I have often mentioned the Ancient Mariners, a group that sails every Thursday at a pocket-sized by lake standards, stretch of water of Auckland’s north shore in New Zealand’s north island. A mustard-keen lot they are, highly unstructured they are a group of about twenty active, mainly retired model sailing boat enthusiasts that are about as laid back in their approach and their attitude towards their weekly gathering, as a worm on a fallen leaf gently floating on the waters at this peaceful little `puddle’ called Onepoto.

They pay no subs or fees and are quick to emphasise that this is not a club, their objectives being to have fun, enjoy the sailing of their boats and share friendship and fellowship among each other. The writer being one of them, I would say that `we take seriously the art of not taking things too seriously’, and whereas visitors may pick up references to `Admiral’ or `Commodore’ and the like, it is all in humour as all are equal, all are friends, all are `ancient’ and everyone is willing to give a hand to others. In fact there is a sort of Commodore - a 'dogadore', Bob Walters endearing little pooch Mo who is almost always there, and occasionally wears her naval cap of office!

Sloops, schooners, ketches, early New Zealand scows, mullet boats, pilot cutters the occasional one metre and square-riggers sail together, everyone cruising to no particular place, with little 12” Footy yachts often in among them. The heading photo to this column is taken there. Suffice to say, this is the place and the day for `windling !’ The Auckland Ancient Mariners you ask ? Now you know!

Time now to tickle your palate, salivate your taste buds.bring on a few OOHS and AHHS and WOW acclamations ! as you look at a couple of photos of the famous Pamir model built and sailed by Andreas Gondesen of Germany, a model shipwright of outstanding ability to say the very least. He has recently re-rigged the 1.52m model weighing15kg . One of the top ten boat modelers in the world I suppose, Andreas who has been modelling for 27 years, lives in a small village in the north of Germany known as Ausackerwesterholz close to the Danish border and he has built several other square-riggers including the USS Constitution.

It is worth remembering that adults have been sailing model sailboats since 1896 as this historic photo at the Round Pond in Kensington, London shows, though radio control was of course not yet discovered.

A great many years later on a visit to London, at the very same pond I would meet an old gentleman called George Phillpott with whom I became friendly, and became a `gofer’ for his non radio-controlled, a bit primitive Thermopylae (though she did not look anything like the famous tea clipper). We would meet up most Sundays on arrangement, and on reflection my early interest in little boats on the pond might well have spawned there.

It still rates in my book, unquestionably as `the greatest little model yacht ocean race of them all!.’ Conducted for a few years annually for one class of model yacht, the New Zealand produced Townson Electrons, each one hand-made by Des Townson, and held in Fiji, the overall distance eight hundred metres once round the pocket sized resort island of Toberua was indeed unique, right down to the fact that yacht owners raced for the honour of having details of their `win’ engraved on a galvanize bucket that never ever left the island.

All over usually in about eighteen to twenty minutes, the `round the island’ was the closing event of the Townson model yacht regatta and usually attracting Electron owners from New Zealand, Australia and Fiji. The boats which still made by Des today are 895mm in length and weigh 5 kilograms, and are sold complete and ready to sail. At the end of this ocean race, the race that followed was the one that finished at the bar where cold beers were lined up! Unlike a lot of serious racing the event filled my bowl with all the right ingredients, racing, having fun and still having friends afterwards. Serious racing of the not too serious kind best sums it up.

Many readers will know of the ketch Tzu Hang sailed to some notoriety by voyagers, Miles and Beryl Smeeton, and the first crewed yacht under fifty feet to double Cape Horn westabout.

This fine looking RC model of Tzu Hang (which incidentally means Goddess of Mercy) was made by Canadian, Ken Lockley who is seen with the model in 2001.

With a hull built of 3mm plywood frames, lightweight spruce stringers and planked with two layers of five sixteenth by one sixteenth red cedar, four channel radio equipment is used. The real vessel after being bought by a new owner was then used as a drug runner, was later impounded and towed to an area for impounded vessels in the harbour of San Juan, Puerto Rico where sadly she sunk when a tropical cyclone later hit the island.

The Huia was a 115.1’ topsail schooner launched in the north of New Zealand way back in 1894, and she appeared in so many ports throughout the Pacific, I believe that in New Zealand and Pacific maritime history, the vessel can justifiably be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Cutty Sark. Surprisingly, few people have made other than display models of her, but Hugh Hobden of Christchurch, New Zealand some years ago built a 47” length overall RC model of her, the photograph here I remember taking on a visit there. The drawing of Huia was by Clifford Hawkins, a dear friend of mine who also wrote the book The log of the Huia, twice reprinted.

photo and drawing by Clifford Hawkins

One of the most brilliant photographers of model sailboats, certainly in present years, is my friend-never-met, Hans Staal of the Netherlands who when not sailing his own model sailboats, is out capturing on camera other model sailboat owners’ exquisite models, the photos taken usually at the right level for best and most realistic effect. Just feast your eyes on this one and you will see what I mean. It is hard to pick whether it is a real boat or a model don’t you think ?

Build em small, like Aucklander, Bob Walters’ little oyster boat Boadicea (seen below being launched), or build em large and therefore more impressive and visually commanding on the water, like the A class sized schooner of Martin Foulds of Christchurch, New Zealand which he is about to launch in the second photo. It is of course purely a matter of choice, remembering that the bigger you build, the greater the logistics involved are in getting the model from home to the water and then into it, then out of it and home again. Consider aspects like your present transport… and your lifting capabilities! If you are thinking `small’, how good is your eyesight? Then again, you could `size up’ somewhat and go to a metre long (or thereabouts) boat. If you are going to cruise or windle rather than class race, the size is your choice entirely for there are no rules.

LAST WORDS FROM ABEL

“AAARRRGH ! There, I’ve exhausted my vocabulary
of model nautical obscenities - I feel much better now !”

Other Columns by Mark Steele:

• Welcome
• Modeling is about People
• Of a ketch and a mullety, and schooners with many masts!

Articles by Mark Steele:

• Make Way for Ron's "Lady of Fortune"
• Enjoying the charms of Classic Model Yachts
• A Square Rigger on a British Pond

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