Mid August News
A quick trip around the wooden boat world with a few interesting links
TOROA Update
Delighted to get some communication this week from Peter McCurdy, the driving force behind one of our favourite long projects. You might remember last year’s article but now we have an update courtesy of Boating New Zealand.
The fight to save Auckland’s last steam ferry
Waiting for the gangway (Auckland Weekly News) // Photo credit: Toroa Restoration Society
If you remember the SS Toroa crossing Auckland’s harbour, you’ll recall her quiet grace and steady presence. Now, 100 years since her launch—graceful, enduring, and quite literally raised from the depths—Auckland’s last surviving steam ferry stands on the cusp of a full restoration. The Toroa Preservation Society is calling for public support to help return her to service on the Waitematā.
Once she carried millions. Then she sank. Now, as the SS Toroa celebrates her centenary, a small team of volunteers is determined to return her to glory—and to the Waitematā Harbour.
Ferry basin // Photo credit: Toroa Preservation Society
The Toroa was launched on 28 April 1925 from George Niccol’s St Mary’s Bay yard. The last of the Albatross-class double-ended steam ferries built for the Devonport Steam Ferry Company, she joined a fleet that once defined life on Auckland’s harbour. For decades, she ferried passengers between the city and the North Shore, surviving the advent of the Harbour Bridge and the shift to road transport.
West Australian Recognition
An article by Nigel Sharp, friend and contributor to SWS, caught our eye this week as it tells the story of a little Aussie Boat, to the vast and discerning British readership of “Classic Boat Magazine”
Thera Returns: Unbeatable Aussie Gaff Centerboarder
Thera on the Swan River earlier this year. Credit: Nigel Sharp
The most sensational and controversial yacht ever to race on Port Phillip.” A bold statement from Bert Ferris, the late archivist of the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron, but few who know the story of the yacht Thera – particularly her first couple of decades – would disagree with it.
Thera was designed by the self-taught Charlie Peel and built by him and his brother on the Railway Coal Canal in Melbourne in 1911. Although he would later design the 50ft-plus (15m+) Acrospire III and Acrospire IV (1923 and 1929 respectively and both still sailing today), Charlie was best known for his smaller, beamy, lightweight centreboarders, probably influenced from his time working in New York shipyards in the early 1900s when such boats were built to the designs of Nat Herreshoff and others. One of his centreboarders was the 1909 Idler from which was developed the 21 Foot Restricted Class, several more of which he designed, and which was the class used for fierce interstate competition racing for the Forster Cup, donated by Lord Forster, the Governor-General of Australia from 1920 to 1925.
Save a historic 10ft Dinghy! Its free!
We recieved an email this week from SWS supporter and Couta Boat sailor Tricia O’Brien this week, who is helping to find a new home for a 10ft dinghy. Tricia writes
“She was built by Harry Clark and used by Harry as a fishing vessel. Therein lies the boat’s provenance. Presently the boat is in the custody of Ron Clark, Harry’s son from Port Arlington who is in the process of moving premises and needs to offload the boat free to a good home.”
Harry followed this up with
“Here are two pictures of my father Harry Clark boat. Just a bit of information on dad’s dinghy. It is the last boat he designed and built for himself. He used to row down the bay from Williamstown 2 to 3kms and fish. After much persuasion from the family he finally bought a motor. There are a lot of stories about dad and the dinghy. All dad’s skills in designing and building show through. Who ever gets it is getting history.”
And if you are wondering who Harry Clark was check out this facebook page
Succession Planing or Happy Accident
Falling in love with… restoring….enjoying… a wooden boat all takes a lot of time…. and in some cases a fair amount of money. This is almost always money that you are never going to get back. This explains why the tradional boat owner demographic is a little more advanced in age than the average boatie, and its also why succession planning is so important. We all know of people who have put there heart and soul into a boat only to find there are no ready custodians from the next generation to take her forward.
That’s why I love this little story from the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival (Sept 5-7, 2025)
From Mother to Son: Lorraine’s Story
By Carol Hasse
I found my beloved Nordic Folkboat for sale in Pt. Hudson in 1979. With a loan co-signed by my dad, she became mine. After her first refit by Port Townsend’s finest shipwrights—and much celebration—I named her Lorraine after my mom.
Lorraine and I grew old together sailing the Salish Sea with friends and family. My son, Grayson, “enjoyed” many summer cruises from the age of one through his twenties. We sailed from Princess Louisa to South Sound. It is a kind son who will cruise with his mom on her 25’ wooden boat with a varnished bucket for a head, a wood stove for heat, and a cabin with barely sitting headroom.
In 2023, Grayson helped me sail Lorraine to what I thought would be her last Victoria Classic Boat Festival. I intended to put Lorraine up for sale at Port Townsend’s Wooden Boat Festival the following week. While I ferried back across the Strait, Grayson’s girlfriend Natalie joined him in Victoria to sail home through the San Juan Islands to Port Townsend and the festival. Along the way, they fell in love with cruising Lorraine and with each other, and, hurray, are now Lorraine’s stewards!
August 2024, Grayson and Natalie cruised Lorraine to the San Juan and Gulf Islands and Victoria’s and Port Townsend’s festivals. This year, they completed a seven week haul-out, including rebuilding the rudder with guidance from the Shipwrights Co-Op. Lorraine is glowing in her Point Hudson slip, and my heart is glowing, too.
Check out more of the upcoming action at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival HERE
Eight Bells- Jesse Terry
I didn’t know Jesse personally, but we had some great communication with him when he allowed us to use his story “Recapping a Classic Yacht’s Journey in the Bermuda Race” about three years ago. So I was sad to read this article in the American Classic Yacht Owners publication.
Fair Winds, Jesse
It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of our fellow member and dedicated board member, Jesse Terry.
Jesse passed away August 1st while preparing his beloved Abigail, a 1956 Alden ketch, for the heart of the Maine classic yachting season. Jesse’s unwavering dedication to classic yachts and the community surrounding them was evident to anyone who had the pleasure of sailing with—or against—him.
Whether racing offshore in the Bermuda Race or, most recently, in the Marblehead to Halifax Race just weeks ago, Jesse demonstrated how preparation and passion can take a classic yacht far beyond the horizon. Abigail wasn’t just a boat—she was his partner in adventure, and he proved what was possible with skill, care, and vision.
At the time of his passing, Jesse was leading his division in the Classic Yacht Challenge Series and was a vital part of shaping what the circuit is today traveling throughout the Northeast to connect with others who shared his love of camaraderie and competition on the water.
Jesse was also a gifted writer, capturing what it means to be a passionate steward of classic yachts. His reflections have inspired many of us and will continue to do so.
Plans for a memorial and appropriate tributes to Jesse’s contributions to the classic yachting community will be shared in due time. For now, we hold Jesse, his family, and the crew of Abigail in our thoughts as we mourn the loss of a sailor, a friend, and a true advocate for the classics.
Fair winds, Jesse. You will be missed.
— The Classic Yacht Owners Association
Maiden Flop
I’m sure that most of you remember the 2018 film “Maiden”. It probably did more to get women into sailing than all the yacht club gender equity programmes combined. And it was a great watch!
So I was a disappointed (but quite amused) to read this review in the Guardian of a new musical along the same lines…… Yes a musical! I could have told you that was a bad idea!
Maiden Voyage review – women’s round-the-world sailing musical runs aground
By Arifa Akbar
Southwark Playhouse Elephant, London
Hollering songs, cartoonish characters and dire dialogue mar this well-intentioned true story of the first all-female crew to attempt the Whitbread ocean race.
The problems are multifold … Maiden Voyage. Photograph: Pamela Raith
This intrepid tale of a sailing team atop the high seas spumes with good intentions. It is an against-the-odds story of the first all-female crew to attempt an ocean race – the Round the World Whitbread race of 1989-1990 – even as a sexist press scoffs at them.
Skipper, Tracy (based on Tracy Edwards, played by Chelsea Halfpenny), leads the eight-strong team, singing all the while. The production’s sails are raised in an opening scene featuring a projection of waves (good work by video designer Jack Baxter), the set itself the boat’s helm.
But the endeavour quickly runs aground. The problems are multifold: the songs composed by Carmel Dean contain plenty of harmonising but they are hollering in volume, blandly hymnal, often unmelodious bar the odd, tuneful number such as Approaching Australia. Lyrics by Mindi Dickstein are strained and expositional, as is her book. Characters speak in unconvincing ways. “I really need a scoop,” a journalist tells the team as he interviews them. “We’ve been at this for six months and no one wants to back a female team,” Tracy tells her friend, Jo (Naomi Alade), as if she doesn’t know this fact.
The songs repeatedly, needlessly, remind us that these are women at sea. Alade is a strong singer but some others wobble.
Let us know if you have any weekly news that you would like to add into the mix