Boating New Zealand — February 2018

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True to John’s

desire for good

looks they bought

the very pretty

sedan 30-footer

Cleone.

As the family grew up, the Hartley became rather cramped

for cruising so John bought Naiad, a 1901 Seabird design by

Charles Mower and Thomas Fleming Day, the editor of the

highly influential yachting magazine Rudder.

The Seabird was a 25ft 9ins hard-chine yawl intended to be

an easily-constructed cruiser for the eastern seaboard of the

United States, but soon proved to be ideal for very spartan

offshore work. The magazine had published working drawings

which were a model for step-by-step amateur construction of

this strong, seaworthy and well-proven type.

Hundreds were built all over the world in the first decades

of the 20th century and they gave great service. The Tercel

brothers of Ponsonby built Naiad for themselves in August

1914. She went through many hands over the years (see Vintage
      Perspectives September 2017) and had grown an ugly doghouse
      when the Stubbs family bought her in 1967.
      After selling Naiad in the early 1970s, John built another
      Hartley 16, Jaunty Bird, which again he raced with Richmond.
      Jaunty Bird was followed by another Seabird, this one in very
      sound, original configuration.

She was named Seabird, one of Naiad’s contemporaries but

built in Roseneath, Wellington by William Waddilove and his

future brother-in-law, the famous Harry Highet of the Tauranga

7-footer (in Auckland the P Class) and many other outstanding

centreboarders.

When she was completed in late 1913 or early 1914, the two

young men skidded Seabird from the Roseneath ridge down the

steep zigzag path in the gully and launched her at Balaena Bay.

During the 1914 and 1915 seasons they raced her with success

with the short-lived Te Ruru Sailing Club in harbour and long-

distance races. Later notable Wellington owners included the

Kirkcaldie family of Kirkcaldie and Stains, and Harry Higham

who later started Sea Spray magazine in 1946.

Seabird gave way to the bigger Classique, a very fine H28 in

which the family did extensive cruising for several years. The

concept of the H28 was similar to that of the Seabird. Both were

Yankee designs for the same purpose, wholesome safe cruisers,

easy to build, not fast but weatherly and sound for family cruising.

L. Francis Herreshoff designed the H28 in 1943 and cautioned

against ANY changes to his model in wood. Several were built in

FAR LEFT

John Stubbs with one of his models.

LEFT

The Hartley 16 Jaunty.

BELOW

John’s Idle Along Maggie.

BOTTOM Cleone.