WANDERER, EX COLMA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 237, 7 October 1933, Page 13

WANDERER, EX COLMA.

The boat now known as the Wanderer was originally named Colma. She is 38ft overall, 27ft waterline, 10ft 4in beam, and sft draught. Colma was built by Mr. R. Neilson at Kawhia, on the West Coast, in 1911. Early in January, 1912, her crew, Messrs. R. and J. Neilson, sons of her builder, and Mr. J. Pollock, decided to sail the yacht round the North Cape to Auckland to compete in the Anniversary Regatta of January 29, 1912.

With her crew of three, Colma left Kawhia on January 7. She had a steady sou'-west breeze up the west coast and got it a bit rough passing Cape Maria Van Dicmcn, after which she was becalmed all one day and later put into Mangonui, where a full day was spent. A fresh sou'easter was met with on her way down to Auckland, where she arrived at 5 p.m. on January 14, only seven days from Kawhia, including one day of calm and another in port, so that it was a fairly smart passage of almost 500 miles in five days.

When Colma arrived she was rigged as a yawl, but she was altered to cutter rig and a new suit of sails bent in time for regatta day. Colma spent the rest of the season here, and, in fact, her crew hauled her up in Judge's Bay for the winter and returned home, coming back for the next yachting season. This they did for several seasons until the war, when both Messrs. Nielson and Pollock volunteered, only one returning alive. The yacht was then sailed down to Wellington and sold there, being renamed Wanderer. After a varied career she returned to Auckland, where she has been engaged in the fishing industry for a number of years. The hull of this boat is now hauled up at Port Charles, near Cape Colville. She came ashore and lost her lead, and received other damage, but is reported to bo not past repairing.