Vintageview
Bill Endean went back to Charles Bailey for the new Prize, not quite Onelua, but a handsome substitute and the turn of the tide for the building of big keel boats.
The new Prize
In the last few issues of Boating I followed the history of the outstanding Bailey super-yacht Onelua, built for the king of Tonga in 1913 and very nearly brought back to Auckland by Bill Endean in 1919.
Had that happened, the Logan super-yacht Ariki would have been extended to retain her dominance of Auckland racing which ended only when Lou Tercel launched his Knut Reimers-inspired Ranger in 1938.
After RNVR service in Motor Launches with the famous Dover Patrol in 1917-18, Endean returned to Auckland and threw himself into yachting, and soon into politics. He suffered a major setback to his plans in late 1919 when Onelua was spirited away after he had clinched the deal with the Kingdom of Tonga’s Auckland agents.
Bill married Doris Simms in 1920. At the end of 1920 he graciously handed over to the new Governor-general, Lord Jellicoe, the 14ft onedesign boat Charles Bailey Jr was building for him. She was launched as Iron Duke in the December of that year and sparked a revolution in yachting in this country.
Today it’s hard to credit that, in 1923, apart from Onelua, no new first-class racing keel yachts had been built in New Zealand since Logan Bros launched Rawene in December 1908 for A.E. Gifford. There had been a handful only of smaller keel yachts built, including the Hand-designed Tasmanian One-design class yachts Pacific (1914) and Vanitie (1922), the Tercel Bros’ cruiser Restless (1920) and Colin Wild’s Delville of January 1923.
There were several reasons for this. Firstly, now that marine engines had become (relatively) reliable, efficient, easy to manage and powerful, the money was going into big launches such as the glamorous and beautifully-appointed double-enders produced by Logan Bros, Bailey & Lowe and other top Auckland builders. The future of all boating was perceived to be with
motor-driven craft, just as the motor-car had replaced the horse.
Secondly, the Australian market for top-end keel yachts had dried up with the Federation imposing punitive tariffs on new builds. Thirdly, the keel yacht-building boom of the 1890s and early 1900s had produced a large stock of excellent racing and cruising craft that were superbly designed and built and almost indestructible with their diagonal monocoque construction in heart kauri.
In 1922, the loss of Onelua to the Waitemata to provide a story-book Bailey challenger for the Logan Ariki still smarted with Auckland yachtsmen. An avid student of overseas yacht design, Bill Endean turned back to Charles Bailey to design and build a new big keel yacht. They probably started the conversations in the Private Bar at the Waverley Hotel on the corner of Queen Street and Customs Street East, where much waterfront business was transacted and where Bailey was a fixture.
Charles Bailey was just 57, at the height of his powers as a designer and constructor. He too had stayed in touch with overseas design parameters and rating rules for keel yachts but his business was now firmly centred on building commercial vessels, Island schooners, coasters and ferries while his younger brother Walter, at Bailey & Lowe, dominated the launch-building trade.
The international rating rules had been stable for some time. The Metre Rule of 1907 seemed to be the last straw for New Zealand constructors and yachtsmen who had built to at least four different rules since the 1880s. None of these had produced the all-rounder – a wholesome, seaworthy yacht that suited local usage, a mixture of summer cruising in relatively open waters with long passages on the one hand, and round-the-buoys racing in harbours and short passage races on the other.
There was no longer any pressing need to comply with International rating rules. Since the Australian Federal Government put up tariffs on imported yachts and killed the flourishing export trade which saw Logan and Bailey yachts dominating Australian racing, Kiwi-built yachts no longer had the opportunity to race against overseas yachts built to the latest rating rule, and it was many years before that was to come about. And really, nobody was very upset about that, except a handful who kept up to date with the latest overseas yachting magazines.
Among that handful was the energetic editor of the weekly New Zealand Yachtsman magazine, W.A. “Wilkie” Wilkinson, a short man with a loud voice in print and a louder voice in person. After his magazine expired in 1918, he became the yachting writer for the Auckland Star daily newspaper under the “Speedwell” by-line, giving him an even bigger audience.
These activists were keen to bring New Zealand back into the international mainstream and embrace the Metre Rule. In October 1908, as Rawene was being prepared for the water, there was a passing reference that she was an 8-metre, but little significance was attached to it.
However, at the same time, the Squadron issued a vague statement that it adopted the Metre Rule and would soon put on
There was no longer any pressing need to comply with International rating rules.
races for metre classes. Nothing happened for four years as yachts continued to race on their performance handicaps as before.
Then Wilkinson published an editorial in New Zealand Yachtsman of March 3, 1912 pleading the case for metre class racing, not so much for the benefit of the racing but for the purpose of encouraging new keel yacht building. Finally, at its 1912 AGM, the activists persuaded the committee of the Squadron to award its Governor’s Cup to the 6-metre class.
It’s a big subject, and it is sufficient to say that the push for metre class racing and metre class yachts in this country soon failed despite some valiant efforts by the likes of Colin Wild with his 6-metre Delville.
With this background, Endean cautiously ensured that Bailey designed his new yacht to conform to the Metre Rule as an 8-metre. Not surprisingly, as Bailey’s yard started construction in May 1923, it became clear that Endean’s yacht was coming out quite like Rawene.
Bailey’s yard was very busy in 1923 with a wide variety of work. The firm had recently built the ferry Makora and carried out the insulation work on the holds of the steamer Admiral Codrington for carrying frozen meat. Endean’s yacht was started in May 1923, in frame by June and nearing launching by early October. “Speedwell” described her in the Auckland Star:
“Mr W.P. Endean’s new 8-metre yacht is nearing completion at C. Bailey’s yard. Her outside work is about finished, except for the final coat of white. The lead was run last week and is a good cast. Electric light is fitted in the main cabin, also in the fore-cabin, where a gimballed cooking stove is to be fitted. The mast is ready for the rigging – it is a straight-grained piece of Oregon, six inches in diameter. The main rigging will not rest on the crosstrees but is to be carried to substantial cleats on the mast 3ft. 6in. above the cross trees.
“The running rigging will be of steel wire set up with short tackles, thus eliminating the sag and stretching always present with rope halyards. The cabin is finished in white, picked out with gold. Above the cushions on each side is a shelf, about six inches wide, set off with a neat nickelled rail.
“Three mirrored panels on the for’ard bulkhead add to the appearance of the cabin, while four good lockers on the after bulkhead make for convenience. Now the boat is painted, her symmetrical and powerful lines can be seen to better advantage. She will be ready before the end of this month, and the owner has chosen the Prize as her name, after the mystery ship commanded by Lieutenant Sanders, V.C.”
Unsaid in this were two important features of the yacht. Firstly, like most top-class Auckland yachts since Robert Logan Sr introduced the technique from the Clyde in the 1870s, her hull was three-skin diagonally built.
Secondly, Prize had a conventional gaff cutter rig. The strong contemporary trend to a bermudan rig had passed her by. After all, the gaff rig had its virtues; it was by now highly developed and was also “proper” wear for a major yacht. Prize was launched from Bailey’s yard in Beaumont Street on Saturday 27 October 1923. She floated to her marks.
In the next issue I’ll take the story of Prize to her purchase by Bressin Thompson during WWII and beyond. BNZ