Windling World: August 2002

ring the beauty pose – Footy’s in smanian windlers – A ‘toot sweet’« O pea-green boat – Seahawk of rching with ease – Keepers of f PUIG ICT a) From the “back issue’ file. On the matter of that very first WW: Sorry but whereas most issues of the last three years are still available, that August °95 issue is on the ‘protected ‘The season is ending, time for sending my graceful model ketch, down the pond to seek its own ‘beyond’, while my Summer | try to stretch’ Our Summer is well gone now, and what a super one it was. Now we are getting into America’s Cup mode and commercial monetary hunger again results in several nations reminding the world what a money wasting exercise the whole contest has become. Let the squabbles begin ! The joys of cruising, both in the Caribbean and the South Pacific, ‘sweetened’ and all too often delivering high species’ list, Within this August issue is a story on the Italian version. of the Fooly, their boats free-sailed, and the wr » ‘Monotipo sail insignia Ve y= “(| Se ~| P shown atleft, The pics and details ~— were kindly sent by Claudio Zultiont of Milan. The Ancient Mariners group of Auckland has “Ru been around for a few and | have years now, finally found space to include @ story on them. voltage charges to human brains by overindulgence on rum, has inspired the editor into story recall mode. Often referred to in my homeland, Guyana, as the falling down drink, in Barbados there was another popular island chant (above centre) In “A toot sweet cruise to Bigga Banga A nonestiie tured and non oranised bunch of guys who sail in friendly harmony, and who value thelr regular contact with each other, the growth of interest Comes al a time when so many ‘strictly competitive’ model yacht clubs here, are continuing to have trouble holding good numbers. ‘Windling’is the noncompetitive use Bay’ (on page 25) readers will have to judge whether what | have claimed of a model sailing boat « the model occured, without ever indeed did occur, whether the rum and cokes claimed to have been consumed was pure fantasy, and merely induced a bout of over-imaginative model sailing boal dreamtime ? yacht equivalent the rum of !) cruising | (but love this “quotable quote credited to Gloria Steinem, which applies to us: ‘It is never too late for a happy childhood ¢ (Continued on page 3) When WW began, | chose to have four friends with similiar beliefs and attitudes as “Keepers of the Spirit of Windling’, and this issue focusses on two of them. Tony Searle of Poole in Dorset, UK, and Stuart Broome who lives in New Zealand, both keen windlers and supporters of WW. In this issue, they tell of some of their chosen interests and of the boats that they build and sail. There is also a story and photos of the utterly ‘dribble-in-delight-over model ketch Seahawk of Auckland built by Malcolm Wilkinson. Words fail me when it comes to describing Malcolm’s high of standard woodwork and general craftsmanship. A brief book review, an ar ti cole That means an awlul tot to fe, friends, and it is for that reason thal! continually strive to stretch the tle al this little magazine, which with this issue celebrates seven kinda long, but pleasant years of publication, Also, think about this as you endure most magazines’ deluge of ads; WW_ rms be one of the few publications in the world that does not “pause for a sponsors message’. Thanks to Aucklander, Bob Walters, there is also a story and photos on a windling group of happy chaps in Tasmania – Australia’s island state, The windling attraction is indeed spread over many countries, and coverage makes WW proud that it is able to include stories. ‘Finally and in conclusion’, as one British comedian used to say, I’d like to introduce a friend ‘aunch and Derek Cookson (at left) with whom | have had an enemy some of us face as we get twenty-four years. Il is he that scans all the Bearings. artwork and drawings Humour me now, please, while | say thanks to the great many readers wizardry, as well as arranges the printing promoting the use of retrieve’ aids in the battle against the “stoop, bend, grizzle and groan’ older. Readers will also find the usual regular columns including the light-hearted, none too serious from all over the world who write, fax, and phone me to say how much they enjoy receiving and reading Windling World – and to the one reader in America who went as far as to offer to fund the ABEL awards, with no strings attached, | might add. of — mine, association of some photos you see in this journal, proofreads, does crucial bits of applies his computer of each issue. Quite frankly, WW could not look as professional as i does without him, or for that matter, possibly even appear, Mark Steele Publisher’ Editor Every boat has got a “beauty pose’, and although there is really no mystique to capturing a model sailboat on film, it is Then there can be another way, if one follows Aucklander, Alan Hayes system of strapping a camera on the deck of his racing trimaran, and once that boat is ‘artists eye’, and a keen observation on how a real sailing vessel should look in close enough to another ‘subject’ model, then triggering by RC the shutter release of given conditions. the camera. | like many others, have found that the secret towards achieving good realism That (as one can see above) makes for a shot about as low on the water as you can largely a matter of having a bit of an and plenty of detail, is to place oneself as low to the water as posible, even if it means lying prostrate on the pavement around the pond, so that the camera is at the level of the model’s hull. Of course, using a faster speed film (say 400) then becomes an advantage if one wants to hold the camera on the subject and ‘freeze’ the shot of the passing model. get, short of donning a wetsuit, then semi- submerging oneself in order to get the camera virtually on the water. | have done a fair deal of model yacht photography covering six years of one metre regattas, but Alan’s photograph of one of the Spencer Fun Fellow boats, well on the go and heeled over, the hull (Continued on page 13) Keepers \& of the ” spirit of windling | was born Bournemouth, in 1929 in Dorset, a very pleasant seaside town on the South Coast of England. My father was serving in – the army for most of my childhood years, and the fact that | attended thirteen schools will give you an idea of how many times we moved homes. In 1941 we moved back to Bournemouth, and apart from the six years when | served in the army, | have lived in Dorset ever since. After trying a couple of jobs, | joined British Telecom as an engineer, working for them for 34 years. Now retired, most of my time is taken up building model planes and boats which | enjoy flying and sailing. Up until a few years ago | sailed a dinghy first, then a junk-rigged sailing cruiser, and on the model side, | seem to have been making models of one kind or another all my life. My first memory of model sailing boats was when | was about six or seven, and carving hulls out of firewood and sails made of paper which | sailed in the nearest pond or puddle. This modelling period made me aware of the kind of models | love to build, and which | sail now, | remember a two-masted schooner with tan sails (continued overleal) given to me when | was eight, and ever since, my love has been vintage sailing craft, and | suppose | have had a go at building cutters, schooners and scows, with the odd tug or battleship to sail on windless days. may it continue to pop through my * letterbox. | have also built and sail a NZ scow Rangi built from Clifford Hawkins drawings (see below) and below that is my faithful pilot cutter April. | also have a Thames barge and belong to the association of model barge owners, racing occasionally and usually at the tail of the fleet ! Twelve years ago at a regatta in Hove | met Bob Capon, who was building and sailing wonderful models of ships of the Nelson period. Sadly, Bob passed away a few years later due to a heart attack, but his legacy is that more people are building ships of the line, and our Poole Radio Model Yacht Club has a very thriving scale section. Through Bob, who also supplied fibreglass hulls of such boats, with a great deal of help from him, my first ship of the line was launched, and from that day | was hooked on square-rigged models. They take a little longer to build and can be tricky to sail, but | find them the most interesting and rewarding of all my models, and | now have three ships of the line. Mark and | became friends a good number of years ago when he read about the theft of a couple of my models and wrote to commiserate have _ been We me. with corresponding ever since, and | had the good fortune to meet him and his charming wife when they visited Dorset a few years back. He does a great job publishing WW, and long | travel considerably, particularly in the summer all over Britain for regattas. | was a few months ago approached by someone on behalf of the Mary Rose Trust, to see if four of us could fit RC in a four foot model of the famous vessel made for a film about her. Such are the ever varied activities of a modeller. Fifty-five years ago Stuart Broome WW’s Keeper of the spirit who lives in the river city of Wanganui in New Zealand, went to sea, and (he says) never reached great heights, but was happy enough to be one of the deck hands on various ships. This fine model, covered in an earlier issue of WW, according to Stuart who takes up the story, “has rotating masts, and an auxiliary motor essential for completing tacks. All sail training square-riggers have motors now. It was enough however, suffice to whet the marine modelling appetite of this quiet, likeable individual, from whose workshop would later spring a variety of sailing models. Stuart is seen above with his threemaster Catherine Bayley, an design square-rigger and the Swales Memorial Cup that own Roy was presented to him by the Taranaki Scale Modellers last year. | also built two schooners (the Julia May shown above) and the America (Continued overleal the former being an 1800’s British Coaster. The trimaran Spraymaker (at right) which does just that in a gale on our local lake, resulted in my having to put an inverted aerofoil fin on its rudder to avoid nose-diving and ending up “A over T’. Square-riggers of the 1800’s without auxiliary engines were as most know, dangerous to sail, and in December 1883 on the Isle of Bute, Firth of Clyde Scotland, the Rothesay Express reported: ‘Wrecks reported — last weekend numbered 56, 30 of which were British, seven lost with all hands’ Of course, not all were square riggers but a great many over the years of that period were. Three ships | have seen over the years and never forgotten, were the Stella Polaris, Cutty Sark and the Lawhill, rotting away in Lorenzo Marques. Editor’s note: If any readers would like more info on the (somewhat non purist but effective) mast rotation system used by Stuart on the squarerigger Catherine Bayley, you can write to him 12B Alma _ Road, Wanganui 5001, New Zealand. Send NZ$5.00 and _ he will send an information sheet showing drawings of the arrangement, and offer help with solving some of the many problems he encountered along the way. eee There is light at the end of the tunnel, shining bright from right down the back, and the chances are this light from afar… is a bloody train coming towards me on the track! Friday 14th May 1934, the yawl Stormy Weather, designed by Olin Stephens, was launched at the Henry B Nevins yard, City Island, New York. She would become one of the most successful yachts of her day. Claudio Zuttioni and friends of Assopiede and Barry Gibson, WW’s “keeper of the spirit of windling’ in Australia was first onto this, advised me and sent some downloads off the internet, which then led your editor to make contact by mail with Claudio Zuttioni of Amerigo Vespucci Modellismo in Milan, Italy. Then came these photographs (and a few more not used here) along with a letter and in a huge box, a most kind gift of one of their monotype Piede hulls, with the suggested plans in 1,2 scale. Their club Assopiede was formed in 1992, and has between eighty and a hundred members. In Milan they have access to a very good square fountain, as well as a few round ones, and several little lakes in the countryside, Their racing rules are very simple (Claudio explained), The boats are not RC but can carry a servo for the rudder, the hulls have to be one foot overall and with an overall mast height of two feet, (Continued overlead) Every boat must have a sail number at a cost of 2.30 dollars), and to enroll in the club there is a cost of $4.66 dollars. They hold six or seven races a year and the total costs of subscriptions are given to charity. The club has also just purchased an 8 metre by six metre mobile water-basin, in order to exhibit the boats in special events. In January 200 they exhibited on TV during a night meeting and Francesco De Angelis had a sail (a secret with Crom 2, setting practice for the America’s the Cup no doubt – Ed). journey. Claudio served in the Italian navy as a naval You know, | can’t help commenting on engineer – the reason for his great interest the wonderful spirit of friendship between bordering on passion for naval history. He has a collection of _ static those drawn to model yachts and model yachting that exists between people in distant countries. | have made so many friends i because of this. models (about 1,800) of modern warships, ancient warships, galleons and fighter planes . He is seen at right in “Footy mood’ 10 boat off on its The L Francis Herreshoff ketches (the 57′ 6” Tioga and Bounty designed in 1931, were the great 73’ Hlerreshoff forerunners of the ketch the Ticonderoga. The Tioga and Bounty were a lovely pair of clipper-bowed ketches, built to exactly the same design, except for the depth of the keel, and the height of the rig. The Tioga was the centerboard boat with the smaller rig, the Bounty a keel boat with a larger rig. For my model Seahawk of Auckland, | chose the Tioga hull which | then married to the rig. This choice made the Bounty instead. model a bit tender, but lovely to look at, and of course, a bit nippy on the Sensible Then | bought Cruising the Designs book by 1 water. Francis Herreshoff. In it was the table of offsets for both Bounty and Years ago | had seen an article on the Bounty in Classic Boat magazine and thought “this is for me’, but the Tioga, so the Seahawk of Auckland was born at a scale of 1” to the fool, or 1/12th full size. hull lines illustrated were very small and unclear, so | built another model (Continued overleal) 1 Just for the hell of it, | tried to build the boat using similiar techniques to those used by boat builders of the time, so after the frames were up on the keel at the set stations, | proceeded to temporarily fix ribbands fore and aft to the station frames. After that, | steamed and bent the timbers to the ribbands, fixing them with clinched over pins. Following on, | started planking up from the garboards, and down from the sheer, fixing the planks with epoxy glue and treenails, and of course, removing the ribbands which are replaced by planks as the process to the boat each side with the jib sheets, which lead to blocks fitted on the deck, and then to cleats. A bowsie was fitted on one end of the sheet for minor adjustments. continues. All the brasswork was made by hand and an attempt was made to replicate Herreshoff’s specially designed hardware. The boat is controlled by three channels, one servo for the rudder, one for the main, the other for the forestaysail and mizzen. The j i ob overlaps the fore staysail, and rides itself over when going about on a wire Stroop which is attached (Continued on page 13) The boat following was built using timbers: the (Beauty Pose- Continued trom page 4) Honduras and crossbeam of the multihull, and a bit of rigging also in the picture, gets my vote for the best and most realistic model sailing boat photograph | have seen. mahogany for the planks, keel and cabin sides, NZ kauri for the deck and cabin top, Southland beech for the masts and booms 1 know ! | know ! There is an element of luck towards achieving such a shot, because the photographer and skipper of the multihull is unable to view and frame up the scene, but who cares ? Life itself is luck, and it is the result, however obtained that our peers will look at and say – “Now that is a real cracker ol a photograph !” Hull length is 57 1/2” (bowsprit length 10 1/2”), beam 13 3/4”, main mast height 58” above deck, mizzen mast approx 30”. After the boat’s first sail, several adjustments were made, and she is now, although a bit tender, a good fast ketch with an _— overall performance that pleases me. So what exactly constitutes the ‘beauty pose’ of a model sailing boat ? Well, I’m no expert, just a rookie shutterbug, but | think that it is when the model is caught on film at just the right angle, and performing as close to a fullsize boat, and when the viewer has to look twice in order to decide whether it is a model or a real boat. Look at the photo on the cover of this issue. It is close up, full of detail, The portrait sculpture of the designer at the helm was carved by my wife Mary, who also made the sails, and both the trailboard and full of action and movement, including bow wash and heaps of spray all ‘frozen’ in time. “Now that’s American another cracker of AN. aan a a mal photograph !”, Perhaps you doth beg to differ in thine opinion ! eagle on the transom were carved by the writer. Mark Steele Reken of Bulls Photographs by the Editor oy’ | the Side ute grandaughter oneybear’s ‘Captain’ New Zealander, Noel Heerdegen with his impressive trimaran Snoopy 13 On the wind, off the wind, ona reach, orc Windling World readers will have frequently noticed mention of the Ancient Mariners group that sail every Thursday, usually come rain or shine, at a pocketsized by lake standards stretch of water on Auckland, New Zealand’s North Shore. A mustard-keen but, one could say “highly un-organised’ group of about twenty-five regular, mainly retired model sailing boat enthusiasts, the AM’s are about as laid back in their approach and their attitude towards their weekly sailing as a worm on a fallen leaf gently floating on the Onepoto waters. AM’‘s 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 14 ‘Taking seriously the art o and fellowship among each other. The writer as one of them, would say, we take seriously, the art of not taking things too seriously ! Whereas visitors may pick up references to Admiral, Commodore and the like, it is all in humour. All are equal, all are na beat, Auckland’s windling Ancient Mariners… exiting that scene because of the over- seriousness and sometimes seemingly angry attitude of some sailors, brought on by a razor-sharp competitive spirit. f not taking things seriously’ \, | iriends, and bearers or there are ‘officials’, no office everyone willing to give a hand to others. Many of the group have sailed and raced full-size boats in earlier years, some have raced 1M _— and Marblehead model yachts before There are a few who sail such boats within the AM’s, but since racing (aside from the one foot long Footy class) is a definite NO NO, those who sail are mainly attracted to the more *Classic’ scale and semi or ‘stand-off scale’ style of boats, and the cruising or windling attitude of those who sail them. Sloops, schooners, ketches, the occasional early NZ scow, sailing traders, Thames Barges, fishing schooners, a couple of vintage Ten Raters, a Bristol pilot cutter, a Brixham trawler , and (Continued overleaf) 15 always a good few Vic Starlets are usually seen. Smeed Every November, the group stages it’s “Grand Day of Classic Sail’ where those with similiar types of boats and the correct attitude, resident elsewhere in Auckland are invited to join the AM’s for the occasion. With the Ancient Mariners the correct attitude is important, and never speaking to anyone and never offering even a appreciated. messing boats is quests, sociable Thursdays are an opportunity for the AM’s to enjoy quality time, and although | like to tell people — ; about it, oft times | selfishly feel, I’d rather not share our <<. special secret pig’s grunt is not Relaxation — while about with model sailing one of the group’s prime and one in which being to ones fellow sailor is as Mark Steele important as the main objective. Wives are always welcome, and generally come to the annual big day, when a pondside luncheon break is the highlight of the occasion. Launchings and christenings of new boats also get their support, and they are an important part of the Ancient Mariner scene. In a city such as Auckland, full of everyday stress, ones eardrums lambasted by noise, citizens in the main, fiercely competitive in all sports, and even on the roadways, the Thursday windling scene as enjoyed by the Ancient Mariners provides the opportunity for grown men to sail their models among friends in a peaceful environment. The chosen place is in itself an oasis, just a mere stones throw from the motorway, the harbour bridge Auckland city . and “The dealer told me, the bigger the cosmopolitan transmitter, the faster a Footy goes !” 16 by the Editor It is a fact of life fellas, that as each and every one of us gets older, our bodies feel less and less disposed towards ‘co-operating’ with the rest of us, as we bend down to launch our models, and after a sail, as we go through the same process to retrieve them. Back problems become more pronounced, and the knees join the protest, as many of us (with the odd grizzle and groan, and the odd grimace of discomfort !) undertake what a few years ago we found was “easy peasy’. Good friends are usually forthcoming with offers of help, but Hey - we have a certain pride that makes many of us feel that we haven't really got to that geriatric stage whereby we need help to even put the bloody boat into the water. Am | right ? Pride can often bamboozle the lot of us, Years ago when | first met Des Townson, creator of the New Zealand Electron model yachts, he was kind enough to present me with one of his launchers, which now that the unil (see above), How sensible it really is, as it makes launching and retrieval so much less a dreaded task. My back and knees now applaud in unison, instead of taking protest action, and | no longer face the added possibility of ending up doing a swallow dive ‘over the model’ into the pond ! One could also make a simple ‘lifter’ out of wood, as no doubt a few have already done in various parts of N.Z. | am older, | have started using again on boats that fit within the curve of (Continued overleaf) tT? Stop and bend (continued) In the USA, Joe Wells made a ‘J’ hook (later re-christened a ‘Joe’s Hook’) which he uses with both his one metre Soling and his US one metre boat. His sailing friend, Jim 9a GF Vy described it in The Model Yacht, that always interesting journal of the US Vintage Model Yacht Group. Made up of PVC pipe, elbows and ‘T’ fitting, it cost about ten dollars and a sketch (above) should be easy to follow. So there you are, fellow windlers two ideas aimed at saving those ‘ageing’ bodies of those of you who are at thal stage of life. Then you can say, “Hey, we are not decrepit - see, we can launch it ourselves, and get it back onto terra firma !” The first two (of three) NZ Ancient Mariners canal to pond “Classics’ for 2002 resulted in wins for Des Pittams who won the Huey Writ-On in March, and Murray Garrard who won _ the Beyond to the Pond a month later. The spirit in which these races for the Footy class are held, is quite laid back and very unique. No long faces, lots of laughter and banter. Refreshing to say the least. Below:The fleet in the “Canal Passage ‘led by Richard Gross’s Wee 1.2. Bottom left is Murray Garrard with winning boat Goofus, bottom right, Des Pittams ‘new blunt-bow boat Imp. Here’s another one from the shipyard of Wim Moonen of Den the objective of this long time reader and keen — supporter of this masted schooner is the Linda Mary appearing within, Haag, in the Netherlands. This triple (the second one he has built, publication, his models frequently the first Linda Mary having been sailed for 20 years). 172 cms long, this one is built to stand up to very strong winds. Wim made this one of mahogany, and is still working on small details, after a whole season sailing the model. of At right Johnson is Lloyd “Swede’ of Costa Mesa, California’ (see WW/Dec O1 issue) with his new Bill Garden ~Toadstool’ design, schooner year. and completed _ last Keeping on building keeping on sailing is 19 (Continued overleat) In this case, it is more ‘the boat that he sailed’, the late Cliff Money’s The Brigand seen at right. He was the guiding light the and inspiration, and originator of scale sail at the UK’s Fleetwood club, a story on which appeared in the last issue. Here’s an interesting little threemasted junk-rigged boat built by Frank Pittelli of the Great Schooner Model Society in Maryland, USA (his model of the three masted schooner Atlantic was seen in the Dec O1 issue). Rex Rouse of the Ancient Mariners (right) with his Brixham trawler Renown in Auckland New Zealand. Above: tan Hunt of Sydney, Australia built this Smeed Starlet for his eldest grandaughter Lexi (seen with the boat on the back cover). This is the sixth Starlet | know of that’s been built in Australia. In March, my wife and | had a holiday in Tasmania - that’s the large island situated south of the = Australian) = mainland. Probably in common with most modellers, whenever we visit different places, we hunt out model shops (in case, shops my wife’s : Most were over six feet long and seen above. After having concentrated on our Footy designs with the Ancient Mariners, these monster-sized boats 4 _, handicraft or were ; markets), really impressive, particular, and also try to visit any impressive when sailing together in a light breeze as most in Ricky Price’s 7 foot long model of Britannia model — ship clubs that may have an event on during seen at left. layouts and two large scale model villages, we got word of some scale sail enthusiasts Beautifully crafted and super-detailed, this seventy pounds in weight model looked wonderful and it sailed majestically, —§ My photos hardly do it justice, With a operating the course about half a mile long, these outskirts of Hobart, Tasmania’s capital city. Motoring out we found sailors wearing waders or gumboots, plod four times up and down the our stay. After visiting two fine model railway yachts at being Lauderdale sailed on on a canal, (Continued overleal) 21 length of the canal, in a manner best described as a ‘windling sort of race’ To give you some idea of the size of Britannia — in particular, this photo of my wife Pam standing beside the model Anyone planning to visit Tasmania, that may be interested, they can contact David Hunt, 37 Sherwood Court, Windisfarne, Hobart, Tasmania 7015. There are also one or two clubs on the island that race one metre and Marblehead yachts, but this group that | found, are the only ones sailing the more classic boats, while enjoying fun and friendship among each other. shows you the height of the rig. Because of their size, all of the boats commanded attention and Shown photographs of our Ancient Mariner sailings, and a copy of Windling World, they appeared interested in what we were doing in Auckland, and just possibly, | may have sown a seed or two of interest in our foot-long Footy boats. What a thought a Footy fleet in at the end of their sailing session, a long natter followed, and | thanked them for their hospitality to two visiting New Zealanders. giants. amongst (It is those hard to imagine, | must say ! Editor) DREW FAG NI) finished it. Certainly it is a i book that | will read again, if down the ocean of time, = The Kiwi muso in i a pea-green boat and given course. such time of Readers will learn that at age 12, Fagan was sailing his P Class Tin Ribs off Wellington - actually beat Russell Coutts in P’s once Maybe | have been over-inspired by much summer sailing of my wee Footy Sixpence, but no - | have always enjoyed books in which and the book covers the one-time sailors challenge oceans in boats that singer/musician’s days with a band are small. in size, and highly vulnerable to the might of the seas. called The Mockers. It also tells of his was to prove a wonderful read, in that inspiration gained from mentor, Johnny Wray, South Sea vagabond extra-ordinaire covered in WW’s April 2001 issue, within, he chronicles his many voyages, one the least being a quick There's Andrew Fagan’s book Swirly World 1,400 miles sail to Sunday Island and back, and later his race from New Plymouth, New — Zealand to Queensland , Australia, both aboard his pocket-handkerchief-sized 5.2 metre long yacht Swirly World. lots more,including great times spent on a boat on the Thames in UK, but | think that what most readers will enjoy, will be Andrew’s entertaining, often humourous, and most descriptive style of story-telling of his battles with the winds and currents, while challenging the ocean Fagan writes exceedingly well, and is knowledgeable about the sea and many other aspects of cruising that he covers. His style and = detailed descriptions made me feel as though | was actually aboard (aboard where | had to wonder, given the lack of space in the pea-green boat thal went to s€a). Published by Harper Collins, covering 208 pages, eight of which carried colour photographs, the book is really a grand read, and like all good books, | chose to voyage slowly, and absorb, rather than race through it. When | got to the end | was sorry that | had in this part of the world, in a cramped and very small sailing boat. He now lives in England where he is in the music business, and | recently heard from him and was interested to learn that he too, enjoys model sailing boats. He has a fleet of some 40, none RC but as he says, “they reach exceedingly well”. — In December | will show readers some of them, all made of London scraps with hulls of polystyrene, and fun names such as Gillydimdim and Cuckoomateeny. (Continued on page 26) 23 Seacd on the Ly ireless A new book (Pond Yachts, How to Build and Sail them, I've heard tell has been produced in Conn, USA by Two Bytes Publishing Ltd. Aside from a flyer sent me, | haven’t seen it and don’t know the price, sorry ! TBP’s address is P.O.Box 633, Stratford, Conn 06615-0633. Marine modelmaker and WW reader Ron Bennetts in Glenalta, South Australia, built this 22” on the waterline display model (shown below) of a Duncanson 29’ - a birthday present for the owner of the big boat. The yacht America will,| think, always be a popular build for model sailors. Above is a rather nice RC version by Derek Nicholson of Auckland, New Zealand. Graham Bantock has designed the Wee Nip to suit the Strathclyde 70 class promoted by _ Strathclyde University in Scotland. It is a small una rig boat 7OOmm long. Check the Traplet website www.traplet.com It featured in the March 2002 issue of Marine Modelling International. Townson Flectron yachts are in the following countries apart from New Zealand: Australia, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Cook Islands, Tahiti, Canada, USA, Bermuda, South — Africa, England, France, Germany, Sweden, Nepal, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore. United Nations, united by Electron’s. Heard on the wind/picked up on the Wireless: That there is just a From WW’s “believe it or not file”: The scream of an albatross is said to be almost human, and a legend claims that every albatross carries the soul of a drowned sailor. remote possibility that the next (December) issue of Windling World could just be a mite late - for reasons just too difficult (even COMPLICATED) to explain. Jf i “& ~s by Mark Steele Soon we were twenty minutes away from the cove on a course due east. A scruffy looking island fishing sloop that | could smell before | saw it, passed us close, the red-shirted | woke early, the first indications of. native a tropical Summer sunrise but a hint on the herizon, shutters of the as | opened small villa | man grinning at me, and waving with his straw hat as he yelled “Wind real toot sweet,man !” just prior to losing the hat in a gust. the had rented on the placid East coast at Winklemans Quay. Awaking with me, was a decidedly sore head, caused no doubt, | quickly came to Ten minutes later | would understand what he meant by “toot sweet’, as we ran into a westerly so the conclusion, by the five (or was it six ?) double rum and cokes | had consumed in the island bar the night strong that /izzery repeatedly buried her bow, giving me the second, third and fourth bath of the day ! before. We ploughed onwards, a school of flying fish at one stage skimming over the water, the wind eventually Heady stuff that, if drunk in excess, and | remembered that when | had told the woman at the bar exactly where | had planned to sail to the following day, she had kept correcting me. It led me to wonder now, whether the more | was consuming at the Chirpy abating as we moved gently inwards through a break in the reef, where | dropped the mooring weight with a plop, about seven feet from the pristine, beach. The us an hour and eleven minutes. was coming out as Big Banana, even worse, Bugger Bahama ! Anyway, tide-swept crossing to Bigga Banga had taken Canary, The headache had cleared somewhat, but the constant staring today was another day, into and after carefully picking my way down to the pier, it was not long a rising sun, the saltwater spray, and perhaps the lack of sleep the night before, had combined to make me somewhat tired, so a little squat on the sand seemed a good idea. Soon | was ‘cal-napping ‘and before | had raised the sails on the little twelve-footer Jizzery and was moving up the coast in a freshening breeze, as the colours of an emerging dawn, slowly made their (continued overleal) appearance on the horizon. 25 Bigga-Banga Bay continued from page 25) dreaming of island life, blue seas, the fresh wind, and the variety of sailboats working in island waters. Loud shouts of, “Hey ! You slept here last night 2” and from another person “I just saw your boat smashed against the wall !” woke me suddenly, brought me to swift reality as | realised | had been dreaming. Worse than that, here | was lakeside at Onepoto in Auckland, flat on my back at ten oclock on a Thursday morning, our model sailing day. Had | been there all night ? No native island women, no palm trees, no sandy beach and no sign of Jizzery. There was duck crap all around me, and a wet trouser-leg on which a dog had presumably peed, and five members of the Ancient Mariners windling group were looking down at me, all grinning madly and laughing loudly, with the joke all on me ! As for the boat...the little Footy Sixpence had not hit the wall at all, and was enjoying safe anchorage, upright, nose inwards in the reeds on the opposite side. There is a moral to this story, this being that day-dreaming can oft be too realistic, in addition, it can on occasion be tinged with embarrassment for he or she that dreams. Perhaps | may never live it down, that chapter in my life, when | thought | had cruised to Bigga Banga on a boat called Jizzery ? Or did 1, considering that on my return home, my wife said my breath smelt strongly of rum ? ‘Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them,’ John Updike 26 Books Read ((Continued from page 23) Andrew Fagan Musician, ocean sailor, author and model sailing boat enthusiast, seems to have the right attitude, and appears to believe in the NZ “Ancient Mariners’ philosophy, that the hobby should be fun, and that we should ‘take seriously the art of not taking things too seriously ‘. Now onto this half metre boat seen at right. It is designed by Charles Detriche of France, and it What a choice. There are 12” Footy boats and 1 Metre boats, and guess from France. in a available. Ed saw it in non-existent Marine salary ! (Hey ! Enough of that ! - Ed) Huey Writ-On Modelling — International (which you might just consider subscribing to). Make a good, easy to build windling boat, mefinks ! Now here is a right purdy little gaffrigged Footy seen in the Onepoto, are already Seven years old eh, and | don’t even. increase oa rig. and plans | now there is a half metre design get an has swing race at By the way, many photos Auckland in in this issue are by non world famous Reken of March. Built by Wayne Pascoe it is testimony Bulls, in no way connected that “small is indeed beautiful’ - look at me ! to the Cowes. We did not know you cared: Four _ letters received since the last issue went out, all straight, once and for all ! Robin Williams is reported to have said: “We are all born with a spark of madness, and don’t ever bemoaning the who is stuifed !) of this year’s Abel awards. “Don’t axe them please (one wrote) as they are an acknowledgement of Let's Beken get of that lose it !” (Now that’s my excuse readers - what's yours ?) likely quashing (a big word for someone Save da famous A tot of rum, one of gin, another of brandy, and some fine dark beer, and you've got ‘Hangman’s Blood’ modelmaking’” Another gent said they were “totally (and you'll probably feel like hangin yersell 1) yoo ner eek” er, that should read, unique. How about this Nelsonian era toast ‘To sweethearts and wives ! any savings left ! Ed said - “All views are really appreciated, and | May they never meet !’ (as published in The Mariners Book of will think about it !” Only fing better tinking is windling...mefinks so anyway ! Days) by Peter Spectre Abel than er : ew Zealand’s unique model yachting Nu fun, relaxation and friendship’ magazine