COOEE- “A Friendly call over long distances”

Last week’s story about Sailing Magazines focussed on overseas publications, but many Australian readers might have grown up on the correspondence from Jill Knight in various antipodean publications.

Her boat COOEE has a special history! It was built for Auckland fish merchants Messrs Cow & Gane by Bailey Bros in 1894. To non-New Zealanders the Baileys fall under the shadow of the Logans, but my personal Classic Yacht sailing experience on the Hauraki Gulf indicates that the supremacy of one over the other is far from a foregone conclusion. It seems that COOEE was converted into a racing yacht by Auckland yachtsman W J Davis in the 1920s, and then reverted to a fishing boat in 1927 by fisherman Jock Mackay, who renamed her VIOLA. She was abandoned in Freemans Bay Auckland in 1937, and then restored for photographer Arthur Powell in 1938. She was then refitted by Peter Cree, who then sailed her into the Pacific, and on to Australia, China, the Philippines during the 1980s, and her subsequent ownership by Peter Cree's former crew member Jill Knight, who sailed her around the world between 1983 and 1995 is perhaps what has made her most famous.

Well the next custodian in this august list, could be you! COOEE is for sale on the Gold Coast. The sail price is AU $76,000 Firm. It’s a strange metric, but that’s less than $600 for every year she has been in existence.

Let’s recap.

A yacht constructed with one of the greatest timbers.
By one of the worlds most famous shipwrights.
With 130 years of irrefutable provenance and achievements

All that for $76,000…..Wow!

For more information contact Brendan Hunt