SAIL AND POWER

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18890, 15 October 1929, Page 4

SAIL AND POWER

By

“ STEM.”

OPENING DAY. The biggest and brightest - opening day for many years should be that of the Christchurch Sailing and Power Boat Club next Saturday. Not only will the club’s own fleet be at almost full strength, but the Canterbury Outboard Motor Boat Club are joining in the opening and promise to have at least ten speed boats on the water; the Pleasant Point Yacht and Boat Club are coming down thd river at full strength; the Waimakariri Power Boat Club are sending two of their speed merchants to stir the estuary, and the Brighton Power Boat Club, whose members open their season at 2 p.m., will be down to join in the racing. The official opening will be performed by the president, Colonel H. S. Hobday, at 2.30 p.m. An exceedingly spectacular aquatic carnival should follow. The Commodore, Mr Errol Smith, has arrangements well in hand and the social committee have not been idle. The club house is well cleaned out and will be duly garnished. Afternoon tea will be provided in a marquee erected in Mr C. Monck’s property opposite the club house. A pontoon for the convenience of the outboarders was brought down to the club’s jetty by Seagoer on Sunday. Dark Town dinghy crews will provide amusement. Open races, with prizes in cash and in kind, are scheduled for yachts, outooard motor boats, launches and sculling and rowing dinghies. The course for yacht races will be from the jetty north to a stake in the middle channel and return. All yachts are warned off the jetty. The larger ones are shifting from their moorings to leave the centre of the home channel clear and all skippers who have anchors are advised to moor on them at the side of the channel until the speedboat races are over. The usual dance will be held in the evening and the annual picnic on the sandhills the following day.

PLEASANT POINT CLUB. Now firmly established, enjoying a satisfactory financial position, an adequate clubhouse and accommodation for boats, and udlimited room to ex pand, the Pleasant Point Yacht and Boat Club seems assured of a rosy future. The club have acquired an ideal situation on Rat Island just below the South Brighton, bridge. The land is held under a fourteen years’ lease from the Marine Department with the right of renewal. They are not straitened for lack of ability to expand, as is the case with some other clubs, and besides their already good mooring area, the club intend, when funds are ayailable, to dredge out the channel on the south side of the island forming a commodious and well-protected anchorage. The club house, which was put up by a working bee last year, has been well looked after and improved during the winter and twenty new lockers installed. A new sign, flagpole and pennant are to go up shortly and the mooring area in front of the slipway is to be laid out in three ranks. A hefty pontoon floats in front of the staging, to which it is connected by “ floating ’’ steps. A new slipway, with rails and a trolley, to connect with a long grid at the rear of the shed, is in course of construction. Magpie Transformed. The Pleasant Point Club’s fleet is growing rapidly. The Jellicoe class 14looter Magpie has been brought up from Lyttelton under the ownership of H. G. Ostler and T. Dodd and rechristened Valmai—the name under which she was originally launched by Miller’s, at Port Chalmers. Valmai has been thoroughly reconditioned. New gunmetal bracings have been placed round the centrecase and a new bowsprit and bobstay fitted. New running gear and a new spinnaker to arrive later in the season will make her a very desirable little packet. Valmai is resplendent in kingfisher blue, so that she looks, at a casual glance, much like Colleen.

The 18-footer, Iluia, which L. Hyde purchased from H. Farr at the end of last season, has left Pleasant Point for Lyttelton.

Three new Takapuna type yachts will bring the club’s strength up to four in the 12ft 6in class. In addition to R. M’Clymont’s Scamp, there are Question, Answer and one which J. 11. Wood has nearly completed. Two or three other members intend building small yachts. 11. G. Ostler’s launch Pinakau is coming round from Lyttelton shortly. Opening day, the club’s first official opening, is fixed for Labour Day, Mr A. F. Stacey probably to perform the ceremony. Outboard motor boat and yacht races will be features of the afternoon. The Waimakariri Power Boat Club intend to be represented by their speedboats. Trophies. A very prosperous season seems to be ahead of this club. As an encouragement to racing Mr H. G. Ostler has donated a perpetual challenge cup, open handicap races for which will commence on November 2, and also two medals for a long distance to be held later in the season, probably over a course to Shag Rock and return. CHRISTCHURCH* CLUB NOTES. A great many changes will be noticed in the Christchurch Sailing and Power Boat Club’s fleet this season. For better or worse, they mean the departure of several good yachtsmen for Lyttelton, where they can find better sailing water than the mud-banked Estuary. Unless some of the younger and untried members blossom out this year as racing sailors, the club’s competitive activities will suffer a further decline. Several members have left Redcliffs because their ambitions and their pockets has expanded to larger craft than can be handled “inside.” Others have gone with smaller craft, and with reluctance, owing to the comparative inaccesibility of the Port. In view of the great improbability of the Estuary ever improving, and of the increasing uncertainty of conditions on the Sumner bar, there is only one step the Christchurch Club can take to secure a successful future —that is, move out to Scarborough Bay. If the club could develop’ the life which some much ybunger and numerically weaker clubs in Canterbury are showing, this move could be made without difficulty. The co-operation of the local body interested ought to be easily obtained, especially if they were made to appreciate the value of a good yacht harbour as an attraction to seaside holiday makers. The club has had, and still has “stem” believes, the offer of material to form a breakwater. The suitability of Scarborough Bay for building protective works is shown by the durability of the works' at Bell’s baths. The longer a forward move is delayed the harder it becomes to make. Round the Fleet. R. Beveridge has parted with his sailing dinghy Rita, and has acquired the famous Takapuna punt Gadfly, which he has not yet finished fitting out. With W. Maugher’s Sunray, the club now has

ally from the aspect of inter-club competition, that tr.ere are not more. The twelve-footer Q-T, ex Marguerite, has passed from G. Cotton to L. King, who has renamed her Falcon. Falcon has been in commission almost all winter.

Secret, Fidget and Ngaire (W. Gray), came down the river on Sunday afternoon. Secret, as usual, is in tip-top order. Fred Morrison may take the veteran contender for Sanders Cup honours to Lyttelton, at least for a few races, to have some competition with yachts of her own class. Eric Morrison has Fidget in resplendent condition, and will certainly be one of the hardest B clas skippers to catch. Eureka looks young again in freshlyconditioned white topsides and green decks. A. Penn has been sailing her regularly for some time past. J. D. M’CoU has purchased the launch Kiwi.

Possum, now in her second season, is a picture of a boat with white hull, black topsides and light blue decks. lan Treleaven and George Andrews were out for a spin in her during the weekend, while R. G. Hampton was putting some pretty touches on Alerte, .and R. W. Gormack was fitting out Naomi. Cordelia is still high and dry in Newberry’s yard. She does not look in such good condition as when she passed out of Ben Brown’s hands at the beginning of last season.

i W. Ayling has installed a new centrecase in Seagull, and put in S4|pe useful work staking channels. Among the keelers which will ere long be leaving for open water, Sea Kid (A. T. Round) is still under the paintbrush, and Seagoer (H. Coppen) has some minor refitting to do. C. E. Allen and F. Grant are still busy on Reverie, which they purchased in Lyttelton during the winter. Dr Chesson, it will be remembered, was the first owner of this fine yacht, H. Farr and his crew have been putting a lot of work into Sea Queen. A new 10 h.p. four-cylinder auxiliary has. been installed.

OUT BOARD CLUB. The Canterbury Outboard Motor Boat Club promise to follow up a phenomenally successful first season with another year of solid .progress. Although the club at present have no active headquarters . of their own, employing Smith’s. shed, which has been taken over by Royds Motors, this seems to be no impediment to the growth of the sport. Several cruisers and a greater number racing hulls are completed or under construction. A new jetty, with rails and trolley, extending from low-water mark into the interior of. the shed, is being built b.y Mr J. Newberry. BRIGHTON CLUB. The most interesting event at the Brighton Power Boat Club is the completion of an 18ft run-about by W. S. Moorhouse. The builder has made a very thorough job of her and has installed a 16 horse-power engine. She will be launched shortly. C. Butcher has acquired a new power plant for Waitea, and P. Friedman has fitted a new Thorneycroft tractor engine in his cruiser Roamer. Weather permitting, five launches from the club will travel down to the Christchurch Club’s opening. AT LYTTELTON. Yachting is very quiet at Lyttelton, the Canterbury Yacht and Motor Boat Club having no new craft. A number of Redcliffs men have joined up. and the mooring accommodation in the boat harbour has been considerably increased on that account. C- Gladstone has disposed of tfie Reverie and, in partnership with R. Candy, is locking for another seagoing yacht at Wellington. m Except for Gadfly, gone to* the Estuary, the Takapuna fleet is at full strength and will probably again be the club’s only strong activity. STATE OF THE ESTUARY. The sailing waters of the Estuary seem to be more thoroughly congested with mud than ever. It is reported to be impossible to take any size of a yacht past the tripod on account of shoaling. Launches from the Brighton Power Boat Club, to get to Redcliffs, have to go down to Shag Rock and come up past the rowing sheds. Yachtsmen at the Pleasant Point Club state that marked shoaling has taken place in the channel. In their opinion the Drainage Board’s riversweeper is entirely to blame. At Redcliffs, the filling in of the home channel, which was noticeable last season, has gone on, as “Stem” was forcibly made aware of when he attempted to sail a punt through a bank just above the rowing sheds, where there should have been a fair depth of water—taking the shine off the first spin of the season. Members of the various river clubs have done a good deal of staking lately, but a new map of the Estuary is badly needed. The Brighton Club some time ago adopted the expedient of cutting a stencil and supplying members with rough copies of the resulting sketch of the channels. But a new and accurate map ought to be made soon In these days of aerial surveys and aero clubs it might be possible to obtain and print copies of a low-tide photograph of the Estuary. REVIVAL AT AKAROA. The Takapuna punt event at Akaroa during the Sanders Cup week, attracted a good deal of attention, and since then several of the craft have made their appearance there. The first Takapuna punt to be launched was the Rascal, owned by G. Le Lievre and A. Hemingway. T. Petterson’s T sabel and W. Everett’s Unia, are not built m the same class, but are light draught dinghys and have about the same measurements. Recently the Frolic, M. Davidson’s fine new Takapuna, was launched at Daly’s Wharf, when there was a large gathering of over IUU f n * thusiasts to witness her take the water (states the Akaroa correspondent ot the “Star”). . The Mayor, Mr G. Armstrong, speaking at the launching ceremony said that the Sanders Cup contest at Akaroa had been instrumentalm making the local boys take the opportunity of using such a fine harbour as they had. He hoped a new era was beginning, when the old saxhng enthusiasni thanked^*Mr Cyril"' the builder to urejns £* boat was budt during wmi ( he also thanked Mr buiJ , Jin the assistance he |» andard mode , Jui f t The Frolic light timbers, and 1 should do well on