THE REBIE Y55 – Sailing Sunday
David Campball-Morrsion sent in the above photo of the mullet boat – The Reble, which David’s father in law and a couple of mates owned before the war, his name was Arthur Coughlan (Buster) and they kept her in St Marys Bay in Auckland. The bridge motorway put paid to that area years later.The Reble had the skull and cross bones on the main as in the photo.
Buster played for Ponsonby Rugby Club and became a NZ Barbarian just before the war and became a Ponsonby life member and an Auckland rugby selector, also an active member of the Ponsonby Cruising club.
After the war Buster and family moved to Dunedin for ten years which he claimed was his sentence, they then moved back to Auckland to take up the position of personal manager at Pacific Steel when it opened. David would take him out a number of times on the family yacht, then in their launch Arima, but David commented that fishing in his tinny at Coromandel was his love in his later years.
David is keen to learn what became of The Rebie post the Arthur Coughlan (Buster) ownership period.
Big WW milestone yesterday, the odometer clicked past 6,000,000 views – I got so excited when it went into 4 digits, used to check it every 1/2 hr to see how many and who was visiting the site 🙂
Can we put Russell Ward out of his misery? Russell sent in the 2 photos below of a boat named Silver Spray, that dropped anchor on Friday night below him, in Scotts Bay /Landing – from the distance she appeared to be approx. 40’, with a counter stern, slightly Wild Dock looking. Any one know the boat?
22-12-20 Input from John Bullivant – Silver Spray at Half Moon Bay Marina. Owner advised she is powered by a GM671
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Silver Spray has been up here for a few years since her refit after an unfortunate incident in the sounds, nice to see Julians ODTAA in one of the pics too I wondered where see had got to.
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FFS !!! – Please read up about mullet boats before you rush into print and post absolute garbage!!!!! Other than the fact that at the time all yachts were made of wood and carried sails for propulsion, this is nothing like a mullet boat, .
Y-55 was named REBEL !!!! Not Rebie or Reble. She was a 14ft square bilge unballasted centreboarder designed and built by Trot Willetts in 1933 for Reg Cunningham and E.J. Gray.
Auckland Star 20/10/33 reports that Rebel was designed and built for R. Cunningham by Trot Willetts.
He (they) owned her until 1937 when she was purchased by:
A.S. Coughlan & F.W. Bridgens 1937/39; Vic A. Barker 1939/40; T. Rogers 1940/42; S. Wheeler 1942/43; C.M. Watson 1943/44; J. Carey 1944/45+?; W.P. Hughes (Howick) 1947?/49+?; D. Walsh (St heliers) 1953+?
In 1940 she was bought by Tom Rogers and was one of the early yachts to sail with the newly formed Kohimarama Yacht Club which in those days had a wide collection of 14-footers racing with them, as well as Zeddies and and a couple of Frostbites.
Generally Rebel performed very well throughout her racing career and her reputation was such that in the Auckland Star 8/9/45 she was advertised as “For Sale Champion 14 footer 85 pounds Garnet Rd Westmere”. Most 14-footers at the time were selling at between 50 and 70 pounds so Rebel’s price was quite high for a 12 year old boat.
She won her fair share of sweepstake money in her career but not many trophies as far as I know. There are probably more but I have only found these so far.
Tamaki Yacht Club: E.S. Rennick Cup 1939
Takapuna Boating Club: Winstone trophy 1935
Kohimarama Yacht Club: Hughes Points Shield 1942
I last track her racing with the Kohimarama Yacht Club in the early 1950’s.
Robin – I only know what people tell / supply me, thankfully we have enlightened readers like yourself to keep us on the straight and narrow. As always , thank you for taking the time to contribute 🙂 Alan H
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Built by Jack Guard.
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