Whats The Coolest Yacht Club 10 Minutes From Queen St? Sailing Sunday
Its not the rnzys or ponsonby cc or even the dyc (ferry ride) – its the Herne Bay Cruising Club (HBCC) & yesterday they hosted the 2015 Sloanes Beach Regatta & Centerboard Cup. I dropped in for what I thought would be 5>10 minutes to take a few photos & ended up staying 90 minutes, the Santa shopping list got pushed out a day 🙂
The HBCC club rooms & its location would have to be one of the best kept secrets in the city, located off Marine Parade & tucked away amongst a stand of pohutukawas its a magic spot to sit on the grass & watch some good-old-fashioned kiwi boating. The kids were even selling home-made lemonade & coconut ice 🙂
Its also rather special – its got major boating provenance – the club rooms were built in 1913 as the Richmond Yacht Club & was a hub of wooden boating activity prior to RCC moving to the Westhaven area.
The location sort of (as in impossible) makes it hard to launch a biggish boat there so its mainly centerboard stuff but there is a very cool membership feature – the club as a few boats that members can use e.g. a couple of Lasers, a Spiral & a dinghy for rowing & fishing + storage for who wish to kept their boat at the club.
Conditions yesterday were ‘very fresh’ as in SW 20>25 knots with 35 knot gusts – this scared a few city boys & girls off but as always the mullet boat’s fronted up + one Idle Along (IA12)
The photos below are from the pre-start & start, I left after that but driving over the Harbour Bridge I could see them stonking down the Harbour, I might be wrong but I think I caught a glimpse of the IA getting into a spot of trouble.
If anyone has the results – email them to waitematawoodys@gmail.com & I’ll add them to this post.
Photo below shows Gypsy (L) & Waione (R) hauled out c.1939 at Sloanes Beach. Click this link to read, view more about the club.
21-12-2015 Results ex W. Muir
Yes it was a great day, thanks for the photos. Mullet boat results were 1st on line, and on handicap,Orion. 2nd on handicap TaoToo, 3rd Rangi Manu. The IA broke her tiller while screaming down the harbour with her spinnaker up, she did a spectacular wipe out and was towed back by the PCC Rescue boat.
You missed another fab part of the day, music from jazz combo Hopetown Brown.
Looking forward to next year ( and a little less wind )
24-12-2015 On the water racing photos ex Nick Davenport – remember to click on any photo to enlarge. Also the M Class Marlin will be featured this coming Sunday on ww- lots more photos to see then 😉
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Very late reply, but first of all there is no mullet boat association and secondly the mullet boat committee of the PCC does not acknowledge that the “un ballasted out and out racing 16 footer is a mullet boat.” I guess this is an assumption made because she appeared on J marina with the other mullet boats. There is a story behind this, that I won’t go into. Arch Logan and co can rest assured that there are no newly ordained mullet boats! The mullet boat owners and committee are as keen as anyone to maintain their authenticity while trying to maintain an active, racing fleet.
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There you go, the bona fide 13ft 3in mullet boat LADY RUIA, using the mainsail from the bona fide X Class 14ft mullet boat TORMENT.
I reckon she’d bring in at least half a hundredweight of fish from the Wairoa River mullet grounds. Marginally economic, but what a blast!
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Input from Michael O’Dwyer
Came across the below 1960’s image of Lady Ruia. Described as a mini Mullet boat at 13ft 3″x 6ft 8″.
Built of kauri,double diagonal and drew 4ft6″. Two bunks below.
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Robin, I utterly refuse to let you get me embroiled in an argument about what is a ‘”mullet boat”, especially since the Mullet Boat Association itself now sponsors the concept that unballasted out-and-out racing 16 footers are “mullet boats”. And that makes it pretty official, don’t it?
The Ponsonby Regatta Committee which established the mullet boat classes in 1903 recognised only 3 classes of restricted design mullet boats, the 22 footers, the 24 footers and the 26 footers. The 20 footers were recognised (grudgingly) in 1909. Anything shorter than 20 ft was NOT a mullet boat according to those stodgy old chaps who were reactionary and stupid enough to believe that they were protecting the purity of the true working mullet boat as a unique indigenous yacht of great racing performance and cruising capability. How elitist!
In these much more enlightened times, who knows how long it will be before the M Class becomes an “18 ft mullet boat” and an Idle Along is also rebranded as a “bona fide 12ft 8in mullet boat”…and then it’s only a baby step to include the P Class, as a “bona fide 7 foot mullet boat”?
We live in interesting times. Arch Logan, Alf Harvey and Harry Highet would have had kittens of course, but they had never Twittered or spent most of their waking hours on Facebook, had they?
Still, one can’t help wondering what size catch of mullet a 16 footer, or a P Class for that matter, would bring back to the Queen Street wharf to sell to the eager citizens of our glamorous new city?
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22 racing photos added ex Nick Davenport
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Waitemata Woody’s does it for me. The dub dubs. Hoots mon!
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Pingback: Sloanes Beach Regatta & Centreboard Cup Sat 19 Dec 2015 12pm-5pm; 2pm race start « Herne Bay Cruising Club (HBCC)
Race results added. AH
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As the guy holding the tiller in the IA – i think of it more as a 360 pirouette than a wipe out… (i.e. stayed upright). Great photos.
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Yes it was a great day, thanks for the photos. Mullet boat results were 1st on line, and on handicap,Orion. 2nd on handicap TaoToo, 3rd Rangi Manu. The IA broke her tiller while screaming down the harbour with her spinnaker up, she did a spectacular wipe out and was towed back by the PCC Rescueboat.
You missed another fab part of the day, music from jazz combo Hopetown Brown.
Looking forward to next year ( and a little less wind )
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“… but as always the mullet boat’s fronted up + one Idle Along (IA12).”
And of course one M-class.
Well we all knew THAT wasn’t a mullet boat didn’t we, sportsfans?.
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