MAHAKI – Sailing Sunday
photos & details ex Angus Rogers
Angus Rogers has sent in the above photos of the yacht Mahaki, owned by his grandfather Lionel B Rogers with EJ Jamieson and JF Harrison in Wellington and the photos were taken about 1909. Angus knows nothing about the design but is a fan of her clipper bow.
Sadly Mahaki was wrecked on the Wairarapa coast a year or so later on a trip which Angus’s grandfather wanted to go on but could not because he was made by his mother to go to a funeral of an aunt. It was fortunate that he didn’t because all lives on board were lost with the boat.
Note: the information about the name, owners and locations are from writing on the backs of the photos
Can we shed some more light on Mahaki in terms of designer / builder & other owners?
Positive News On The Historic Vos Boat Yard – view video footage of CYA member Baden Pascoe talking about the Vos yard & the funding announcement.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/70496491/historic-auckland-boat-yard-set-for-47m-relaunch
Photos from the Round The Island race during the British Classic Week
Harold Kidd Input
This Wellington MAHAKI was designed and built by J.T. Pratt in late 1895 for himself. The design may well have come from an overseas design, possibly in one of Dixon Kemp’s books, as did many other at the time. She was quite small, rating 1.6 or 1.7. Pratt sold her Wiggins and Hannah about 1899 and subsequent owners were Anderson & Co (1902) then the Jamieson syndicate (1906). Birch and Elliott appear to have owned her from 1907 but may just be members of the Jamieson syndicate. When her owners “went to the Front” in WW1 she was hauled up at Balaena Bay and deteriorated. She was broken up for her lead there in late 1917. Several other yachts were scrapped at the same time including MAY.
I think the tale of the wreck on the Wairarapa coast is a conflation with the wreck of a similar yacht around the same time, one of many Wellington yachts that left their bones in and around Palliser Bay.
PS thinking about the wreck, supposedly of MAHAKI, I reckon the story of the loss of the 24ft keel yacht TE AROHA has got mixed up with the legend. TE AROHA was built in late 1899 by R.G. Millman and foundered on January 2nd 1905 at Wellington Heads after returning from the Sounds. All three on board lost their lives. Maybe Lionel Rogers was meant to sail on TE AROHA?
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The first photo can be dated to late 1904 at Clyde Quay. The marina walls were completed that year, but the concrete apron and first sheds weren’t added until 1905 and 06. Access was by a ladder from the street straight down to the water. Lots of photos of the Mahaki are scattered about on our website here: http://wcyt.org.nz. She’s pretty easy to spot with that big scoop hatch and long overhangs. Image of the Aroha wreck here: http://tinyurl.com/o5jgsar. I had the same thought as Harold did re the story of the wreck as I was reading.
There is a good story in here I’d like to write up for our journal. Could Angus Rogers email me please at gavin.pascoe@gmail.com
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That’s correct. You really are a detective Harold
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Was your grandfather’s father Charles Brockway Rogers, later of Calliope Road Devonport, a Justice of the Peace and an insurance assessor?
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Harold, father is dead and I never got a sufficient history on that side of the family to know who the aunt of grandfather might have been.
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We could pinpoint that by checking on the death of his aunt. What was her name?
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That’s the Logan Bros MAHAKI.
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Thank you Harold for all the extra information. It just shows how “family history” as told to me by my father gets mixed and muddled together over time. As the subsequent history of Mahaki is clear it must have been Te Aroha that his aunt’s funeral saved him from.
He went to Europe in WW1 and survived.
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Umm, I wanted to write something nice and supportive concerning the restoration of the Vos Yard but I’m afraid it might just come out as Pam Prattle again. So for those of you that remain- Doesn’t this project totally deserve our support, when are we going to wake up, this is one of our last prestigious boat building yards that we can show the world in years to come how we went about building and caring for our classic craft. Are we going to wait for it to be bull dozed to the ground and then one day try to recreate it in the form of some concrete and steel palace. The success of this restoration lies in capitulating the very essence of the building and yard itself. the inspiration, the replication and re-education of those bye gone days spent boat building at the Vos yard shall follow.
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Am I right in thinking Eric Wing restored a Mahaki down at his Westhaven yard?
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PS thinking about the wreck, supposedly of MAHAKI, I reckon the story of the loss of the 24ft keel yacht TE AROHA has got mixed up with the legend. TE AROHA was built in late 1899 by R.G. Millman and foundered on January 2nd 1905 at Wellington Heads after returning from the Sounds. All three on board lost their lives. Maybe Lionel Rogers was meant to sail on TE AROHA?
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This Wellington MAHAKI was designed and built by J.T. Pratt in late 1895 for himself. The design may well have come from an overseas design, possibly in one of Dixon Kemp’s books, as did many other at the time. She was quite small, rating 1.6 or 1.7. Pratt sold her Wiggins and Hannah about 1899 and subsequent owners were Anderson & Co (1902) then the Jamieson syndicate (1906). Birch and Elliott appear to have owned her from 1907 but may just be members of the Jamieson syndicate. When her owners “went to the Front” in WW1 she was hauled up at Balaena Bay and deteriorated. She was broken up for her lead there in late 1917. Several other yachts were scrapped at the same time including MAY.
I think the tale of the wreck on the Wairarapa coast is a conflation with the wreck of a similar yacht around the same time, one of many Wellington yachts that left their bones in and around Palliser Bay.
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