YACHTING NEWS

Evening Star, Issue 23174, 25 January 1939, Page 4

YACHTING NEWS

[By Spinnaker.] FIXTURES. January 28. Port Chalmers Club February 4.—St, Leonards regatta. February s.—Combined picnic. February 11.—Port Chalmers Club races. February 18. Ravensbourne regatta. February 25.—Port Chalmers Club races; Ravensbourne Club, Ross Cup. NO MASPORT CUP RACE. There will be no Masport Cup race for the New Zealand powerboat championship at Picton on Anniversary Day, according to advice received by Mr R. Moult, Wellington, part owner, of the speedboat Taubman 111. His was the only entry for the race, and it was received too late. A meeting of the Masport Cup Committee will be held early this week, when it may decide to hold the contest later in the year. YACHTSMEN’S DICTIONARY. Flaw.—When the wind shifts suddenly. Floor.—Strengthening timbers inside on the keel. ' Flush Level.—A flush-decked yacht is one without a cabin-top or any. raised structure. Flukes.—The flat piece at end of the arm of an anchor which bites into the ground. A Sudden change in the wind. Foul.—Not clear, obstructed, as foul ground, does not make good holding. Foul berth, anchored in the way of another vessel. Foul anchor, with turns of rope or chain round it. Foul wind, one dead ahead. Foul tide, against your, course. To foul anything, to hit it accidentally or otherwise. Found.—A yacht is well found when she has ample gear, sails, ground tackle, etc. Fore-foot.—The timber at the fore end of the keel to which the stem is fitted. Fore. —The forward part of the vessel, as the forecastle, under the forward deck. Foreguy, a rope, made fast to a boom, _ leading forward. A foresail, a staysail, forestay on forward side of mast. Foreshore, the near part of the beach or land. Frame. —The part of a vessel in construction to which the planking is fastened. Before being planked she is said to be in frame.

Frapping.—To frap the hailliards is to wrap one round the mast several times to prevent them slatting against it in a breeze.

•1938 CUP REPRESENTATIVES. To correspondent: The competitors in the Sanders Cup series last year were —Auckland, Aileen; Wellington, Kitty; Canterbury, Manihi; Otago, Eileen; and Southland, Lavina. EARLY DAYS AT BLUFF YACHTING IN HALCYON PERIOD It is a unique experience to have been identified with yachting for over half a century, and still be actively associated with the sport. Such an experience belongs to Mr 0. E. Johnston, of Bluff (states the ‘ Southland News ’). The tale he has to tell is of beautiful oldtime keel yachts and modern 14-footers, of great and thrilling sailing contests and stark and terrible tragedies, of the intricacies of boat building, and the mystery surrounding the fate of them and their sailers. It was his good fortune to have worked under two shipwrights of the early days, whose creations have become almost legendary around southern waters. He remembers those old boat builders, one of whom was “ Scoots ” Andersen. Carried away with enthusiasm when he saw a boat scudding along before the breeze, Andersen’s favourite expression was; “ Vatch how she skootsl ” So his friends named him, unofficially, “ Scoots.” He was a Norwegian, and among his creations were Rangipouri and Unknown. Keel yachts were these, with centreboards as well—Yankee type one-masters. Rangipouri was an extraordinary boat in moderate weather. She won every race she competed in. There is an interesting incident in connection with the naming of the Unknown. Frank Parsons had her built, and before he had selected a suitable name for her, he took her to (Riverton regatta. The (Riverton people had a suspicion that the stranger was Rangipouri in disguise, rung in to evade the handicap. They were wrong, .but their surmises supplied the name for the new yacht—for the unknown one. That was 40-odd years ago, and the Unknown’s skipper was the late Dick Dixon, one of the original founders.^ “ Scoots ” Andersen afterwards disappeared in mysterious circumstances. He put to sea from the 'Black Beach in a small boat, and his Bluff friends never saw him again. There were two theories of his disappearance at the time. One was originated by the fact that Scoots had spent _ his last night in Bluff, on a jollification on board a ship of his own country, and there were

those who maintained that be had put to sea to board this ship when she sailed through the straits. But months later the stem of his boat with tha painter ring-bolt, was found. Attached to the ring-bolt was a length of painter, cleanly cut off short as with a sharp knife. Now, Scoots had a habit of going out fishing for sharks at tha back of Ocean Beach. He had what experienced boatmen regarded as a bad habit of securing his shark hook to the boat’s painter. It is, surmised that he hooked a “ whopper,” too big to land single-handed, so he went forward to cut the painter, and in doing so upset the boat. Whatever his fate, “ Scoots ” was never again seen.

Both he and M'Aloney, who was also a notable builder of sailing boats, were fine craftsmen, boatbuilders. blacksmiths, and, it might also be said, engineers. Ollie Johnston recalls that ia his useful days he was building his first dinghy, and had just got two planks fitted after much trouble, “ Scoots,” attracted, by the hammering, looked in on the young boatbuilder, Ollie was startled to see mm grab an axe and knock out the planks he had just so laboriously fitted m place. Then the old expert set to work to show him how they should be fitted. . . . After that Ollie had no more troube in tilting garboard planks to his dinghies. About half a century ago the Maori Girl, an old-time yacht, was associated with one of tee most terrible tragedies that ever cast a gloom over the port of Bluff. One Easter Sunday she set out on a shooting expedition up tha arm, bearing as a happy crew hen owner (Jack Wilson) and Andrew; King, Pleasance M’Kenzie, and Evan M’Quarrie., Not one of them returned alive, and what. happened is just conjecture. The boat was later found upside down, and the're were evidences that an attempt had been made to cut the rigging. Around this catastrophe centred an amazing story of supernatural phenomena. A youth who lay on his deathbed in the port is said to have described in detail the last struggles of the unfortunate men in their terrible predicament in his last delirium. . All the bodies were subsequently found. , Pleasance, who had on a previous occasion been IT. hours in the water in a shipwreck, was found where he had crawled 10ft above highwater mark. There'was ■a. fearful bruise across his forehead, and he had succumbed to exhaustion. The causa of the tragedy must ever remain a mystery, but one explanation seems reasonable. In those days yachtsmen frequenting the arm inaulged in tba sport or sailing down nuge mobs o£ swans, it is surmised trie men were intent on tuis sport and were not watening wnere tney were going, and pussioly the boat jibed. Sir Joseph Ward, although be took on rowing in his younger days, was not a sailor, but nevertheless be was an enthusiastic supporter of oM-tima yachting in Bluli Harbour. After the halcyon days ot yachting the sport disappeared trom tne waters ot Soutnland until revived by the Bluff Regatta Committee a few years ago Ollie Johnston was so pleased at'this revival that he presented the O. E. Johnston Cup, which was won outright by Vic. Bragg, skipper of the Vorena for the Sanders Cup contest this year. Mr Johnston is a veritable mine of information on the history of yachting on the Bluff Harbour, and these somewhat scrappy, reminiscences must not be taken as tha sum total of his store of knowledge, nor are they set down in chronological order. They are written with the idea of letting the younger generation of Southlanders see long years before their time yachting—strenuous yachting—and mighty good sailor boys I existed in Southland.