Reflections The Ian Scobie story
Among Des Townson aficionados, an Ian Scobie-built boat is considered the bee’s knees – his boats all exhibit a sweetness of line and form lesser builders struggle to match. This is the story of an extraordinarily skilled boatbuilder.
The Scobie family hails from South Auckland where dad Jack grew anemone flower bulbs at Pukekohe Hill. Born in 1940, Scobie started mucking around in boats at the family bach at Orua Bay, and as a teenager built three Carl Augustin runabouts. He left school in 1956 to start a house-building apprenticeship.
Two years later Jack Scobie had a fatal heart attack while playing golf, triggering a major change in the family’s financial circumstances. In those days, even modest estates attracted death duties and, like most farmers, the Scobies were asset-rich, cash-flow-poor.
The death duties just about wiped them out – Scobie left his apprenticeship to help his two brothers run the 17-acre family farm. Trying to increase cash flow, they leased another 100 acres to get into market gardening. They had two good years before a bad year nearly bankrupted them. “We were selling potatoes below cost.”
One brother bought out the other two and Scobie returned to house-building for several years. In 1974 he was asked to finish off a GRP Vindex hull and cabin built by Jim Young Boatbuilders. The finished job attracted the attention of his doctor, the late Bill Allen, who then owned the Townson 30 Magic Flute, originally built by the late Alan Warwick.
Wanting a bigger, faster yacht, Dr Allen had bought the plans for a Townson Twilight and asked Scobie if he would build it. Having never built a yacht before, Scobie sought advice from Townson himself, then based in Panmure. In those days Townson had a well-deserved reputation for giving visitors fairly short shrift. “I was shaking with fear,” Scobie recalls.
But he received a fair hearing. The pair discovered a shared love of classical music and later would regularly swap cassette tapes. Scobie fastidiously followed Townson’s plans and made a beautiful job of building Sunset. At her launching Townson told Scobie: “You won’t have to worry about work, I’ll send anyone asking for a builder straight to you.”
For the next 25 years Scobie remained fully booked building yachts, most of them Townsons. He kept his business simple, no fixed price contracts, just a modest hourly rate and no extra for either his shed or building insurance. With the benefit of hindsight Scobie realises what a good deal he offered. “They got a bargain really.”
Operating out of his Mauku (near Patumahoe) half-round shed, Scobie built most of the Townsons in around 2,000 hours over 12 months. He developed a number of time-saving