REPAIRS TO YACHT HARD

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 117, 11 February 1941, Page 10

REPAIRS TO YACHT HARD

Work At Evans Bay

Repairs to the yacht hard at Evans Bay, eroded by the sea, are now in full progress. A large gang of harbour board workmen is replacing the damaged wooden retaining wall with ferro-concrete, which will make an excellent and permanent breastwork. During the past year the sea had gradually eaten out the clay and earth of the reclamation underneath the wooden retaining wall. The lower planks of the wall itself had been attacked by seaworm, and as a result the upper planks had been loosened. At the southern end, a gap several feet wide, and the full depth of the retaining- wall, had been eaten out of the reclamation by the sea. Every hard south-easterly accelerated this process of erosion. Repairs could not be undertaken while the hard was in use. Last winter more than a score of large boats, and numerous small craft, were laid up there, and in the spring, in addition to the work of getting these vessels back into the water, numerous others from the boat harbour and other centres required to be slipped for scrubbing and painting. The Evans Bay Yacht Club, which controls, the slipway, arranged that all those going into commission should be launched as early as possible, and those permanently laid up should be shifted back out of the way. However, it was not till early in the New Year that it became possible to have the hard more or less clear of yachts. During the last three weeks, a workshed has been established on the hard, a concrete mixer installed, and the old wooden breastwork torn away. The massive iron piles have been adapted to take the iron foundations and reinforcements of the new wall, and boxing put up to take the concrete. A diver was employed to carry out some of the foundation work at the foot of the wall.

Facilities for slipping and laying up boats at Wellington are limited; there are a number of private slipways at Balena Bay, and one or two for launches at Evans Bay; but the yacht hard since its construction a few years ago has become easily the most important centre for the overhaul of pleasure craft. It is the only place where it is convenient to haul up yachts for a long period. For this reason, considerable interest is being taken by yachtsmen in the repairs to the reclamation, which should make it better even than before.