SCOUTS BUILD OWN YACHTS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28920, 13 June 1959, Page 11

SCOUTS BUILD OWN YACHTS

Competition Racing At Wellington “The Prm- Special Sfnrtee

WELLINGTON, June 12. The St. James’s Sea Scout group, of Lower Hutt, next summer will be the first group in New Zealand to race their own class of boat In competition amongst themaelvoe. By then, eight sea scouts ranging in age from 14 to 21 will have built their own boats. The sea scouts decided to . build the lift yaehts because there la not sufficient room in their beathouse to accommodate enough standard 17ft boats for all the scouts to sail regularly. The group chose the Aucklanddesigned Arrow class yacht as the boat best suited to their conditions. They amended the design slightly to make it more suitable for sailing around the mouth of the Hutt river, where the group has its boathouse.

The plywood boat la simple build. It has one sail and will take two boys comfortably. The timber for each boat costs about £2O and it costs another £2O to finish the hull and buy the sail. Each boat is being financed by one sea scout. It will be his responsibility to maintain the boat and when he leaves the group he will sell the boat to another scout In the group.

The St. James's group was a land scout group until four years ago. It started as a sea scout group with a small boathouse near the mouth of the Hutt river. Since then it has grown into one of the largest groups in the coun-. try.

The group’s biggest “do-it- . yourself’ project has been building its own 17ft standard-design boats, which are used by all New Zealand's sea scouts. So far as is known, the group is the only one in the country to have attempted this ambitious project The first boat took about a year to build, but twe which were built later took only about six months to complete. The older boys did the bulk of the work on all three boats, and there is now hardly a boy in the group over M who is not capable of at least repairtag a boat