TAMARA – Sailing Sunday
I popped down to the marina to check on the boat last week & discovered I have a new neighbour – the yacht Tamara. I know almost nothing about her other than her owner has just finished an 18mth restoration, the standard of which made me think she was a new build, quite stunning & a wonderful mix of painted surfaces & varnished trim. Looks seriously set up for some offshore cruising.
Any woodys able to tell us more about Tamara?
Input from Neil Chalmers
A Dennis Brown design . A talented yachtsman/ boat builder/ designer . He lived in the BOI and designed wholesome wooden cruising yachts – Chantal, Freya , Harmonie , Solita
I’m not out boating this long weekend but I’m very close to the water, in fact there boats are tied up at the edge of the lawn. If you ever wondered what happens when Waikato dairy farmers get too old to tend their farms, the answer is they lease the farm > sharemilker & buy a waterfront pad + marina + big plastic boat. Must be nice to have your boat at the bottom of the garden, but it would limit the ability to sneak away for a wee snooze on the boat 🙂
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Hallo, my Name is Eike,
You will find the storie ‘Designing Tamara -The Evolution of an Ozean cruiser’ in the US-‘WoodenBoat’ Magazin from November/December 1994.
Greatings from Germany!
Eike Zimmermann
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I am so taken by Tamara… oozing class and elegance.
I have been searching for some of the other vessels named above… Chantal, Freya ,Harmonie , Solita, maybe in cahoots with boats from Cal Crooks, but so far have been drawing a blank.
Can anyone point me in their direction?
Great web site, nice to see history being remembered. I have (engineering) involvement with boats from the top of the south, having worked at Jorgensons and Careys on builds and maintenance back in the 80s… and married a real local.
Thanks… Paul.
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Correction to my previous post: in 1999, Dennis sailed her back from San Diego with Sally (Magnus’ mother), not single-handed.
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Dennis sold Tamara to an American, and single-handed delivered her across the Pacific to the West Coast of the USA, where she stayed for many years. In the late 1990s the American owner offered her back to Dennis, free of charge. Dennis went over to pick her up — she had by that time become quite neglected — and again single-handed sailed her back to New Zealand. On his way back we met him when he came into Port Morelle in Tonga and dropped anchor next to us on Solita, one of Dennis’ later designs.
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Tamara is a Denis Brown design. Denis built her in his Te Wahapu boatshed, in Russell, back in the mid 80’s.
She was the second keelboat he built in this shed, after he built Chantal, which we now own.
I remember climbing around under the hull with Denis and my father-in-law, Tony Corbett, looking at cockpit layouts, before she was turned over.
I went aboard to take a look when the previous owners up in Kerikeri had her for sale.
Still in great shape then, but it looks like this has been taken to the next level.
Denis will be chuffed.
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Agree with Gary quite shallow draught from memory, the stern puts the water back where it came from!
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I think a Dennis Brown design.
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