TAKAPUNA ONE DESIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19215, 2 January 1926, Page 11

TAKAPUNA ONE DESIGN.

DEFENCE BY COMMODORE. BEST PROPOSITION FOR BOYS. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] DUNEDIN, Thursday. A statement made by several delegates at the last meeting of the Otago Yacht and Motor-Beat Association to the effect that the Takapuaa Boating Club's onedesign boats "are mere coffins in Otago" has aroused the ire of Mr. 0. MoJJer,. commodore of the Takapuna Club. Mr. Moller, who is an old Otago yachtsman,, takes the two men who made the statement severely to task in a letter to a Dunedin resident under date December 6. The letter speaks for itself: — " I have read a telegraphed report of the statements made at a meeting of the Otago Yacht and Motor-Boat Association, and as an old Otago yachtsman I ask what is wrong with the boy yachtsman in Dunedin when the powers that be aro afraid of the lads sailing in a 12ft. Gin. boat? In the first of the season's races sailed by the Takapuna Club the winner was a 12ft. 6in. boat, as was also the third boat to finish. Both boats were sailed by youths of 17, and the craft proved to bo just as safe and were considerably drier than the larger boats. That this class of boat is strange to Dunedin waters is no reason for such hasty condemnation on the part of men who have not perhaps seen the boats in rough water. They behave as well as any 14footer, and I fee. sure the Otago boys, once they understand this class, will prov© just as "adept at handling them as the Auckland boys. " During last season's racing not a local boy capsized his boat. That cannot be said of the 14-footers. The Takapuna one-desigp class, we maintain, i:s the best boys' boat at the price, £27, built in Ne>v Zealand, and after seven years' test has proved the training ground for many expert yachtsmen now sailing in the big boats on the Waitemata. The CornwelJ Cup donated for this class will do much, wo think, to encourage expert handling of boats, ai:d, as each crew changes boats in each heat, it has eliminated juggling by builders in an attempt to make a faster boat. _ " Notwithstanding the hasty opinions expressed by some members of the Otago Yacht and Motor-Boat Association, I feel sure the future will prove to them that as a boys' boat the Takapuna 12ft. 6in.. one-design is the safest and cheapest proposition yet constructed for boys to keep for the thrill of holding a tiller all their own."