Crews Busy Refitting

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1076, 13 September 1930, Page 29

Crews Busy Refitting

YACHT SEASON APPROACHES Pleasure Craft on The Hard HOW completely boating—and that includes yachts, launches, and those bright little speed merchants, the outboards—is a sport of amateurs in this country can be seen excellently by a visit to any part of the Waitemata or Manukau foreshore at the present time. Hard at it with blowlamp, scraper and paintbrush, scores of young men with a sprinkling of the old hands are busily engaged in making the spring refit of the craft in readiness for the coming summer season. The work is going merrily along in capable amateur hands, and very good they are at it, too.

With pleasurable memories of that leisurely cruise, or that hard-fought, race last season, aquatic men are putting their boats in fine trim to spring surprises on old rivals or to get the most out of hulls that have spilled many a sea mile astern when sailing or purring away on the easy foampaved road to anywhere. Beside the hauling-out sites, slipways and beach cradles adjoining every clubhouse and sheltered nooks in every inlet on the harbour front accommodate their quota of pleasure craft in various stages of overhaul. Work this winter has been retarded somewhat owing to unfavourable weather conditions where boats lie exposed to the elements, but those owners who are fortunate enough to possess boathouses are more forward .with the refit. Up till the last Saturday or so winter sports have kept the younger generation of yachtsmen occupied so that work has not been very far advanced. Football is easing up, however, and the crews are getting to the job of effacing the salt spray of last season in preparation tor launching shining new hulls for the season which is now not much more than two months off. Given a month of reasonably fine weather, yachtsmen and those who go

to sea in power craft will be ready for the grand parade on opening day. This will take place as usual about the middle of November. Many boats, however, are down three weeks or a month before the official opening, depending of course on the size of the craft and the amount of time the crew has to give to the long job of over haul. And what are the season’s prospects? As with most other sports and pastimes one season is very much like another on the water. Practically all existing craft will feel the tide again, for once the tang of the sea has got in a man’s blood it takes something pretty much out of the ordinary to keep him on the land even for one summer. Some there are, and it is necessarily so, for one reason and ao other who will not be afloat this time blit they are more than offset by the coming of budding yachtsmen and others who prefer power, who add tc the numbers steadily as a natural re suit of the increase in population. AT though class racing in the small boat divisions has tailed off during the past four or five seasons and cruiser racing is about as dead as the dodo, all that does not imply that fewer persons are going afloat as the years advance. On the contrary, those who are best qualified to give an opinion say defin itely that there are more spending their summer leisure hours on the waters of the harbour and the Hauraki Gulf than ever before, bul they are taking to cruising rather than racing. Tt is reported that several new boats are building or are on order, the various builders being fairly active in preparation for the 1930-31 season. Some amateurs are laying down small boats, of which there are always several welcome additions each year. In the yards of the professional builders, launches are out and away more numerous than sailing craft, the proportion being anything from four or six power craft to one yacht. Quite a list of boats, mostly of the smaller divisions, are said to have changed hands, and as is customary at this time of the year inquiries are being made for boats, this being the time to sell—or buy. A few years ago open or half-decked boat racing attracted splendid fields, no fewer than 30 Y class 14-footers lining up for important races; there was keenness in the Jellicoe class also, hut for some reason the lads gradually grew less inclined to turn out. But last season there came a welcome revival, though small boat racing was even then not what it should be. The boys in their teens, however, are very active in the Takapuna class punts on both harbours, and an even more diminutive class —the Tauranga sevenfooters —has sprung up with mushroom growth. This class is for boys who are just beginning to learn the ropes, and serves a very useful function which meets with the approbation of qualified boating men. 11l the V aud S classes more activity was demonstrated last season than for some years. F.vidence of a revival was seen clearly at the Northcote-Birkenhead regatta, which drew a record entry, the class?* mentioned being prominent.

All the large keel yachts are expected to take the water again in the coming season. The A and B classes, and the smaller keel divisions tor that matter, remain stabilised in a regular racing fleet. New' craft have not come along for a few years now, but on the other hand there have been no serious defections. The cost of building yachts has proved a bar to enterprise, and the financial stringency has not made for embarkation upon large pleasure yachts. Still, the sport goes on happily and yachting is holding its own in the affections of the people of Auckland. And now the power division. It is unlikely that cruiser racing will show any more popularity this season than last because the majority of owners prefer cruising at leisure rather than trundling round a harbour course. Something more might be done to stimulate cruising races to a destination in one of the popular resorts about the Gulf, but it is abundantly certain that launchmen are not going to waste a Saturday afternoon within harbour limits. There is one section of the power arm, however, that is going ahead literally by leaps and bounds, and that is the outboard section. During the last four years no department of aquatics has made greater progress than the zippy outboard. The reason for the immediate popularity of these “skimming saucers’' is the comparative cheapness of operation and of initial outlay. True some of the more powerful models capable of bumming 35 miles an hour or more can hardly

be called inexpensive, yet the majority of motors used in the lighter divisions and for runabouts are not costly when the speed and general utility are considered. Outboards are just the thing for the man who wants speed and thrills, or for him who is content to run about the harbour at a comfortable mileage. Like aircraft, these quaint little hulls have been showing some remarkable speed performances since they began to invade Auckland Harbour tracks. Each season sees the importation of i higher-powered engines and the couple i of horse power of four or five years j ago has given place to 30 or more | horse power. New designs are being j experimented with in an endeavour to ! evolve yet faster boats. Many amateurs construct their own hulls, some curious and original designs being thought out. Some really efficient engines have appeared on the market, and the diversity of types gives a range suitable for the man who owns a boat for lake or harbour fishing, for the kiddies to drive their dinghy at six or seven knots, or for the man wno wears the crash helmet and slithers over calm water at more than 40. To say the least, the sport of outboard racing is exhilarating. To drive a cockleshell at over 30 miles an hour demands the balance of a jockey with the coolness of an airman. When the dashing little craft hit a small wave they leap like a hooked swordfish. The most precarious moment is at the turn of a mark—as many of our drivers are well aware. There are many excellent makes of outboard motors on the market, and all are reliable for cruising. It is only at -the very high speeds that such engines are known to become refractory. But as knowledge is gained by experience, the makers are able to improve their manufactures so that today outboard motors will stand a lot of rough usage. Outboard marathon races are staged regularly in the United States and in Great Britain, and 50-mile contests are thought nothing of. Reliability trials often result in remarkable performances, and a 200-mile race held recently in the States was an eye-opener as regards the staying capabilities of the speeders. There were 55 entrants and the winner attained an average speed of 33£ miles an hour. At present the world’s speed record, which is round about the 50-mile an hour mark, is held in the United States. New speeds are being put up in all divisions by professional drivers running for engine companies or for moneyed enthusiasts. It is not improbable that the 60-mile point will be topped (if it has not already been achieved) in the near future. Something new which provides all the thrill of aircraft with the safety of one toe oil the ground has been built in America. Someone with a flair for the novel conceived the idea of fitting wings to an outboard hull of peculiar design. The pilot works the motor from his seat between the wings and by an ordinary joystick can lift the hull clear of the surface with the propeller alone itnmerse'd. The whole contraption rises after a run of about

100 feet and skims along like a dragonfly. Outboard motors have been frowned upon by residents living near the harbour. The noise of the exhausts is not restful, and local bodies have been moved to take action. Realising that complaints are not without justification engine makers have been giving attention to the problem. As a result new engines are being fitted with under-water exhausts, which to a large extent removes the ear-torturing bark, replacing it by a drone not unlike that of an airplane motor.