NEW YACHT LAUNCHED IN AUCKLAND

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25995, 24 December 1949, Page 9

NEW YACHT LAUNCHED IN AUCKLAND

•‘T'he Press' Snectai Service AUCKLAND, Dec. 23. One of the largest yachts in Auckland has been launched. She is the international square-metre boat Erewhon, designed by her owner, Mr G. F. Canavan, and built by Mr Colin Wild, of Stanley Bay. The Erewhon is' shorter on the waterline than the Ranger, but in all other respects is larger. The new boat’s principal measurements. with those of the Ranger in parenthesis, &re: over-all length, 66ft (60ft); waterline, 44ft (45ft); beam, lift 6in (10ft); draught, 7ft (7ft 6in): boom, 24ft (22ft); mast, 78ft (71ft). Bermuda-rigged, the Erewhon has a mainsail of about 770 square feet, the luff of the sail measuring 68ft. The Ranger has 990 square feet of canvas in her mainsail and foresail. Mr Canavan said he had no immediate plans for sailing the craft. He was pleased with the look of the boat in the water and was looking forward to the day when, with his wife and three small daughters, he could sail the Erewhon about tne gulf. There was no thought of converting hep into a racing machine. Mr Canavan is a former officer of the Royal Air Force who returned to New Zealand in 1939 after 10 years' service. During the war, he was officer-in-command of the base at Mechanics’ Bay. He farms a property near Dargaville.