Boating New Zealand - July 2018

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I

n the last few issues of Boating I followed the history of the outstanding

Bailey super-yacht Onelua, built for the king of Tonga in 1913 and very

nearly brought back to Auckland by Bill Endean in 1919.

Had that happened, the Logan super-yacht Ariki would have been

extended to retain her dominance of Auckland racing which ended only

when Lou Tercel launched his Knut Reimers-inspired Ranger in 1938.

After RNVR service in Motor Launches with the famous Dover Patrol in

1917-18, Endean returned to Auckland and threw himself into yachting,

and soon into politics. He sufered a major setback to his plans in late 1919

when Onelua was spirited away after he had clinched the deal with the

Kingdom of Tonga’s Auckland agents.

Bill married Doris Simms in 1920. At the end of 1920 he graciously

handed over to the new Governor-General, Lord Jellicoe, the 14ft one-

design boat Charles Bailey Jr was building for him. She was launched as Iron

Duke in the December of that year and sparked a revolution in yachting in

this country.

Today it’s hard to credit that, in 1923, apart from Onelua, no new

irst-class racing keel yachts had been built in New Zealand since Logan

Bros launched Rawene in December 1908 for A.E. Giford. here had been

a handful only of smaller keel yachts built, including the Hand-designed

Tasmanian One-Design class yachts Pacic (1914) and Va nitie (1922), the

Tercel Bros’ cruiser Restless (1920) and Colin Wild’s Delville of January 1923.

here were several reasons for this. Firstly, now that marine engines

had become (relatively) reliable, eicient, easy to manage and powerful, the

money was going into big launches such as the glamorous and beautifully-

appointed double-enders produced by Logan Bros, Bailey & Lowe and other

top Auckland builders. he future of all boating was perceived to be with

LEFT Prize under

construction at

Bailey’s yard in

Beaumont Street.

BELOW RIGHT

Prize launched 27

October 1923 at

Beaumont Street.

BELOW LEFT

Prize planked up.

OPPOSITE Prize of

North Head.