CRAFTSMANSHIP
Wayne Olsen's attempt at semi-retirement has been
shelved for just one more classic boat renovation...
FASCINATING IDA
ANTIPODEAN YARD VISITS
HORIZON BOATS NEW ZEALANDWORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS NIGEL SHARP
W
ayne Olsen thought he had gone into semi-
retirement until, that is, John Street, the chairman
of New Zealand’s Classic Yacht Charitable Trust,
asked him to restore another boat. Wayne had just
spent a year game fishing in the Bay of Islands when John asked him
to go to Sydney to look at Ida, a historic New Zealand boat which
had come on to the market. Wayne had previously restored five
other boats for the Trust – Te Hauraki, Frances, Gloriana, Thelma
and Waitangi – so, despite his attempt at retirement, he was the
natural choice for Ida.
The 58ft gaff cutter Ida was built by Chas Bailey in 1895 and had
been in Australia for half a century before John arranged to buy
her and ship her home. At the time of my visit to Wayne’s yard
in Stillwater north of Auckland, the boat had only just arrived
and work was about to begin. Ida’s hull is of triple-skin kauri with
internal fore-and-aft longitudinals and no transverse frames, a typical
method of construction for boats of her era which has allowed her
to maintain the fairness of her sheer. Wayne already knew that therewas some rot in the inner skin but was unsure of the condition of
the middle layer. The doghouse and coachroof had been added since
she was built and the rest of the original kauri deck is in a very poor
state so it will all be completely replaced, with a plywood subdeck
and kauri planks laid on top, in her original flush deck configuration.
The interior will also be entirely replaced.
Wayne began his boatbuilding apprenticeship at the age of 14 (in
1974) at Chris Robinson’s yard. For five years he was “a tradesman’s
boy”, the tradesman being Ron Smith who himself had served his
apprenticeship with Jack Logan of the famous New Zealand
boatbuilding family. When he came out of his time, Wayne went
to work at Brin Wilsons where Jack Logan himself was working at
the time. “He was a terrifying and grumpy guy,” said Wayne, “and
he told me ‘you’re my boy now’. But I was tremendously fortunate to
be able to learn so much from those people. In those days, we were
taught every aspect of boatbuilding, starting with a table of offsets
and building from scratch. But nowadays boatbuilders just seem to
learn specific aspects of the process.”The 58ft gaff cutter Ida built
by Chas Bailey in 1895