Tawera was the latest in a succession of top-line yachts and motor launches ordered by the wider Wilson family during the depths of the Depression. They clearly had a coordinated plan to rescue the Auckland boatbuilding industry in order to keep alive the skills and continue the traditions that had made Auckland famous from the early 1890s.
The New Zealand Herald Wilson family was convoluted with several branches with several shared Christian names. The founder of the newspaper, William Chisholm Wilson was born in the Highlands of Scotland in 1810. He served his time as a printer, married Margaret Liston in 1832 and emigrated to Tasmania where his three children were born. In 1841 the family shifted to Auckland where William immediately became involved in the newspaper business.
William and Helen’s elder son William Scott Wilson (the first) had five children. The second son was William (Willie) Robert Wilson whose second and third children were Robert (Bob) Ballard Wilson (born 1900) and Stuart Scott Wilson (called Stuart or “S.S.” by the family) (born 1906).
William Scott Wilson’s third son was Frederick Walter Wilson (Fred) who had one son William Scott Wilson (called Scott) born in 1907. Willie and Fred were very close as brothers. Together they owned the Logan yachts Isca (1888), Moana I (1890), Moana II (1895) while Willie owned Queenie in 1912 and Ariki in 1919 until he passed her on to his sons Bob and Stuart in 1927.
All the Wilson male cousins worked for the New Zealand Herald. After leaving school Bob and Stuart were in administration while Scott finished up running the Herald’s commercial printing operation. They all had sizeable incomes for the time, and most were very keen yachtsmen. Bob and Stuart lived with their parents, Willie and Lucinda Wilson at St Leonard’s, a large clifftop property in Lake Road, Takapuna, that encompassed what is now the Wilson Home and the grounds of Takapuna Grammar School and Belmont Intermediate School.
Scott’s parents, Fred and Olive (née Wiseman), lived in Mountain Road Epsom but had summer residences on Waiheke and in Clifton Road Takapuna, a few hundred yards from St Leonard’s. The cousins, three boys and four girls, all much of an age, spent a lot of time together.
In the winter of 1922, the two cousins Stuart and Scott were approaching their late teenage years. Their fathers, Willie and Fred respectively, decided to employ their old friend Arch Logan to design and build an identical pair of clinker centreboard racing yachts for their lads. The inspiration was the 18ft 6in restricted patiki class of the Parnell Sailing Club that had started with a couple of Logan-built yachts in 1898, owned by Willie Wilson and his cousin Roy.
The twin 1922 boats were bermudan-rigged stemhead sloops and utterly beautiful in every way. They were slightly shorter at 18ft than the old patiki class. These two yachts were the precursors of a vigorous class adopted by the Squadron, known as the 18ft Patiki M Class, and followed the Jellicoe class (X Class) 14-footers which preceded them by a couple of years.
The two boats were built side by side in Arch Logan’s shed in Ngataringa Bay. Scott’s boat was christened Mawhiti and was issued with the sail number M1. Stuart’s boat was Matarere and got M3 to echo the sail number of his father Willie’s yacht Ariki, A3, under Auckland’s newly introduced alpha-numerical sail number system. Initially they raced against the new breed of V Class square and round-bilged 18-footers but, as the M Class took on, some exciting racing developed, especially after Arch built Maroro for Willie in 1924 and Manene for Stuart’s brother Bob in 1925.
Scott’s Mawhiti had the best of the early encounters but Matarere, sometimes sailed by Arch or his son Doug, became dominant. Stuart sold Matarere in 1926 and took over Manene from his brother Bob who was then heavily involved in motor racing.
Bob had become dominant in beach racing at Muriwai. Starting in 1925 he raced a Jewett but then bought the bright yellow Stutz that had raced at Indianapolis in 1915 but had not shown up well in recent races in this country. After a great deal of re-engineering Bob got the 5½-litre four-cylinder car into great form and won the New Zealand Motor Championship in three straight years, 1926-7-8, winning the cup outright. In 1929 he took the Australasian Beach Championship with the Stutz.
Back to boats. Scott kept Mawhiti competitive until he sold her to Ray Thorpe in the winter of 1935 as soon as he had Tawera under construction at Colin Wild’s yard. Scott intended Tawera as a cruiser as well as a handy harbour racer. She was Arch Logan’s last design for the Wilsons. In typical Logan fashion her hull was three-skin diagonal built in kauri with full-length planks on the outer longitudinal skin, and to ‘Logan quality’. Arch lived just a few yards above Colin Wild’s yard in Ngataringa Bay, so he kept a close eye on progress. Being built alongside Tawera was the splendid 40ft motor cruiser Lady Gay for Scott’s uncle, Joseph McCartney Wilson which was launched six weeks before Tawera.
Colin Wild launched Tawera on December 30, 1935. Ngataringa Bay is shallow at that point so Wild had to depend on the higher tides for launching. The New Zealand Herald reported,
FINE ADDITION TO FLEET
A fine addition to the Waitemata’s fleet of keel yachts, the new A class boat Tawera, was launched from the yards of Mr. C. Wild at Ngataringa Bay late last night. Planned by the well-known designer Mr. A. Logan, for Mr. Scott Wilson, the craft incorporates many modern features in both her construction and rig.
Colin Wild’s yard 30th December 1935
With high water shortly after 11 p.m., the yacht was taken down the beach during the day and floated from her cradle with the rising tide. The Tawera will be one of the largest of the racing yachts. She has an overall length of 50ft, waterline length 33ft, 10ft. 6in. beam, and 6ft.10in. draught.”
Tawera had her trial spin on January 16, 1936. Her first race was at the Auckland Anniversary Regatta on January 30, when she came in second from Iorangi, with Rawene third in a drifting match. Two days later, in a rising blow in the RNZYS Macky Memorial Trophy race it was Iorangi 1, Rawene 2 and Tawera 3. There was a comment that she showed herself to be tender.
The rest of her season was filled with harbour races, the Kawau weekend race when Mrs Scott Wilson helmed her in the Ladies’ Race plus a spot of cruising, where Scott’s heart really lay. Tawera was well exercised until war came with Squadron racing, cruising, scratch in the Tauranga race in December 1937 (third on handicap). From her launching, Scott kept a fully written up log which still exists. It is in several well-bound volumes, a treasure of Auckland’s yachting history.
War was declared on September 1, 1939. Scott volunteered for service with the Royal New Zealand Volunteer Reserve (RNZVR) and was commissioned as a Sub-Lieutenant. The log records this on Sunday April 7, 1940;
“After all the crew had had an extended swim, breakfast was put on. Most of the morning was spent rowing around Matiatia. About midday a start was made for home and after a very pleasant sail with a nice full sail breeze from the S.W. we arrived back in good time. The remainder of the afternoon was spent taking sails and gear ashore as this was our last weekend of the season and probably for a very long time.”
It was a long time. Scott was posted to Singapore. When that city fell to the Japanese nearly two years later Scott spent the rest of the war serving in England. Tawera spent the war years mothballed on the hard. On 20th December 1945 her winter cover was taken off and she was relaunched after 5½ years idle on the hard. She was towed alongside Princes Wharf where her mast was stepped, she was rerigged then towed to new moorings in Hobson’s Bay. On December 31, 1945 she had her first sail since April 1940 in a strong SW to Day’s Bay.
Scott campaigned Tawera in many races for many years, but cruising was his love. He was a good cook and delighted in catering for his crews. He became Commodore of the New Zealand Yacht Squadron 1947-9. In 1957 he fitted a Gray auxiliary into Tawera to make handling easier, particularly when his wife Kitty and their three children were aboard. Scott kept Tawera until 1974 when he retired.
Later owners included Russell Brighouse, who made some alterations including opening up the cockpit, installing wheel steering and fitting teak decks, Australian vintage enthusiast Phil Dickinson who commissioned Sydney yacht designer David Payne to redesign her rig and finally Mike Mahoney of Auckland who cherishes her and keeps her in the most splendid order.
Next month there will be a rattling good yarn about the match race between the launches Eliza and Seabird to Russell and back in 1908
