AT THE BOAT HARBOUR.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 539, 21 June 1909, Page 5

AT THE BOAT HARBOUR.

"THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH:" '/A surprisingly warm sun diluted by.tho violet • haze of a placid mid-winter's afternoon ,bathed in glad light tho Boat Harbour, at Clyde Quay. . The season was at ah end, but'not.the activity of the water-larks, who find such ' ineffable pleasure in pottering round thoir craft in paint-stained trousers and jerseys,; a parody of their former gaiety and triniuess. .A lad sculled a dinghy aimlessly in the middle distance, and an atom of humanity in a canvas coracle found delight in omubting his woad-slashed ancestors or a thousand years ago in the immediate foreground. On two, or three larger craft, all that,could be seen of the occupants was the round of their backs as they stooped to-tin-ker at something or. other in the "inwards" of their devious craft. ,Most of the larger yachts' were missed from their moorings— thoy-have gone to receive their four months' toilet that is to make them clean and beautiful for next season. A good many of' the "half-deckers" had been cajoled into roinaining afloat owing to tho extremely fine weather that has characterised the early .winter.; Most of the motor-launches aro still in water for the'same reason, and three or four chattered about ,the. Boat Harbour—sWift, uhgracbful, noisy craft, the vogue for which is a serious blow to tho acstheticisfn of aquatics. Twenty years ago 'Wellington could boast a fine flotilla of big "sailers" ; that could carry a cloud of canvas above and tons of lead bolow—the Florence, Isca, Thetis, Zarifa, Pet, and Jessie Logan among others. Thero are few of these vessels now, aud with the advance of the motor-launches thero aro likely to be fewer ten years henco. The big yacht interest has been a waning ono for a decade or more past, wounded to death by the lack of consideration afforded yachtsmen by the harbour authorities. The Boat Harbour at Clyde Quay : has induced a healthy revival in soa-borno pleasures', but the taste has changed. Tho motor-launch has come, to stay; so has the graceful centre-board dinghyarid the quaint pa tiki—pacy ' flat-bottomed craft that only draw an inch or two of water;, and oftimos snip more than they draw. They, too, are stiff oiied by centre-boards—it is theago of tho centre-board. The.gradual evolution that has been brought about in harbour pleasure craft is part and parcel of the "speed-mad" craze. In a moderate breeze a smart patiki would travel as fast as tho old' Florence of a quarter of a century ago, and.a motor-launch wonld traverse,the full course, twice' while the old yacht was making good time, round once. Still the old yachts-: men deride the change that has como about. Thoy talk of their cruises to Lyttclton and Napier, not to mention tho Sounds,-and Tom's Rock and the Karori Rock of Teniwhiti were as familiar to them' as is the buoy, off .Point Jorningham to the presentJay yachtsman. They are entitled to their boast, but it is no reflection on the waterlarks of to-day. Tho exhilaration of speed and "smartness", is ample compensation for the more serious voyages of the Vikings of Wellington Harbour twenty-five years ago. The Harbour Board has been wiso in appointing an officer as supervisor of tho Boat Harbour. This official, who keeps a registor of all boats that moor in tho harbour, is now getting out a complete plan of moorings, laid N out in such a manner as to provont confusion or inconvenience. Acts of "piracy" will 1)0 severely dealt with, and those. detected as,sneak-thieves will bo ."warned off" the Boat Harbour. Up - till - tho present no charge has been mado for mooring si boat, yacht; or launch in'the Boat Harbour, but a scale of charges for tho privilege is now beinpc devised by the Harbour Board. It will range from ss. a year upwards.