Tag Archives: Russell Brooke

A Recount Of Our Classic Wooden Craft DNA 

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Grace under sail
CLICK The Headline – Grace Under Sail to view

A Recount Of Our Classic Wooden Craft DNA 

Recently I was sent a link to an article that appeared in the New Zealand Geographic magazine back in 2000 – in fact issue 45 , Jan-March. The article was headlined – GRACE UNDER FIRE, written by Vaughan Yarwood with supporting photos from the late Henry Winkelmann and more recent photos ex Hamish Ross and Paul Gillbert.

The stars of the article is the 42’ 1908 Logan built gaff rigged cutter – Rawene, and her then skipper Russell Brooke.

This is a brilliant insight into the early days of boating in and around Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour, I’m sure there will be some mix ups re dates, skipper/craft names but overall we get to see and read the history of these magnificent craft, a lot of which are still sailing today.

Have a read, its only 10>15 minutes, longer if if you linger over the photos 🙂  – even a die-hard motorboat owner like myself found it a fascinating read.

Linda

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LINDA

photos ex Marlene Kendon & Robert Brooke

Several weeks ago I was contacted by Marlene Kendon, the great niece of Leo Swales (& Joseph Swales), now to the naive amongst us (thats me) in the early 1900’s the Swales were prolific owners of yachts & motor launches. Seems they changed vessels at least every two years. Some of the kin were even boatbuilders.
Marlene had in her possession two Swales photos albums, now I was interested, but when I mentioned the albums to Harold Kidd he instructed me to be VERY interested 🙂
I now have the albums & will be reviewing them with Harold & sharing with you all.

Amongst the collection were two loose photos of Linda – the 1927 Colin Wild launch that was almost destroyed by fire in the mid 1980’s & rescued by Robert & Russell Brooke.

I emailed Robert copies of the photos, one he had seen before (its already on ww) but the other (showing Linda underway) was a newbie to Robert. Robert returned the favour with four photos, two showing Linda as they purchased her in 1992, one of her half way thru the reconstruction. The final one has her off Salthouse’s in 1995, after the four year restoration.

Linda features else where on ww so hit the search box to see some early photos.