RAHIRI L16
Today’s photos of the Mullet Boat L16 were sent to me by Cheryl Hill who was having a lock-down tidy-up and came across a collection of sailing photos that belonged to her father Ian Hill. Cheryl doesn’t know whether the yacht was a family boat or just one that one of her Dad’s mates owned.
The top photo was tagged – ‘Tiri Passage Easter’ and may have been 1947.
Jason Prew pointed me in the direction of the Ponsonby Cruising Club’s 2000>2001 Year Book, which had a ‘Mullet Boat Register’ at the back and the sail # L16 is alongside the 22′ Mullet Boat named – Rahiri. So we have confirmation Rahiri was still on the scene in the early 2000’s.
Can any of the Muttet Boat crowd enlighten Cheryl as to Rahiri’s past and present where-abouts ?
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That PCC Mullet Boat Register you mention …… Is it a register of EXISTING mullet boats and owners or is it, like many other such lists, just a list of KNOWN mullet boats, past and present?
I suspect it is the latter.
I have seen nothing in print (Owners, races, cruises etc) mentioning Rahiri since her sinking in November 1950. The Star/Herald published a photo of the salvaged Rahiri. She was a mess, festooned with weed and full of mud. Mast, sails were gone but the hull was still largely intact and once pumped out was capable of being towed to the harbour board slip.
Of the two who drowned, only one of the bodies was found and a major reason for the salvage was to see if the remaining body was trapped inside the hull. It wasn’t.
I heard a story (unconfirmed obviously) that the family sold or gave away the hull and it was supposedly converted to a launch. So maybe ‘recovered and destroyed’ is correct as far as her sailing career was concerned.
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Top photo, Eastern Suburbs bottom photo Tiri passage I would think.
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“She sank off Musick Point in 1950 with the loss of two lives, was recovered and destroyed”
Janet – I think you might mean “recovered and restored”.
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From my records when researching the Lipton cup I found L 16 Rahiri was launched in 1913 and originally sailed with 137 on her main. The builder was S.Richards. The first owner was A.Hill. She sank off Musick Point in 1950 with the loss of two lives, was recovered and destroyed. This is described in Noel Mitchell’s book “Mullet Boats & Quotes.
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