Restoring a Mullet

Through a series of strange circumstances we acquired Rangi Manu – a 22-foot L-class mullet boat – even though we already have one. She was given to us by a chap who had her in his back yard for over 20 years. She was designed and built for him in 1978 by John Gladden of Milford and he raced her in the late 70s and early 80s before ill health caused him to retire.

The boat lived in his back yard where she remained until my partner Annie and I convinced him we could give her a new life. She looked a bit forlorn but I immediately fell in love with her shape. She had pedigree and a proven shape – she was a modern sister to the Eranie which won the Lipton Cup five times in the 60s with the great Vic Lidgard at the helm.

Why would I take on this project when I already had a perfectly good mullet boat? Annie answered that we’d be giving a beautiful boat a second chance, we’d be adding to the current fleet, and we both liked a challenge...

The boat transported to our home on Waiheke Island, set her up under-cover in the front yard. Rangi Manu had also spent some time on a mooring in Little Shoal Bay so there was worm and rot damage to the hull – mainly the keelson, centre-case, deadwood and some rot in the deck. Being a boatbuilder in a previous life I wasn’t fazed by the job ahead.

The first job was getting the steel centreboard and case out to assess the extent of the work required. To do this we stripped out the internal structure, knowing we’d be starting afresh with weight saving in mind. Unlike our existing boat Buona Sera (a comfortable cruising boat as mullet boats go), this was to be a race boat.

Once she was reduced to a shell work began in earnest. The first jobs were the repair of the keelson, construction and fitting of the centre-case and partial rebuild of the deadwood which had been damaged in a grounding. Along with the sails, gear and ballast the previous owner also gave us a quantity of kauri timber.

Her hull was glued double-diagonal kauri over stringers and fibreglassed. I did the repairs with West System epoxy and used strengthening glass where required. After the structural repairs I stripped the oil-based paint from the inside of the hull and gave it two coats of epoxy resin to reinforce the hull’s integrity. With that complete I rebuilt the interior in a rather more Spartan fashion with a smaller floorboard area, a new cockpit frame and layout and a composite chain-plate structure.

THE OUTSIDE HULL Rot in the moulded deck was repaired and the deck prepared for two-pack coating. The topsides and bottom were another challenge. A number of the plank seams had cracked through the fibreglass sheathing. I ran a 6mm router bit down the seams to the depth of the inner skin and forced in a thickened epoxy slurry and then faired it.

The hull was then given another full coat of resin and the boat was ready for painting. She was weighed and measured by Geoff Bagnall, the official measurer. She passed and came in right on the minimum weight.

Rangi Manu was re-launched at Waiheke’s Putiki Bay last October after an absence from her natural environment of 30 years. Doing the honours with the champagne was 86-year old Peggy Rushbrook who’d raised her children on a mullety.

Given that the boat was built in the late 70s most of the gear and sails was out of date. To bring her into the 21st century Paul Meyer designed a modern free-standing rig, Duane of Yachtspars put it all together and Tony Harold of Sails Specialty altered and built the new sails.

Two days after the launching and ballasting, Annie and I steamed her up to Auckland to receive her new rig and to join her sisters on Westhaven’s J Pier, all of whom she hadn’t been alongside since the early 80s. She’s back in the fold.

With the rig in we took her for a sail on a beautiful sunny afternoon in about 15 knots of breeze with full main and #3 jib so as not to push her too hard on her first outing. She sails beautifully. Since then we’ve joined the racing fleet and while we still have a lot to learn she’s showing her potential and we’re having a lot of fun!

WWII caused a decline in interest and numbers with many boats being moth-balled while crews were away serving, but war’s end brought a resurgence of interest. New boats were built with modern gear and Bermuda rigs were introduced.

In the early 60s the new, cold-moulded method of construction was adopted and by the mid-70s many new boats had been built including five fibreglass models built off a mould from another prolific winner, Taotane. But thanks to hull design restrictions all the boats, including the older ones, were competitive and like any semi-restricted class winners were often determined by luck and good sailing on the day.

THE 2015 LIPTON CUP

Testament to the endurance of the class is reflected by the 2015 Lipton Cup. Valeria (built 1913) was bought by Ben Freedman seven years ago as a tired derelict. He restored her with modern materials and technology while faithfully retaining her Logan mullet boat shape and looks. On the day a fleet of 12 of the best assembled on the start line and after a hard-fought race she took line honours – 93 years after her first win in 1922.

The mullet boat fleet has had its ups and downs over the years. But it also has its die-hard adherents and supporters and thanks to their collective efforts the fleet now has a home on J-pier in Westhaven marina.

Today there are nine boats on the finger and given that next year is the 95th Lipton Cup and the 100th is fast approaching, there is a great deal of renewed interest in the mullet boats. There are currently some 16 boats in sailing condition and in the last three years most have made it to the Lipton Cup start line.

The attraction for the owners and crews is dealing with the over-sized rigs and the element of danger that goes with handling them in fresh conditions. They are effectively open boats without self-draining cockpits and most of the boats in today’s fleet have been to the bottom, usually in a spectacular manner. It’s referred to as ‘Going down the Mine’ and those who’ve experienced it wear it as a kind of dubious honour. But it happens in the heat of battle and reflects the competiveness of the crews.

And over the years mullet boats have successfully cruised the north coast under reduced rig. Snugged down they have proved themselves to be safe and handy cruising boats and many a well-known Auckland yachtie has either grown up on a mullety or raised children around one.

The men and women who own these boats consider themselves custodians of an important part of Auckland’s yachting legacy. They are passionate and determined to see the fleet gracing the harbour for many years to come. B