There once was a yacht named Limerick

Part 3 The final segment chronicling the life of one of the fastest dames in the years during and after WWII.

In spite of the anger and rhetoric that had surrounded the recently concluded World’s 18-footers Championship in February 1939 (See Vintage Perspectives April/may 2016), there was a will on both sides that such trans-tasman competition should be encouraged.

Part of the reconciliation carrot was a return visit by the Australians for the Auckland Centenary Regatta in 1940. This was a tad optimistic considering the deep divisions and mistrust that had grown among many Australian and New Zealand yachtsmen, exacerbated by the Australians’ failure to return the World’s 18-footers Championship Trophy for presentation to Gordon Chamberlin, skipper of Manu.

For all the hot air expended during the winter of 1939, the proposed visit in 1940 sparked a building boom in 18-footers. The outbreak of war put a stop to any planned re-match but even so, around 20 new V-class arrived during the 1939-40 season, augmenting an already strong fleet.

Some of these new 18s were built purely for cruising and

most were doomed to be ‘also rans’, but among them were some very good boats such as the Jack Brooke designs Arahi and Kiatere, and the Willetts designs Takina and Lotus. Bill Couldrey weighed in with Athena, Vim and Celeste for the Waitemata and Marie Dawn for the Manukau. These were modern, powerful hulls and big sail carriers.

Cream of the crop however was Jack and Doug Logan’s Matara. She was a cut above all others and by the 1940-41 season was alone on scratch with ‘the pack’, Kiatere, Jeanette, Takina, Arahi and Limerick out on three or four minutes.

Along with Jeanette and several other Auckland 18s, Limerick went to Wellington in January 1940 for the Centennial Regatta. It was a grand affair, with over 300 entries. The best boats from around the country competed in National Championships for the X-class (Sanders Cup), Z-class (Cornwell Cup and NZ Monotype Cup), Tauranga class ( Tauranga Cup), Idle Along Class (Moffat Cup) and the New Zealand 18-foot Championship, held by the Auckland M-class Manu.

By 1940 Wellington clubs raced no centreboarders larger than 14-feet, so interest in the 18-footer was very high, all contestants coming from Auckland and Canterbury. In the championship race, Limerick led for the last half of the race and took the gun from Jeanette but both were disqualified when they ‘mistook a mark and turned for home too soon’.

The Championship went to Colin Dennes in the Auckland M-class Manene. Limerick did have some success in a special 18-footer race put on by the Evans Bay Yacht Club. She again showed the fleet home and won Capt. W.J. Keane’s Cup.

The Auckland Anniversary Regatta of 1940 ran the Vs in two divisions to limit the congestion. Only just back from Wellington,

Spot Riley and Dooley Moore were again in the money with Limerick and won the A Division handicap.

As the war deepened and more and more men were called up, experienced crew became harder to find and boats were sold or laid up and the centreboard fleets dwindled. Spot Riley and Dooley Moore were in reserved occupations and continued to race as often as time allowed.

When the Logans laid Matara up for the 1942-43 season, Limerick found herself back on scratch again and won the line and handicap in the 1943 Anniversary Regatta. Matara returned the following season under Jack Logan and took up where she had left off as champion V-class.

In 1944 Spot Riley and Jim Dickson (father of Roy and Frank) built and launched the M-class Makura. Dooley Moore raced Limerick occasionally that season but, in November 1945, sold her to Harding and Girvan.

A visit by the Australian 18s, planned for early 1947 (eventually postponed to 1948), sparked yet another boom in 18-footers. The boats that had been laid up for the war now returned and along with newcomers Brin Wilson’s Tartar (1945), Macushla (1946), Bernie Schmidt’s Pursuit (1946) and Jim Lidgard’s Beverley (1946) made a very crowded start line.

That post-war season also saw the first of the skimmer types make their appearance with George Mckeown’s Moocher (1945) inspired by Jack Brooke’s 14-footer Prefect of 1939, followed by his Rockem (1947). They may have put some pressure on Jack Logan in Matara, but it made little difference as he kept winning anyway.

Limerick meanwhile was plugging away in the middle of a very crowded pack and racing off an ever-lengthening handicap. In 1947 she was sold to Stan Smith on the Manukau and largely vanished from sight apart from a mention in Sea Craft magazine in 1950 that she was going to race with the newly-formed Auckland 18ft Flying Squadron.

But, in November 1953, she suddenly reappeared, off scratch, in the Opening Day race of the Whangarei Cruising Club under her new owner, photographer Graeme Palmer.

The Whangarei club had a long history with the larger centreboarders and for many years raced an interesting collection of mullet boats, 18-foot Vs and S-class 16-footers. Limerick arrived at a time when this larger type of yacht was falling out of favour.

The younger club members coming out of the P Class and Z Class ranks inevitably leaned towards the smaller, lighter boats such as the glamorous new 12ft 9in R Class or the Cherub and Moth classes that were making their presence felt in Auckland.

As her competition melted away, Limerick ceased racing. Graeme cruised her for the next 20 years or so with his wife Dot, who learned to sail on her. Over that time few changes were made apart from an alloy rig, synthetic sails and roller reefing. At some time in the 1970s she was skinned in glass but essentially, she still looked much the same as she always had.

Graeme had always sailed other boats, owning a succession of Cherokees during the 1970s, a Sunbeam Cat and several Paper Tigers. He hauled Limerick out on rails outside the family home in Riverside Drive, all rigged and ready to go.

Right up until the late 1970s he still sailed her, mostly solo and was a familiar sight on the harbour, a lone figure on this rather large 18-footer. He never entered any races but would frequently line up alongside the Club’s trailer-sailers just to burn them off.

Around 1980 he entered a two-day Cruising Club event to Parua Bay and anchored her overnight intending to return and sail her the next day. The wind got up. Limerick broke free and ran ashore in Parua Bay, not badly damaged, but in no condition to be sailed.

Graeme put her on a trailer and laid her up outside his garage on Riverside Drive. There she remained for almost 30 years until 2009

when he and Dot sold up and moved into a unit in Kensington.

After 60 years in his ownership, Graeme gave Limerick, still in good shape, and with all her gear, to compulsive collector Rob Mulder (of Splash Dinghy fame) on whose property she now sits while he builds his dream home.

It will be a home complete with a high stud to house his museum collection of pianolas, pipe organs, mantle radios, tractors, old diesel engines … and Limerick, which is to be tidied up, repainted and stand fully rigged, sails and all, under the tallest part of the roof.

It’s a difficult thing for a wooden boat to survive into old age, let alone survive without major modification. In New Zealand we are blessed with many examples of grand old keel yachts that have evaded rot, neglect and the chainsaw, but very few centreboarders from the 1930s.

Limerick, bane of the Australians, and now in her 80th year, is one of those fortunate few. B