The Rudder Cup From Up High
It is only been a week since the Rudder Cup Launch race but it was such a cool woody event that when the above photos arrived from Sally Teesdale I couldn’t help doing another WW post.
Sally was up North Head, Devonport with the camera & captured the fleet rounding North Head heading north.
As always – click the photos to enlarge. (I have cropped / colour enhanced the photos – the weather was a tad bleak?)
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Got plenty of time to enter and ample time for fine tuning.
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hahaha well, hard to come second with only one entry 😛
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Well guess that’s 2nd place sorted then 😁
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Hey Cam, yes, I know there is only one entry…. “My Girl” is it so far…..
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Jason, the APYMBA issued MY GIRL with 51 when she was first launched. She had Z32 when she was a NAPS patrol vessel in WW2. There’s a neat little drawing of her with that number in the NAPS publication. Shall I post a copy?
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Is “my girl” entered?
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Hopefully revived for Anniversary regatta This coming year :D. If Cam can mobilise his fleet.
Only one entry so far I’m told though.
My Girl has had “51” on her for all her early pics, I don’t know who issued it or when, but I re-registered it with the CYA , printed up using the same typeface and boom, race time with a smidge of authenticity 😛 She has a different “Z” number used for WW2, but I’ve never seen a pic of her sporting it and somehow doesn’t seem appropriate for racing….
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Race numbers were issued by yacht clubs and the NZ Power Boat Assn ad hoc for individual races from the beginning of power boat racing in 1903.
The first “official” (and compulsory) numbers for identification were issued at the outbreak of war in August 1914 and carried on canvas rectangles on the side of the vessel. After WW1 that numbering system was carried on by the Auckland Provincial Yacht & Power Boat Assn and the numbers had to be carried by launches when racing only. Speedboats had an “S” prefix.
At the outbreak of WW2 a different set of reporting numbers were issued and painted in a large format in black on the bows. No complete record of those numbers has survived. Indeed very few private launches had the fuel to go outside the harbour defences until mid to late 1945.
After WW2 the APYMBA issued a new set of numbers but only to launches registered with them, just a small percentage, and they were rarely used except in APYMBA directories. By the 1960s they had lost almost all significance as launch racing was not revived after WW2.
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Great pics thank you Sally, sorry I forgot to wave but we did dip the flag for the DYC and got a response.
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Hi Graeme
Some of the boats numbers relate to the original race & or other motor boat races over the years. To ‘race’ you have to have a number, you purchase them from the CYA – you can request a specific number, if its not already used. As an example a lot of the Lane Motor Boat Co built boats follow a double digit sequence eg 22/33/44/55 etc – I have 99 for Raindance.
Alan
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Another set of great photos. Does anyone know how the boat numbers were allocated
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