AQUATICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 224, 20 September 1924, Page 21

AQUATICS.

(By "SPEEDWELL.") The holding of the Akarana next Thursday and the Squadron on Friday complete the list of the local club's annual meetings. In several cases quite a change has been made in the personnel, but the new officers are old yachtsmen and can be depended on to uphold the honour and best traditions of the sport, and to foster the very friendly spirit now existing amongst the whole of the clubs. Although we certainly shall miss the active participation in the sport of 'Lord Jellicoe this season, and caa hardly expect our Governor-elect to take much interest in what he knows as the senior branch of the service, yet we shall have our hands full with the ever-increasing list of club fixtures, and the carrying out to a successful issue of the Sanders Cup trials and contest. In the matter of new boats, the petrol-driven pleasure craft, as usual, holds pride of place, but it is pleasing to know that at least a dozen new sailing craft, counting all classes, will be ready for the water on the opening day. Of the power -boats, the largest new one is that building ;by Collings and Bell for Mr. C. H. 'Palmer and Dr. H. F. Holmden. She is a fine beamy craft with full head room throughout, and should make an ideal cruiser, although her power plant is a little on the small side. The same buildere are now completing a 26ft by 7ft runabout, built on the firm's patent concave-convex principle. This boat, which is for Mr. C. J. Collings' own use, should attain a speed of 30 miles with her 150-h.p. Hall Scott airplane type motor. She conforms to the latest practice in speedy craft with her "hogged" or reverse sheer and for'ard cockpit.

I A new T class 14-footer has just been ! completed by W. Rogers and S. Dryi land, oij St. Mary's Bay, and the boat s should prove a really fast one. She ■ is from an American design, and her • resemblance to the Jellicoe class is 1 remarkable. But for a elightly-finer ' for'ard section and smaller tuck she ' would almost pass as a one-designer. : She will carry the Xyria's spare racing set of sails and riggings. Her final ' coat of paint has yet to 'be put on. It will be a cardinal red, and should : show off her racing lines to advantage. She will be christened Marie; rather ' a pity to duplicate names, in the writer's opinion, as there ought to be . enough to go round. Kismet and Valet will have to look to their laurels this season, for sure. k The eastern reclamation ia making up very quickly, and a few months should see the filling-in process about finished. A long time must elapse , before the new ground will be ready • for occupation, but the future sites for club-houses can be visioned, and if they are allowed to be 'built on its outer or- northern edge, there will be none better in Auckland, or in iXew Zealand, for that matter. Unfortunately, the rather loose formation of the rubble wall allows quite a lot of silt to get through with the water, and a view of the area in front of the Power Boat's Club-house and adjacent rowing clubs at low tide shows this place to be absolutely dry, where last season we had at least three of four feet of water. All along the stone wall on the western , side the same conditions are found, and 'many craft in this area will only be , J able to get to and from their mooring •jat half-tide unless considerable dredging is done. Might we suggest that ■ this work should be done before the boats are in commission and occupying , ■; their now deserted moorings. A visit at any time near low water, springs especially, will cause a surprise to many who have looked on this spot as quite free from the natural drawbacks which St. Mary's and other areas unfortu- I nately suffer so much from. Work on. * the railway embankment hag been actively put in hand, and it will net be long before a start is made on the continuation around Campbell's Point and across Judge's Bay. It seems hopeless to expect that a tunnel under this point, coming put in Hobson'a Bay, will be favoured, but future generations of young Aucklanders may be sorry that the commercial needs of the city i caused the loss of such a handy beach. ! It will be remembered that at the ! annual prize night of the "Royals," a ' very ornate casket inlaid with New Zealand woods was presented to the patron, Lord Jellicoe, in view of his departure from these shores. The gift was greatly appreciated and the idea of a combined gift from the other local clubs was conceived. This was taken up m&st enthusiastically and quite voluntarily, and a sum has now been contributed by each club for this purpose. The gift will take the form of a replica to a scale of lin to the foot j of Lord Jellieoe'g 14-footer Iron Duke under full sail. The work i 3 well for- J ward and the matter of a suitable time I for making the presentation- is now I being arranged by Mr. J. B. Johnston, chairman of the association ox com- I ibised cittiai, j:

It must be satisfactory to the officers and members of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron to find that the heavy expenditure a year or two ago on the slipway is now in a fair way to be recouped. This year for the firsfTtime, every available *hauling-up site 'has been occupied. The following are the nominaj tions for flag officers: —Commodore A. E. Gifford, Vice-Commodore T. M. Alexander, Hear-Commodore J. W. Frater. The annual motor boat races which for a number of years have been one of the features of the French Riviera, were this year transferred from Monaco to Cannes, where, favoured by suitable weather they attracted an immense amount of attention, and provided excellent sport. In order to encourage the building of moderate priced racing boats an international class was formed for craft fitted with an engine of not more than 1500 c.c, or nominally of 12 'h.p., and special races were held for these. This move was very successful, for it united an international class of boats'of very high quality. The English boats were 'Arderun and Miss Empire. Italy was represented by Baglietto; Excelsior was the Swiss champion; the French tri-colour floated from Pierre de Lune; the Argentine representative was Sadi, and De Coninck-Vanop was the Belgian champion. The most important race for this class was for a distance of ten kilometres, being two Tounds of the course. The result was a clean victory for Italy's representative Baglietto, which, at the end of the first round was leading Arderun 'by nine seconds, and finished with the advantage of Msec on the 'English craft. The winner covered the distance in lOmin 38sec, an average speed of 36.3 land miles. Arderun finished second in lOmin 57eec ,and Miss Empire was third in 13min 29 2-asec. Although a cable received on Monday announced that the American team had won the final of the 6-metre international contest, this was correctedt on Wednesday, when the cables stated that the British team had scored four victories to the Americans , three, and had won the match for Britain. This is good news, as the importance of this annual contest in the 6-metre international class has been gradually growing since the first match in 1921. Many yachting , authorities hold the opinion that these annual contests have almost taken the place of the big America Cup races, which they now almost despair of seeing again. It ia certain that the very best talent in the designing, building, and sailing of the small craft has been called into service on both sides, and the contests, with the exception of jthe last one, held in British waters, have all been very close. So far the British team has won three out of four contests, in 1921, 1923, and now in 1924. The American team won the 1922 contest, sailed off Ney York, but this year, when the races have again been sailed in American waters, our boats were the victors by what appears to be a small margin. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Power Boat Association on Wednesday evening Commander Middleton, R.N., D.5.0., said, we had been very fortunate in this part of the world, as all past wars were fought on the other side. He believed the Navy was the best preventive of war, and thought it should be so strong that nobody would dare to attack. There was need for a branch of the Naval Reserve here, a branch of the Naval Reserve here, and he hoped it would soon be an accomplished fact. During the war yachtsmen, and motor boat men particularly, had played an important part in mine sweeping and other work. If the occasion arose again a local defence force could do good work in searching for mines, observation work, and examination service. The Commander raised a laugh when referring to the work done by the local men in looking after prisoners. Somewhat at a loss to know the cause of the merriment, Mr. Leyland came to the rescue and explained that they had been very good at looking after their war prisoners. They looked mostly "after" the prisoners had gone.

The latest report from the Marine Department to Parliament hints at some form of examination on the rule of the road and other subjects to be made compulsory for all owners of pleasure craft. Thia is only a suggestion, however, and, as it usually takes two or tliree years to frame such a measure and get it ou the Statute Book, we have yet time to combat it. The best way to do so is not by creating a fugs, but to so handle our craft and obey all rules and by-larws bearing on the subject so strictly that the necessity for drastic legislation will not exist. The long spell of quiet weather is likely to be followed shortly by a season of strong winds. On Sunday the sun rises and sets at exactly the same time, 5.45 o'clock, this being the winter equinox. Usually we get a long spell of windy weather after this, laeting more or* less up till the end of November. Boat crews who have got on well with their outside painting are fortunate, and quite a number are almost ready to be launched. The Insh yacht Saolrae was up on the Harbour Board's slip this week being painted below and above the waterline. She was launched on Thursday Jookinjr very spick and span. A new- foresail is being made locally for the yacht, and Captain Cr'Brien expects to start on his return journey to iielawLalnnii tie ez4#i auaweei, j