Reremai V126 – Sailing Sunday

I was recently contacted by Nick Atkinson I own Melita (L-28), Nick has been looking for info on the V class
Reremai, for a good friend of his who’s currently working on a Fife (Eilean) in the Med.
The only info they have been able to uncover a previous owner who commented – “We purchased the “Reremai” in or around 1953-4, we moored her in Okahu Bay. She was originally an un-ballasted racing 18ft Mullet Boat and the builders plaque stated that she was built by the Logan Bros. Hr registered number was V126. We added heaps of ballast and sailed the gulf for many years, the only worth while photo is attached, this was taken on the Waitamata during a regatta. The last time I saw the “Reremai” was at “Kawau Island” where she was under a reconstruction by (we think) a guy named “Morris”.

Can any of the woodys – help Nick out?

Harold Kidd Input

As for REREMAI, Logan Bros went out of business in 1911 so any builder’s plate with their name on it was a fake.
REREMAI was built in late 1933 probably by Douglas Kusabs at 15 Church St., Onehunga. It is possible that she may have been built by a professional such as Les Coulthard, but there’s no record I can find of that.
She raced on the Manukau at first but Kusabs brought her over to the Waitemata in late 1935/early 1936. Her sail number was V72. Kusabs sold her to B. Foote in November 1936 and he sold her to R. Verran of Northcote in 1938.
In the image above we see, from left, V105, BON VOYAGE built by the Ragg brothers in 1939, V124, SYLVIA, later MARIE, and V126, REREMAI with a new sail number consequent upon her being reregistered with APYMBA in 1953 to H & A Davis of Tanekaha Road, Titirangi.
These were all ballasted 18 footers, loosely called “mullet boats”. REREMAI had 8cwt of internal ballast.
REREMAI’s racing history was mainly on the Manukau and then in the occasional Northcote-Birkenhead and Auckland Anniversary Regatta once she got to the Waitemata..

20-03-2017 – Input from Robin Elliott – Further to the above.
The Manukau clubs issued their own sail identification, the Cruising Club letters A-Z, while the Yacht & Motor Boat Club used numbers from 1 upwards. By the mid 1930’s this had started to breakdown under the regular import of Waitemata boats with Waitemata sail numbers. Also A-Z only gave the Cruising club 26 boats and was self-limiting.
It seems likely that Reremai did not have a numbered sail prior to 1935 when Kusabs took her to the Waitemata whereupon she was issued with V-72. She was stolen from her mooring in Mechanics Bay in March 1936 and the photograph published in the Herald, while poor quality, appears to show no registration number.
A 1935/36 list gives Reremai the number V-60 but this is a confusion with the Panmure 18-footer Reretai, something that continued until Reretai dropped out of sight during the mid 1940’s.
The Auckland Museum has photos of V-60 dated 1941, some labelled Reremai others Reretai.
She took V-126 in 1951 when owned by D.F. Baker of Hobsonville.
In the 1973 NZYF register she was owned by M. Peterson and reported as carrying sail V-129. This number was also repeated in the NZYF registration of 1976 and 1978, owner A. Keyworth, This number may well be a typo just picked up and carried over..
It may have even been a borrowed sail. V-129 was issued in 1954 to a boat named Cobra (dunno what that was). Nobody really cared what you did with these old girls and things were what you said they were.You made up your own history.
By 1988 she was owned by A. Morris and apparently carrying V-72 again.
She appeared on TradeMe Sep 2007: For Sale, port side damaged in storm, $1000
Still out there somewhere.

Laughing Lady Update
A wee update on Laughing Lady ex the ‘Seven Oceans Boatworks FB page, photos below. Looks like a splash is a happening thing soon at the Whangateau boat yard 😉

Update 07-08-2017 – Getting Closer, some nice detail; work happening 🙂

22-08-2017 Update – poking her nose out 😉

19-12-2017 Update – Getting So Close. Check out the chrome game chairs 😉