CLASSIC YACHT – ROSEMARY F6 – Looking for intel on this yacht & past owner
Recently WW was connected by Phil Doyle asking for help expanding on his knowledge of the yacht ROSEMARY. I’ll let Phil tell the story.
“Going back to the 1960’s and 1970’s my father knew a group of then young architects who sailed with Major Johnson and I remember outrageous stories involving various misadventures involving the colourful Major including serving his crew porridge only discover he had used soap powder as the main ingredient.
I had not given the ROSEMARY a thought until recently when Mr Paul Chevis who has an old Woollacot yacht said his father sailed on the ROSEMARY (he is seen in the above photo) and that the Major made a number of trips to the Three Kings taking scientists and that a number of plants were named after him in-recognition . Wondering if any one can flesh out his story as he is part of a lost breed of adventurer.”
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Rosemary is now in Whangarei, has been restored can contact owner through the Whangarei Crusing Club at Kissing Point.
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I sent an email some time ago about N10. I’m pretty sure my dad owned this mullety in his early 20’s.
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Dad, Richard Rolfe Judd, owned F6. I can’t remember the yacht’s name but it was either Naomi or Kotare, in the 1930s. He and his brothers, Les and Ron, would clean the yacht in Cox’s Bay, where Cashmore’s sawmill was, up Cox’s Creek and to the west. All three brothers sailed to Bay of Islands in The Depression, living off fish and veges bought with part-time jobs ashore.
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My old sailing friend the late John Newsham related the story how once at Mansion House Bay in the 1960’s he was invited over for a drink on the Rosemary, and the Major was complaining bitterly about his b….. crew. When asked how many he had aboard he replied “just me”!
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