K Class reunion

[John R - Kitenui]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/JohnRawson/KKitenuiIMG_8526.jpg
Kitenui
It all happened on the second weekend in March. I know that's a while ago. But I've been busy.
The New Zealand K Class originated in the late 1940s and 10 boats were built to the class specifications, the last being launched circa 1956. 3 existing boats were re-rigged to measure into the class.
1 of the boats built as a K, Dolita, (identical to Kitenui) was sold overseas and I believe she was lost off the coast of Canada.If any forum member can correct or confirm this or add more information I would appreciate it.
9 of the 10 boats still exist and 5 gathered at Kawau Island on the second weekend of March this year for a good old chinwag, barbecue, photo opportunity and much general bon homie

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/JohnRawson/KTheFleetIMG_8519.jpg
From left to right Sapphire (S&S); Thelma VI (A.W.Cauldrey); Kitenui (Col Wild); Katrina II (R.L.Stewart);Jenanne (A.W.Cauldrey)

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/JohnRawson/Kraftup2008-03-09_14-21-42.jpg

Sapphire; Katrina II; Kitenui; Thelma VI; Jenanne

[John B]

Good weather by the looks John.
I have a feeling that Sapphire is a bit later.. 1959 or perhaps '60.
Thats interesting about Dolita, I didn't know that.Was she Keith Parks boat ?

foursies in one hour, Izzy bay.. can you make it ?

[John R - Kitenui]

You could be right about Sapphire John
I thought Kiariki was the last and she was '56 I think. I still have a lot to learn.
I was told that about Dolita when I bought Kitenui and I met a chap at Northcote Pt yard who crewed on her in the Pacific when she was owned by an American couple. Maybe she was salvaged and still floats???
Sorry can't make it to Izzy in -25mins but enjoy

[Steveh]

Katrina was built/launched 1958... a great year JohnB BTW and Sapphire being the next and last would have to be 59/60.

Looks like it was a perfect weekend John, a pitty I didn't make it. Ngatira being one of the 3 'invited Ks' as you know is in bits at the moment.

For some more boat porn check the link.

http://picasaweb.google.com/rhcave/KClassWeekendKawau2008

[John B]

K's are interesting boats. They came as a result of a design competition looking for a good Hauraki gulf cruiser racer that could take over from the very old fleet , the likes of perhaps Waione and Ngatira and other upgraded and modernised boats from the early 1900's through 30's .
Ngatira was converted to a K by adding a doghouse and fractional bermudan mast and by removing the bowsprit. Waiomo was as well I think and the much smaller Gypsy. Waione was near to it but didn't quite meet the w/l requirements I was told, so the idea was shelved.
To put these boats into perspective , you have to realise they were to fill a prestige kind of role as well and I think there was quite a bit of excitement about them. To me they are the nearest we have here ( in our smallish way) to the Concordias.
There was a big fly in the ointment however and that was the newly emerging light displacement boats and in particular the Stewart 34 or Patiki as it was known . Patiki means 'flat' and those flat sections let them burst out.
Like all new classes that appear significantly different from the previous designs, they were ' ugly' but they were radically fast around the cans. Thats what shortened the life of the K class, as I understand it.
Stewart 34 designs from the late '50's (but upgraded) were still the match racer of choice here right through into the 1990's and anyone who followed Citizen cup match racing would remember them. I recall standing on the wall at Westhaven in the '90's as one of them was out for a test day before a citizen cup. It was 30 knots and they had a full main and #2 jib. They rounded the bridge mark and popped the kite , burst out onto the plane and took off down the harbour at 15 knots or so and with a bow wave back at the shrouds raising above the deck.
A bit hard for the K's to compete against.

Anyway, Our K fleet is a beautiful one although small by international standards and they're all wonderfully built boats . Most 3 skin kauri and a few ?( or one in particular I know of) carvel kauri.
The K Katrina on song at our feb regatta. She just had her 50'th birthday in dec. She's 41 ft long and she's also a Bob Stewart design.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/Classic%20regatta%2008/img_0103_1.jpg

edit. None of them have been restored per se. Maintained well, odd jobs and no doubt a bit of hull work but I'd not be surprised to hear they had no significant hull work .. floors or planking etc. ( apart from Kitenui) Kitenui was wrecked in the 80's and had some major hull repairs. Like stand beside her with my head and shoulders inside her through the hole(s) major.I thought she was a deader at the time, but they did a good job on her I understand. Johnno could comment more on that I'm sure.

[John R - Kitenui]

Weather was superb and for 3 weeks after as we travelled to Barrier, Mercs, Whitianga and back.
Dolita was built for Sir Keith and Kitenui for Richard Ross, which is why they had/have so much headroom in the cabin.
Whoever fixed up Kitenui did a wonderful job. I stripped her back to bare timber above the waterline in 2001 and couldn't find any indication of repair. This year when she was on the hard, after much searching I did find a couple of slightly hard spots to the amidships section on the starboard side; so maybe that's where it occurred.
The thing which most intrigued me in the comparison of the designs is the differences in sterns

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/JohnRawson/SC2008-03-09_14-17-28.jpg

I wasn't surprised to see that Kitenui's sheer is more pronounced but I was surprised to see we have the biggest bum.

Also interesting to note the difference between the 2 Cauldrey boats
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/JohnRawson/KThelmatransom.jpghttp://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/JohnRawson/KJenannetransom.jpg

The hole in Jenanne's transom is for storage and deployment of a danbuoy

[John B]

I've been talking to the previous owners of Jenanne recently, Pete and Robyn. Just about to take off to the islands in Spero.
Jenanne was the subject of a thread I made a few years ago. One significant aspect about that boat is she was built by/ for Wisemans? ... anyway the Murray winch people . She has the best bronze fittings you can get all through her from fairleads to bottlescrews to winches. The thing about the Murray gear to me was that on top of the functional aspect there always was an art content in every piece... they just look right and are a pleasure to pick up and hold.Real craftsmanship.

I first came across Jenanne in the mid 80's when she was being prepared for the 2 handed around North island race. Thats why the dan buoy, part of that prep.

[Deacon Blues]

K's are interesting boats. They came as a result of a design competition looking for a good Hauraki gulf cruiser racer that could take over from the very old fleet , the likes of perhaps Waione and Ngatira and other upgraded and modernised boats from the early 1900's through 30's .
Ngatira was converted to a K by adding a doghouse and fractional bermudan mast and by removing the bowsprit. Waiomo was as well I think and the much smaller Gypsy. .

There were only ever 12 K's. Ngatira was not one of them.

K 1 Helen Designed by Bob Stewart, Built by Col Wild 1948
Bill Couldrey told me that Bob Stewart wanted him (Couldrey) to build the boat but as he didn't have a yard at that time, it was arranged for Couldrey to build her at Col Wild's yard. Bob Salthouse however says Couldrey was only on wages at the time & most work was done by Chris Robertson. Both statements are probably true.

K 2 Jenanne Designed by Bill Couldrey, Built by Low Bros, Whangarei 1950.
She was designed in late 1948, built in Whangarei and finished off by her owner, Murray Wiseman and did not hit the water until 1950.

K 3 Thelma VII Designed by Bill Couldrey, Built By Allan Williams 1950.

K 4 Gypsy Designed by Arch Logan, Built by Bill Couldrey 1939
Converted to the K-class rule in 1950

K 5 Kitenui Designed by Colin Wild, Built by Colin Wild 1950

K 6 Penelope Designed by Bob Stewart, Built by Allan Williams 1952

K 7 Dolita Designed by Colin Wild, Built by Colin Wild 1950.
Launched in October 1950 for Sir Keith Park.
Renamed Robin c1975.

K 8 Anthea II Designed by James McGruer, Built by Collings & Bell 1957.

K 9 Waiomo Designed by Arch Logan, Built by Bill Couldrey 1935.
Converted to the K-class rule 1953, design work done by Jack Brooke.

K 10 Katrina II Designed by Bob Stewart, Built by Percy Vos 1957.

K 11 Kiariki Designed by Jack Brooke, Built by John Salthouse 1959.
Launched early 1959.

K 12 Sapphire Designed by Sparkman & Stephens, Built by Percy Vos Ltd.

These are the only K's.

The launching dates of Penelope and Anthea II are interesting as they are well out of whack with their sail numbers. The owners were either requesting specific sail numbers out of synch (7 being "lucky" and 8 being one that could be "backed" on the mainsail) or were being issued numbers well in advance of their boats being built. A bit odd.

Several owners of other older boats, notably Blair Webster with Kotiri (1897) were prepared for a K-class conversion but for one reason or another, it was never carried out and they remained in their respective divisions.

Blair Webster had converted Kotiri to marconi rig in 1949 and in the late 1950's even had Bob Stewart design him an all inboard rig to convert to a K, but by the time it was finished, the K's were all but defunct, pretty much destroyed by first, Sapphire, then the Stewart 34 (patiki) class, with the coup de grace administered by the cheaper, lighter, and much faster John Spencer designs that proliferated in the mid 1960's. Kotiri is still in the shed in Sarsfield St where she has been since the 1960's.

Ngatira's then owner may have had similar ideas but they were never carried out to the point of registration as no more K's were recorded after Sapphire in 1960.

In 1969 the K-class as a separate entity was no more, absorbed into the new NZYF National keel boat registration lists.

[Jay Greer]

Lovely boats! Kind of gives me the same feeling I have when looking at a well maintained Concordia.
Jay

[Deacon Blues]

Whoops... Sapphire by the way was launched in 1960.

[John B]

Nagateera's doghouse cabin had such large windows we used to talk about TV1 and TV2. Jo and Steve standing inside were the newsreader and weather man. When we rafted up at night the kids would sit down outside on Waione and watch the nights programmes.
Ngatira and Waione back in 2001 or so... you can see the TV screens.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/Misc%20compressed%20ex%20imagest/untitled-11_1.jpg

[John B]

Sometimes I'd catch them trying to change channels with the boathook .

[John B]

Have to send them to bed before CSI came on.

[Deacon Blues]

Ngatira does look pretty nice tho' doesn't she?? (as does the Y-1 of course)

[John B]

She does, she does. I always thought she was one of the pretty ones. Shame they're not going to get to line up together again for a while.

[John R - Kitenui]

Deacon blues; Thanks for the much needed history lesson.
You wouldn't also have the concept parameters for the design competition which led to the creation of the class ?
An interesting adjunct to the photo of the sterns : John Salthouse told me a year or 2 ago that Col Wild had a double ended K drawn up. I think work had been started and the keel had been laid when the fire destroyed the workshop. John donated the drawings to the squadron; so, somewhere, hidden in those archives ............!!!!

[Deacon Blues]

You wouldn't also have the concept parameters for the design competition which led to the creation of the class ?


I've never seen them but I have been looking.

Sea Spray at the time was published in Wellington and naturally reflected that. I went through all of them some years ago and don't recall seeing anything, However - I am currently missing all of 1947 so I can't be 100% sure it's not there.

There is no mention in Lee Rail or Sea Craft either, which were the only other "nautical" publications of the time.

Maybe it was only announced internally via the RNZYS membership which is how come Bob Stewart, Arthur Robb and I think Jack Brooke were entrants? That would not surprise me in the least.

I know that Arthur Robb actually won the competition and although his design was never built here, one or two were built in the UK and were quite successful. Sea Spray did name it/them, I saw a mention yesterday when I was checking stuff for the previous post.

When I get back up to Whangarei on Wednesday, I'll go through some stuff to see if I can pinpoint a date when it might have been advertised.

RNZYS minutes may be the best source if you can find the time to read the damn things without falling into a coma.

[John R - Kitenui]

The following may be of some interest

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/JohnRawson/sTaylorsMarineScrapbook2007-09-11_1.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/JohnRawson/sTaylorsMarineScrapbook2007-09-1-1.jpg

Unfortunately only the one page of notes in both cases.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/JohnRawson/sTaylorsMarineScrapbook2007-09-1-3.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y27/JohnRawson/sTaylorsMarineScrapbook2007-09-1-2.jpg

[John B]

It'd be fascinating to hear something about the UK 'K' classes that were built there!Mokoia eh.

Thats pretty interesting about the double ender that wasn't built too John.

[Deacon Blues]

Great stuff JR. Where did that come from?

The date of Nov 1 1945 is interesting as it pre-dates both Sea Spray (Dec 1945) and Lee Rail (late 1944?), although i will go through their first issues again just in case i've missed something.

Mokoia has a few mentions is Sea spray, in relation to either a Fastnet or a Trans-Atlantic

[John R - Kitenui]

Intriguing stuff eh !
The 2 pages from 'Newsview' (was this a Sqadron newsletter?) were in a scrapbook of yachting photos and news clippings which I had the privilege of photographing late last year. Also there was a collection of early Sea Spray and I found an article on 'Dolita' (Mar '51) and a comparison of 'Thelma' and 'Jenanne' (Aug '51)
Love to hear more on 'Mokoia' and any others

[Deacon Blues]

"Newsview - A window on the World" was a magazine in its own right, although I have never seen a complete copy. It looks to have been similar in some respects to the old "Sports Digest" in that it carried a wide selection of topics, printed on extremely cheap newsprint. It looks to have run from the late 1930's to the early 1950's

Doing a quich internet trawl, there is one copy from Feb 1951 in the National Register of Archives and Manuscripts, and several copies in the Armory at the Auckland Museum.