Dear Editor,
I love the boating stories in Boating NZ, both current and historic.
In reading Harold Kidd’s delightful article on the Tattersfield brothers ‘Racing with Altair’ (Boating NZ, May 24) and their involvement with the 1936 Tauranga Race, I was reminded of a bit of memorabilia I have in my records.
My father Pat (Neville), and his brother Hal launched the Arthur Robb/Couldrey yacht Tamatea (A20), in January 1937, and were very much part of the Auckland yachting scene of the era. In December of 1937 they undertook their first Auckland-Tauranga race on the yacht, and although I have no record of the result, it would appear that they certainly celebrated a safe arrival, as evidenced by the attached account from the Commercial Hotel in Tauranga!
I recognise so many of the characters mentioned in Harold’s story from my youth, and I suspect some of them may have been part of the ‘21 liqueurs’ mentioned on the invoice. The price for this round was £1/13/0, which I think equates to around $6.75 per shot in today’s money.
It is sobering to recall that at this time the clouds of war were accumulating over Europe, and the pastime of Corinthian Yachting was soon to be put on hold.
I also have a lovely miniature of the Blake Trophy awarded to Pat and Hal as they took Tamatea to win the Tauranga race in 1950 (pic attached).
I have no record of the celebrations that followed, but I sure hope they were welcomed back by Mr L Armitage, proprietor of the Commercial.
Mark Newcomb,
Sandspit.
