OUT OF THE LOCKER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 639, 16 April 1929, Page 14

OUT OF THE LOCKER

Nine clubs will be represented in the Lipton Cup race to be run by the Ponsonby Cruising Club next Saturday. This cup was donated to the club by Sir Thomas Lipton, world-renowned yachtsman of America Cup fame. The event is for 22-foot mullet-boats. * • * An event for youths under 21 years of age will be staged by the Ponsonby Cruising Club next Saturday. This is the Hewson Memorial Cup race for class X boats. The members of the winning crew receive medals. * * * A meeting of the Auckland Yacht and Motor-Boat Association will be held at the Royal N.Z. Yacht Squadron’s club rooms in Endean’s Buildings next Tuesday. * * * Most yachts and launches on both Waitemata and Manukau Harbours remained at their moorings over alst week-end. The weather conditions were too forbidding for week-end trips and practically the only boats to leave either harbour were those engaged in cruising races to Matiatia Bay. * * * Messrs. Collings and Bell, of Ponsonby, are engaged in building a cruising launch for Mr. L. Stericker, owner of the well-known outboard speed boat Humbug. This craft has an overall length of 37 feet, and a beam of nine feet six inches. A six-cylin-der Universal engine of the reduction gear tvpe is in the process of being installed. The reduction gear renders the engine capable of coping effectively with a larger propeller. The boat will be served with electric light throughout, and will be fitted with lockers, wardrobes, etc., and all other conveniences and fixtures of the latest type. She is to be the last word in cruising comfort. Above, she is to have a bridge-deck which will be both useful and ornamental. Deck work is going on at present. Shortage of liauling-out space will be a troublesome factor for Waitemata launch and yacht owners to contend with this winter. Conditions will be no worse than last winter, but there is little consolation in that. It is generally recognised that matters will not improve until the Harbour Board has completed the boat harbour in St. Mary’s Bay. a * * On Saturday' next the Manukau Yacht a.ryd Motor-Boat Club will hold a re-sail of the race it staged on Saturday, April 6. The Waitemata's yachting season will be officially closed on Saturday. April 27, when all clubs will take part j in combined races under the auspices of the Auckland Yacht and Motor - i Boat Association.

An “outboard” afternoon will be staged by the Akarana Yacht Club at an early date. There will be three races, and the Maud Challenge Shield will be competed for. Record entries are anticipated. A meeting of the club will be held to-night to decide on a date for this event. At the conclusion of the cruising race for keelers to Matiatia Bay last Saturday the majority of the boats left for other week-end quarters. The only boats in the bay over the weekend were Windward, lorangi, Kotiri, Scout, Rangi and Victory, the lastnamed arriving later, not having participated in the race. During the course of the event Ariki withdrew at North Head, and made down channel. Thelma also abandoned the race at abdut Bean Rock —she then headed away outside the beacon. Nga-Toa, after finishing, went to Putiki. With a moderate west-sou’-west breeze, the boats had a good sail home on Sunday. Most of them left Matiatia after lunch and were at their moorings before dark.