TAIRAROA / TAIROA
details from Russell Ward- photos RW & NZ Herald (screen grabs)

Russell reports that sadly Fridays big blow in Wellington put his old cutter, the Athol Burns Tairaroa onto the rocks. From the NZ Herald news footage you can see that she has nibbled through her mooring pendant. Russell’s Maroro chomped through hers at Devonport and ended up going walkabouts for the previous owner. she was a third of the way through her new one when Russell saved her. He has put a chain on Maroro’s Mahurangi mooring in case it became a habit- gets windy out there.

View NZ Herald footage here   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/national/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503075&gal_cid=1503075&gallery_id=151530

Can any one post an update in the comments section as to whether they were able to crane her off?

Russell’s comments on owning Tairaraoa

I bought her in a rather decrepit condition 25 years ago. She had not long gone walkabouts from her Okahu Bay mooring and ended up on the bund rocks at Tamaki Drive. Happily she was floated off and served as a mussel and kelp farm for a long time until I read the riot act to her owner. He responded by offering her to me as is where is.
I put a diver down and he verified that there were deep gouges and as far as he could see, she was in reasonable nick.
I got him to clean off as much as he could –including three bags of mussels for which he thanked me warmly.
Buck Rodgers and I towed her to Bayswater –where there was a welcoming slipway.
Merv Sefonte put in a lot of dutchmen and graving pieces, repaired the edges of several planks so there could be recaulked and she was a lovely member of the Ward family until I bought Gloaming.
She was an amazing yacht. Buck reckoned she’d be a rocking horse with her hull shape but no so, she’d just put her shoulder down and rip into it. She’d keep her weigh in a slight breeze because of her weight. We could sneak up on and overtake much bigger boats to their horror. The cutter rig made her very easy to sail on and off the mooring –yes Alan I had a swing mooring there in those days. The engine was an Arona single and had to be started on a pull cord -it was kind of hard in a confined space to manipulate the decompressor and pull. Easier to sail everywhere.
No electrics –a real boat.
I took her out in a snorter of an Easterly gale to see what she could do. Got her on her beam ends several times and she never developed any nasty helm traits. Could have/should have taken a few rolls down but she was a real Cook Straiter with a very heavy rig and I wanted to try her out.

21-06-2015 An Update from Russell Ward

Thanks be to Ward Minor (Caroline) for these pix. High tide at 8.30 am 9 pm. The pix below were taken 1500 Saturday amid feverish activity to get patches in place.
She has been floated off. Russell’s spy will take more photos later in the week. Russell’s guess she is at Evans Bay haul out.
Cranes????!!!! This is a proper ship and a proper salvage job! She is well repairable by the looks. Those planks are thick!
BTW the name can be taken to mean “spending ones time in a pleasant way” but Russell will leave it to HDK for the definitive translation.

22-06-2015 – Russell Ward Update

To quote Russell “Solid planking pays off eh what? Taiaroa lives!”

13-10-2018 UPDATE – She is being restored.

Her new owner Otto Schutte has advised that the name of the boat in the photos above is actually Tairoa not Tairaroa. Otto found this carved into the transom while stripping the paint off. All the planks and corking have been done on the hull below the water line But still a work in progress – photos below.

13-10-2018 Input from Robin Elliott

Tairoa was registered in Auckland in 1965 as E-194 as designed by Athol Burns and built by her owner Mr. A. Bland. Her launch date is unknown. She was still registered to him as late as 1978.
Other Owners: R. Shipman (Mt Roskill) 1987?/93+?; S. Hall (Waiouru) 1999+?

Dimensions 25’10in x 20’10in x 8’10in x 4’6in; 240sqft sail; ballast 300lb inside, 2ton outside. She was allocated NZYF number 594 in 1969.