Leaving Aussies in their wake

The Kiwis come from behind to sink the competition in a transtasman boatbuilding contest. ROBIN BAILEY reports

Four Auckland apprentices soundly trounced a field of Australians that included some qualified tradesmen in the first transtasman boatbuilding challenge at the Sydney Boat Show.

Two teams from North Shore company Yachting Developments Limited finished first and second in front of 12,000 cheering spectators at Darling Harbour last Saturday.

Their win was so comprehensive the Aussie contest organisers ruled they should share the honours, declaring them first equal.

Aged between 18 and 21, the teams were James Hilt and Brett Elstob and Grayson Ford and Morgan Bryan.

The build-a-boat contest is an annual feature of the Sydney show and provided the inspiration for the New Zealand Boating Industry Training Organisation's popular Marine Trades Challenge, held at Pah Farm on Kawau Island for the past three years.

However, there are big differences between the two competitions. The YDL four who won the right to compete in Sydney at last year's Kawau event had to adjust quickly to be competitive.

In our challenge, teams design their boats in advance, then pre-build them into kitset form, ready for assembling during the competition.

They have just one hour to get them ready to compete in the water-borne section of the contest.

In contrast, the Australian competition has no pre-building. The two-person teams must start from scratch and, although they have two hours to build their entry, no power tools are allowed.

Although the two Kiwi teams were clear winners at the end of the contest, they didn't have it all their own way.

As with other transtasman clashes, this one included some inventive rule-bending from the Aussies.

At the end of the two-hour boatbuilding period, the Kiwi teams were lying second and third. In first place was the experienced Australian entry from Team Contractors, who had cleverly developed a bicycle-powered bandsaw, thus circumventing the no power tools rule and giving them a distinct advantage.

However, while the best of the Australians headed to the water with their noses in front, their joy was to be short-lived.

BITO general manager Robert Brooke estimates it took the two Kiwi teams just 10 quick paddles to show how much faster they were where it counted around the race track.

Their superior design, combined with finely honed paddling skills, meant they easily trounced their Aussie opponents, finishing more than half a circuit in front of their nearest rivals.

Although 0.5 of a point separated the two New Zealand teams at the end of the contest, the judges unanimously decided to declare the two first equal and joint winners of the competition.

The creative Team Contractors, who had used their cycle-powered saw to create a genuine clinker dinghy, was a deserved third.

The New Zealanders were invited to attend the Australian competition by its organiser Paul Burgess, a director of the New South Wales Boating Industry Association, when he attended the last Kawau Island contest.

That invitation has now been reciprocated and the BITO has challenged the Australians to enter our next competition, due to be held in late summer or early autumn next year. YDL director Ian Cook says his company, which has 12 apprentices on its staff of 78, will continue to support the challenge.

"But having been winners on both sides of the Tasman I don't think this lot will want to run the risk of being beaten next year. We may have to train up a new team."