OUT OF THE LOCKER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 704, 2 July 1929, Page 14

OUT OF THE LOCKER

Mr. J. Platt, of Bayswater, is building a new 14-footer of the T class. He has got as far as planking up his new craft, which will be a welcome addition to the fleet.

Air. S. Kean, of Parnell, a wellknown member of the Akarana Yacht Club, lias placed an order with Air. J. Slattery, of Judge’s Bay, for a new 30ft. launch. Building has begun and the vessel will be ready to take the water in October.

Air. Alfred Bell, who was once in partnership with Air. Collings, is now building a 30ft launch for himself. The boat will be about Sft Gin beam and promises to be a neat-looking craft. It will have a disguised V-bottom. To assist in the relief of sufferers in the recent earthquakes the Akarana Yacht Club is to hold a special dance in the clubhouse, Campbell’s Point, on the evening of Wednesday, July 10. This effort should commend itself to all yachtsmen. The usual free bus will leave Endean’s Buildings at 7.30.

The Richmond Cruising Club’s annual prize giving and dance will be held this evening in the Ponsonby Hall, Ponsonby Road. The commodore, Air. T. L. Thompson, asks winners of the club’s races and, indeed, all yachtsmen to come along for an enjoyable evening.

Collings and Bell are shortly to commence work on a 40ft launch for Air. AI. Steele, the well-known tourist launch proprietor of Picton. The craft will be a roomy ship and a cockpit is planned right forward and a big one aft. The motor will be put in by Air. Steele at Picton.

Alessrs. Collings and Bell, of St. Marv’s Bay, are well ahead with a new launch for Mr. Charles Goldsbro’, the Rev. Jasper Calder and others. The boat will be 37ft long, with a beam of 9ft 4in. She will be not unlike Mr. L. Stericker’s new launch and will be a round bilge hull. The power is to be 40 h.p. Mr. C. J. Collings says his firm is building the hull and Air. Goldsbro’ will instal the engine.

Cold and squally weather has not deterred Air. L. Stericker in his resolve to embark on a series of winter cruises in his new launch Rautangi, not long down from Collings and Bell’s boatyards. He has made a number of short trips about the harbour and gulf, generally taking a few friends with him. He has not abandoned outboard racing, by which he first became known. in aquatics^

Air. Leo Bouzaid, the popular member of the Manukau Cruising Club, sold his 20ft mullet boat AV aiapu on Saturday for a three-figure sum o Mr. L. French, of Point Chevalier. The boat will be taken out on the next high tide and transferred to the Waitemata. Waiapu will be welcome on this side and it is understood her new owner is on the trail of AYmifred and the rest of the N’s. Air. Bouzaid has relinquished the tiller in order to give more time to sailmaking for John Burns and Co., Ltd., of whose sail loft he is manager. ♦ * •

The Otago Yacht and Motor-Boat. Association is of the opinion that u is unfair that the Russell Regatta Committee should have a monopoly or the New Zealand Outboard MotorBoat championships annually held m the North. The Southern association asked the Auckland Y.M.B.A. at its meeting on Tuesday for support m an endeavour to have the championships held in the centres which sent the winning speeders. The request seems reasonable, and after all his universal precedent. Auckland has referred the matter to the Russell committee. * * •

Jellicoe class enthusiasts are already beginning to talk about the 1930 Sanders Cup contest and the place where it is to be held this time. There is a strong desire that the contest should on this occasion be conducted on the Waitemata. Of course Auckland, having won the trophy, has the right to select the venue, and those who have the future of the races at heart think it is high time the cup should be again sailed for here, if only to rouse the flagging interest only too apparent during the last three years. The promoters of the contest propose to press for the holding of the trials much earlier this year, so avoiding the fuss which characterised the belated test races held round about Christmas time in 1929. * • •

It is to be hoped that the last has been heard of the dispute concerning Rule 3 of the Sanders and Cornwell Cup rules, which has divided yachting in New Zealand into two camps for the last couple of years. The Otago . Yacht and Motor-Boat Association as a last resort asked the Auckland association at its meeting on Tuesday to forward an interpretation of the rule, which states: “No boat shall be interfered with.” The chairman, Mr. O. Moller, who has long and patiently battled for the retention of the regulation, said the aquatic lawyers who framed the contest rules expressly added the rule in dispute to the Yacht Racing Association’s ordinary racing rules to provide for happenings not contemplated by the Y.R.A. and not met with in general racing. Mr. Aloller pointed out that both contests were really test matches and it was unfair that a boat put out of a race through no fault of its crew should be jeopardised in the final issue. Otago will be informed finally of this intention of -the yachting legislators. It seems that there is a ten-to-one chance of the rule ever being deleted.

MODEL YACHTING WORLD Air. H. Jackson, the well known model yachting enthusiast, writes: “I have often been taken to task for sticking to handicap model yacht racing. Appeals to build and race a onedesign or class model have proved of no avail. I contend, in Auckland today, there is no inducement to build a model other than what owners think best. The idea of racing these models is to do away with handicapping—a desirable feature, no doubt, and one that would be successful in relation to international, inter-State, or inter-club racing. To apply it to club racing would be a failure, because one boat may (as our 14-footers prove) be a freak boat; consequently she is going to win most, if not all, f the club trophies—poor consolation to the remainder of also-starteds. To rectify matters would be to handicap—getting back to where we are now. Until some trophy is offered for intercolonial or interprovincial racing, I shall always endeavour to foster the spot by continuing handicap races. No handicapper in any sport has been handed bouquets, so why worry?” he philosophises.