still some who think that Darey Hadfield is open to great im- | provement as a sculler. Darcy Had- '! field 13. the making of a better sculler 1 than he is to-day, according to veteran Harry Floyd. Speaking at the Xew ' South Wales Sculling League farewell ' to the New Zealander, he said that Had- ' i field had all the necessary qualities for ; the making of a champion. There was evidence in his sculling that he could ■ learn much that would benefit him. ; Floyd considers that Hadfield is worth t another trial, and he stated that ho i would undertake to make him six , lengths to the mile better in one week.