A Day At One Of My Favorite Boating Spots – Whangateau – Sailing Sunday

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RETALIATION RELAUNCHED

START THEM YOUNG

And a visit to Whangateau would not be completer without a Laughing Lady work-in-process photo

A Day At One Of My Favorite Boating Spots – Whangateau

Yesterday (Saturday 29/11/2014) saw an informal (is there ever a formal one) gathering of young & old salts at the Whangateau Traditional Boat Yard. The objective being to launch as many of the classic yachts as possible & hold a race. Unfortunately Hughie had other plans & the wind was just too much for the old bodies & boats. Saying that, the brave did go out & had a blast, our hostess had a wee swim & a tow back……….., relax Pam the photos are safe with me 😉

One of my reasons for rocking up today was to see Harold Kidd’s just restored ‘Retaliation’, fresh from a Pam & George restoration. Retaliation was built by Rex Rix in 1933 to beat the Idle Alongs in Wellingtron, but didn’t. She carrys the same rig. Today she looked stunning & Pauline and Harold Kidd + Hugh Gladwell braved the conditions & had a very quick blast up & down the harbour.

To quote Russell Ward – you know it is blowing when a Zeddie takes a reef in! refer photo of Hugh Gladwell  in Olive (Z9).
Russell took the youngest woody boaters out for a lap of the harbour, things started a little ‘loud’ but the arrival of mum helped & as you’ll see from the photos from in the creek, bliss and happiness was achieved on board.

As always it was a great family day & to a foodie like me , the lunch was a big bonus –  the fresh hot smoked snapper just perfect.

The day had a sad element – we were buzzed by the Westpac Rescue chopper & advised that they were searching for a missing fisherman. It a appears he & a friend were fishing in a small RIB in the entrance to the harbour (actually tied off the channel marker) when an oar was lost overboard & one of the fisherman dived in (fully clothed & sans a life jacket) to attempt to retrieve the oar. The current can be very savage in the area & he disappeared below the surface.
Not long after, I left the boat yard to visit Shane Anderson & the chopper was doing repeat sweeps of the coastline in front of his place. It appears the fisherman has drowned, so lets not let this life be wasted i.e. lets use this incident to remind us to wear our vests, particularly when we are in small boats.

As always a special thank you to Pam & George 🙂

 

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4 thoughts on “A Day At One Of My Favorite Boating Spots – Whangateau – Sailing Sunday”

  1. Still crazy after all these years.
    However, she performs just like an Idle Along, well balanced and fast in any decent wind. The first boat I owned was an Idle Along, TUNA, IA 18, in 1951 still competitive in the Auckland second division, built by Butterworth out of kahikatea in 1947, so I’ve got some comparison.
    I suspect RETALIATION gave the Idle Alongs a run for their money in 1933 although her only wins were at Paremata, from memory. Rex Rix moved on and she was taken over by the Macalister family for recreational use in their Sounds property very early in the piece, so just vanished from the racing scene.
    But delightfully crazy….

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  3. I should point out that RETALIATION is 81 years old, built in 1933. When Pauline and I picked her up from near Nelson she came with her original set of cotton sails complete with an “Alf Harvey, Sailmaker, Wellington” stamp in the clew, too frail and historic to use. We gave it to the Idle Along Association as a trophy and now wear an old but very serviceable Shore Sails Idle Along mainsail built by Frank Warnock but with her original Wellington sail number “Q7” carefully copied from the original by the incomparable Dave Giddens.
    RETALIATION still has Rex Rix’s original colour scheme of tangerine, yellow and black, not everyone’s cup of tea.
    Rex was an apprentice of Joe Jukes and later took over his yard in Balaena Bay.

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  4. Mindfully written and presented Alan.
    It was neat to see Retaliation out of the work shop and on the water.
    I hope she stays on long enough at the boat yard for George and I to sneak her out for a sail, I’m not sure I would be wanting to take her out in a blow as Harold and Pauline and Hugh had though.
    Yeep all that sail up got the better of me in little Zdy but I’m keen-as to master some down wind sailing in her and shall be out again in her soon. I’m not phased by being catapolted through the air, nor the refreshing swim, bring it on. Little zdy seemed to tough it out.
    Great to see the twins again on sailing day ( Casey in Pink and Loren likes Yellow)
    Thanks for giveing the little Norman motor a good run Russell.
    Thoughts for the family of the fisherman.

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