Waitemata swim

[Gary Baigent]

Thought you people might be interested in this "taster" from Jim Young's upcoming biography relating to sailing when the Waitemata was a little different than it is today.
"One time on a Sunday afternoon it was blowing a half a gale with thunder and lightning and we ended up being positioned close to where the sewer was being discharged off Orakei. People would have no idea what that was like. They had holding tanks where the aquarium is now and they used to fill up, because Auckland was continually growing and when they discharged the tanks with an outgoing tide, sometimes the tide would run out and there would still be sewage in the tanks - so at low tide they just had to keep on discharging …. and it would go up the harbour. I was racing with Roy and Frank Dixon and we had solids floating in the bilge, came aboard with the spray. Another time I raced with Bill Herald as his mainsheet hand on his 18 footer Ajax; it was blowing hard from the north-east with the race starting off Orakei Wharf and they always arranged the course so that half way through the race the fleet would sail past the wharf where a crowd of people would be watching. I hadn’t been out in the 18’s much and they were all using trapezes by then with six guys out to weather on this boat, The only guy who wasn’t trapezing was Bill on the helm and we’re over canvassed and were concentrating more on keeping the bloody boat afloat than thinking about tactics. And we’d gone through the starting line off Orakei Wharf and we were just thinking about tacking and next thing the centreboard bumped the sewer pipe and the boat stopped dead, put her nose down, and these guys on trapezes all kept going and went right around the bow, around the forestay, the five of them there on their wires all dangling in the tide pulling the boat over. I’m the only one that’s left because the mainsheet stopped me from going and I let the mainsheet go but with only me on the rail it wasn’t even enough to allow for the rope to run out between the blocks. And I had time to contemplate my fate that here are these guys in the water struggling through sewage and trying to get out from under the sail as it floated down onto the water, and the boat went over so far and the next thing I’m going to have to jump in. And at the time thoughts flash through your mind, if you drop the sail in that water you might cut it away and not get it back. And I’m going to be in this defecation and I can’t boil myself to sterilize myself, I just going to have to, I’m in it, you know. And of course I wasn’t thinking about the other guys, I’m thinking about myself. I suppose they were only thinking about themselves too. And nobody would come near to pick us up. There was no salt water for about a quarter of a mile in any direction. And the tide was coming in and we gradually got carried up until the boat got stuck underneath Orakei Wharf – where it was shallow enough for us to be able to touch the bottom. And every now and again you could feel the glass. Somebody pulled the boat out from there and we took it into Orakei to the slipway, pulled the boat out, and left. And somehow we got home, don’t know how, might have been by bus. And of course once I got home I was immediately into the bath, had three baths in an hour. And every now and again I run into the guys and say, “Why don’t we have a reunion about this?” And you know Bill’s so bloody embarrassed about it he doesn’t want to talk about it."

[TADAMS]

Thanks for sharing this story - can't wait to read more of the book.

Also a big thanks for sharing your book "Light Brigade" I read it cover to cover in two days - just could not put it down.

Cheers
Tim
Farr design #54 owner - built by Apha Marine in your part of the world

[Gary Baigent]

I can see you're a kiwiphile Tim - nice Farr, is that a stock 1104 or is it a breathed on sister to Jiminy Cricket?
Jim has literally hundreds of stories like the one above, well not quite the same, but all fascinating.

[TADAMS]

1/2 ton design from 1975? The Farr website shows pictures on one called Gitchy Goomy. They are great boats light years ahead of their time in 1975. Mine is undergoing a partial refit - redid the deck paint and nonskid (kiwigrip great stuff) - awesome build quality - not a single soft spot in the Balsa core after 33 years of hard sailing!

[Gary Baigent]

My dopey mistake - realized straight after I'd sent it, too small for 1104.

[ancient kayaker]

Nice story: reminds me -when I was a kid I would be taken to "the seaside" which for a Londoner meant Southend. The last time I ventured into the water someone's well-digested meal remnant floated past a few feet away. That was it for me and my folk as far as that place was concerned.

Southend was a thriving place in those far-off days, no longer. You'd think they'd protect their trade by running the sewer pipe a bit further out to sea. It would have had to go a long way though, being a tidal estuary.