Boating New Zealand - May 2018

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the two Bailey yachts, Onelua and Prize.

he allure of Onelua persisted however. In late 1922 Bill

Endean commissioned Bailey to design and build him a 43’

“miniature” of Onelua, and work started in May 1923.

Bailey launched Prize on 27 October 1923, the irst, irst-

class yacht built in New Zealand for a local since Logan Bros’

Rawene in 1908. To a large extent she was Onelua reborn,

certainly in spirit. She stayed in Endean’s ownership until

Bressin hompson bought her during WWII.

Many yachtsmen have speculated on how the presence of

Onelua in Auckland from 1919 would have afected its sporting

history. here is no doubt whatsoever that the big Logan Ariki

would have had to look to her laurels long before the advent of

Ranger in 1938.

here is no doubt, too, that a reborn Logan/Bailey rivalry

would have stimulated more yacht building and could have

forced Archie Logan back to his drawing board many years

earlier than he did in the 1930s. Pleasant thoughts!

he story of Prize will be the subject of a Vintage

Perspectives article soon. BNZ

W.P. (Bill) Endean was a solicitor and later MP

for Remuera. In 1914 his father, John Endean,

built Endean’s Building, the prominent ferro-

concrete structure at the foot of Queen Street

which became the home of the Squadron for

many years.

Only a block away was the Waitemata

Hotel, where John Endean had been licensee

for many years. It was also the pub where

Charlie Bailey was a well-known habitué of the private bar for 40

years or so and had a big hand in the Onelua venture.

Bill Endean does not seem to have owned a boat until this charge

to secure Onelua, but he had crewed on many, including his law

partner Jack Holloway’s 35-foot launch Manu just pre-war. He spent

the latter part of WWI in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Patrol.

After the Onelua episode, he ordered a 14-foot One Design yacht

from Bailey in September 1920, but two months later graciously

ceded her to Lord Jellicoe, the immensely popular Governor General.

She was launched soon after as Iron Duke which made the Sanders

Cup 14-footers the hottest things on the water. She is now on display

at the National Maritime Museum at Hobson Wharf.

BILL ENDEAN