Ida Comes Home
Having disappeared to Australia decades ago, one of Chas Bailey’s classics finally returns to New Zealand.
After living in Australia for more than half-a-century, a long-lost part of New Zealand’s yachting heritage has returned home. Designed and built by Chas Bailey Jnr in 1895, the 58-foot gaff cutter Ida arrived in Auckland in December and faces an extensive restoration.
Ida’s return to New Zealand is largely thanks to John Street – chairman of the Classic Yacht Charitable Trust and passionate advocate for the preservation of New Zealand’s maritime heritage. That he found Ida – and was able negotiate her purchase – involved quite a bit of luck. It all began over a casual lunch in August last year with a friend who mentioned he’d sailed on Ida – many, many years ago. Did John have any idea of where she was or what had happened to her? John didn’t but, with his curiosity piqued, he contacted Bill Donovan – the historian at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
Bill not only knew that Ida was in Australia and had been lying semiderelict on a mooring in Sydney for about a decade – but also that she happened to be for sale.
“Within 36 hours of that lunch discussion I was in Sydney talking to Ida’s owners,” remembers John. “My good friend Wayne Olsen – a boatbuilder and owner of Horizon Boats – went with me to inspect her and check whether she was worth buying and restoring.”
Though the record is a little unclear, it seems Ida went to Australia in or around 1960, and since then had cycled through three sets of owners. The most recent of these – Jerry Brookman and Catherine Shirley – owned the yacht for about 20 years and raced her in Sydney’s classic yacht fleet. But with Jerry’s failing health, sailing and maintaining Ida became a low priority. They accepted John’s offer.
CAN SHE BE SAVED?
Wayne has an extensive track record in restorations, and Ida will be revived at his yard at Stillwater. A thorough ‘tapping’ all over the triple-skin kauri hull revealed that it’s in good shape, though there are a few small ‘soft’ spots in the inner hull. “Of course we won’t know for sure until we begin peeling back the paint,” says John, “but after that initial inspection things look promising.”
Sadly, the rest of the vessel is not as good. “We know the deck beams and deck timbers are completely knackered and will have to be replaced. And at some stage, someone had added a doghouse. It looks awful – we will remove it and return her to a flush-decker – as when she was first launched.”
John says Ida’s hull had been ‘splined’ by someone in Australia. Rather than use traditional caulking cloth, the gaps between the planks contain glued-in kauri wedges. And while her two jibs seem in reasonable shape, the mainsail is past its use-by date. There’s a spinnaker pole but no spinnaker, and it’s unclear if the top-sail is still in the wardrobe.
“She is a very important part of our heritage and it’s great to have her back,” says John. “In the early 1900s she was pretty competitive. I recently showed Bruce Marler, an old friend of mine, a photograph of her. He used to own Rawhiti – and he said, ‘My God I’ve seen the back of that boat a few times.’ So it seems she was very quick.”
Along with five other classics, Ida will be owned by the Trust. John says he will have to find a crew and skipper but is confident there are plenty of candidates among those already involved with the Trust’s vessels.