Veteran yacht reborn to speed

Komutu is relaunched at Okahu Bay. Picture / Mike Millet

After languishing for 30 years under her aged owner's home at Tauranga, the famed 18-footer Komutu is about to begin a new life.

Auckland wooden boat enthusiast Robert Brooke heard of the whereabouts of the yacht that caused a sensation on the Waitemata and beyond immediately after being launched in 1948 by Jack Logan.

It took Brooke a lot of negotiation, some help from Tauranga local John Peek and his family, and $2000 to finally prize the much-modified racer from what could have become her graveyard. Included in the deal was the promise to return the yacht to her original state.

Brooke, Robin Williams and Alf Lock spent two-and-a-half years restoring Komutu. After nearly 60 years and with the original wooden mast and boom intact, the yacht is about to resume creating more history on the race track.

One of the goals new owner Williams has in mind is campaigning her against the Sydney Flying Squadron's replica 18s and winning the J.J. Giltinan Trophy which Jack Logan collected sailing Komutu in 1950.

In their 2001 book The Logans, New Zealand's Greatest Boatbuilding Family, Robin Elliott and Harold Kidd devote a lot of space to Komutu, including her builder's contempt for the breakaway Auckland 18ft Flying Squadron.

A staunch supporter of the rulebook-conscious Auckland Yacht & Motor Boat Association, Logan had to be convinced to race what was easily the fastest 18-footer on the harbour against the Australians. It is fascinating stuff and shows exactly how the highly principled boatbuilder lived his life.

Subsequently Komutu won all three of the selection trials for the Giltinan Trophy clash. The boat had become so dominant in club races, particularly in a breeze, that Logan would sometimes hang back and start late, just to have something to chase.

The first 1950 Anniversary Regatta was no different. The regatta was Auckland's 100th and was sailed over two days, Saturday and Monday, with the 18-footer international contest beginning on the Sunday in between. Komutu started two minutes late, overtook the 20-strong fleet and took the gun five-and-a-half minutes ahead of the second boat.

In the Giltinan championship the story was the same. In the first race Komutu extended her lead at every leg and finished 13m 4s ahead of the second-placed boat. The next race was even worse for the Aussies. Komutu took the gun 6m 40s ahead of Jim Lidgard's Waimanu and a huge 14m ahead of Alruth, the first Australian, which was fifth.

The yacht's successes drew a lot of unfavourable comment from waterfront pundits. One of them was Seaspray magazine columnist Ronald Carter, who called the skimmer "freak" and "unseaworthy".

Logan proved them wrong.

In The Logans one such event is related: "Alf Lock and Eric Aldiss recall the day they sailed Komutu over from Stanley Bay in atrocious conditions only to discover all racing cancelled due to high winds. Jack was furious. He anchored off the Westhaven wall, in full view of club officials, partly to show them he actually carried an anchor."

"Then they set a small jib, reefed the main and sailed the entire course alone. On the downwind leg they hoisted the No 2 kite and blazed past the Westhaven clubhouses at a phenomenal speed watched by club officials and Komutu's weatherbound competitors."

It is appropriate that Alf Lock, now in his 70s, helped build to Komutu as an apprentice. He was also involved with her restoration and with Williams and Brooke was aboard for a brief sail when the racer returned to the Waitemata on April 9.