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The Sinclairs of Lyttelton
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There were two major boatbuilding families in Lyttelton in those early days, the Millers and the Sinclairs, both with Scottish origins. The Millers are identified with the famous yacht Pastime. The Millers’ rivals were the Sinclairs – William Sinclair and his large number of descendants.
In 2019 I wrote three Vintage Perspective articles about the Millers and Pastime, which is now close to being launched after a major restoration by Craig Wild at Tamahere. It is time for a companion piece on the Sinclairs.
William Sinclair was born in 1822 in Caithness in northern Scotland. Like most Scots, he received a good education, at a level far higher than in most countries at the time. He became a ship’s carpenter and shipwright then spent some years working on the goldfields near Ballarat where his first wife died in 1859.
In April 1863 he arrived in Lyttelton with his brother John. William’s three young children, who had been born in Victoria, arrived four months later. His shipmaster brother Ebenezer followed, arriving in 1865. He bought and skippered the ketch Courier, trading around Banks Peninsula for 20 years.
At first William was involved with storekeeping in the Heathcote Valley. In January 1865 he married 19-year-old Carlisleborn Elizabeth Wilson. They produced 10 more children. Finally, in 1870, he set up in business as a shipwright in Dampier’s Bay near the present dry dock, on the site of Stark Bros’ current shed.
His eldest son James (born 1858) became active in boatbuilding and yacht racing. In the records it is hard to
differentiate James from his slightly older cousin James Sinclair, Ebenezer’s son. In any event, both were clever lads and, in 1872, one of them was a bright student at the Lyttelton Private Academy, particularly in mathematics which later stood him in good stead with his yacht and rig design.
In 1874, at the age of 16, William’s James (known as ‘Jimmy’) was serving his time as a boatbuilder and shipwright with his father at Dampier’s Bay. They were involved in the huge amount of work available in the repair and maintenance of the many overseas square-riggers and local trading vessels in Lyttelton.
William was praised for his efforts in the successful refloating of the schooner Clyde, stranded on the beach at Southbridge near the Rakaia River in early 1879. He was also sought after for work on the growing number of pleasure yachts in the port, then dominated by the Millers and Thomas Westlake.
After the 1874 Lyttelton Regatta, William did some repairs to the five-ton yacht Edina from Kaiapoi, strengthened the hull and put a new mast in her. William and Jimmy then sailed her from Lyttelton, across the Waimakariri bar to Kaiapoi. The Lyttelton Times reported on 14th February 1874:
“Mr Sinclair, of Lyttelton, sailed the Edina round to Kaiapoi, having only his son, a young lad, on board with him. The weather outside was rather heavy, with a good sea running, but the yacht did not ship a drop of water and took the bar, which was rather rough, well. She behaved splendidly outside, and proved herself a capital sea-boat. Sinclair and his son deserve credit for their pluck in bringing her round without other assistance.”
Jimmy Sinclair began racing other owners’ small craft in the Lyttelton Regatta, the open boats Prosperous in 1881,
Good Templar 1882, Dauntless 1884 and Secret 1885. For the December 1885 Akaroa Regatta he built for himself “a new centre-board boat of the skim dish type...of about five tons measurement”. He named her Little Wonder after a fancied racehorse of the time.
She turned out to be head and shoulders above her fellows in innovation and speed. She was lightly built with a transverse stacking board for the crew, presaging Uffa Fox’s International Canoe of 1932 and complying with the prohibition against shifting ballast. This prohibition was honoured more in the breach than the observance at the time, particularly by
He named her Little Wonder after a fancied racehorse of the time.
Fleetwing which carried a crew of harbour-side ‘lumpers’ to shift sand bags from side to side when tacking.
In light conditions, Little Wonder managed a third at Akaroa behind the old cracks Zephyr and Surprise. At the 1886 Lyttelton Regatta a few days later, in a good breeze, Little Wonder was second to the Wellington crack Isca, sailed down for the prize money, and beat the rest of the Canterbury boats in for second place.
Jimmy Sinclair’s impressive Little Wonder persuaded Malcolm Miller that it was time to get seriously involved in yachting by building a yacht to beat her. Over the winter of 1886 he built the 30ft keel yacht Pastime.
The Canterbury Yacht Club’s first race (also Pastime’s first race), was the first of three heats for the Cameron Cup on 20th November 1886. In light conditions, both Pastime and Little Wonder were on scratch. Pastime got a bad start and was beaten to the finish by Little Wonder by just over two minutes – but it had been a good race to stretch in her new sails.
In the second heat a week later, in a strong nor’easter, Pastime beat Little Wonder, showing herself better to windward in a blow. The third heat was sailed on 11th December in a fresh sou’west breeze. Pastime and Little Wonder were joined on scratch by the old Fleetwing, with Westlake’s new Neva on five minutes. The light Little Wonder cleared away from Fleetwing after the first mark and was never headed. Miller sailed a bad race in Pastime finishing over eight minutes behind the leaders.
The final race of 1886 was for a pair of vases presented by G.J. Black of Akaroa – Pastime came second to Little Wonder again, with Fleetwing third. Days later was the big event, the Lyttelton Regatta First-class Yacht Race on New Year’s Day. In good sailing conditions, Little Wonder ran away out front, leaving Fleetwing and Pastime to have a tussle for second, Fleetwing getting there before Miller’s yacht, with Baker’s Zephyr last.
Over the next winter Miller lengthened Pastime by “inserting six feet amidships”. Although herself beaten by Fleetwing at Akaroa in December 1887 she clearly showed
that she now had the legs on Little Wonder.
All these yachts were now constantly being altered in hull and rig, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Miller extended Pastime’s stem with a ‘schooner’ bow, which may not have given her more speed, but made her prettier. Baker had replaced Zephyr’s original heavily raked mast and gunter bermudan rig with a conventional gaff cutter rig which slowed her down.
Jimmy Sinclair added seven feet and a counter to Little Wonder with the same effect. She never bothered Pastime again. In the 1890 Lyttelton Regatta she came second to Pastime by 50 minutes.
But Pastime’s nemesis had arrived. In the winter of 1890, Jimmy Sinclair and the Little Wonder Syndicate decided to build a smart new 14-tonner, the 53-footer Mascotte, to take firm command in Canterbury waters.
Many thanks to Sinclair descendants – Graeme Sinclair (of Gone Fishin’ fame), Libby Sinclair and Steve Mckelvey.