H
ow often can you save a yacht? In Rawhiti’s case it is third time extra lucky. She has just undergone the most extensive restoration of a large racing classic in New Zealand. Her restoration
has set a new benchmark in quality and attention to detail and resulted in a truly world-class outcome. Her first owner, New Zealander AT Pittar, was living
in Sydney, Australia, and after earlier success on Sydney Harbour with the 50ft (15.2m) 1898 Rainbow, from New Zealand designer Arch Logan, he commissioned Logan to design him a yacht to eclipse all competitors. Rawhiti (pronounced ‘ra-fit-tee’, a Maori word for ‘east’, ‘sunrise’ or ‘sunshine’) was built in New Zealand in 1905 by Logan Brothers. The last and the largest of Logan’s big flush-deck racing yachts, she was reputedly also his finest. At the time of her launch, though, she was never tested against her sisters (Thelma 1897, Rainbow 1898, Iorang 1901 and Ariki 1904); she was sailed to Sydney almost immediately by Pittar. She became a successful racer, dominating the racing scene for three decades, with a cup, still sailed for, named after her.
Now, 106 years later, she has been saved for the third time in her long sailing history. After a succession of owners (Pittar, Brockoff, Albert) in Australia, SE ‘Hec’ Marler, an Auckland businessman and keen yachtie, was her first saviour in 1944. He bought her after she had been laid up in Sydney for more than a decade, but the sale came with a condition that she was not to be raced in Australia, in order to maintain her unbeaten record. At the time Rawhiti was in need of an extensive refit including relaying her deck. She was then sailed to Auckland in 1946 (demonstrating her unsuitability for ocean passages, according to Marler) and remained in the Marler family for 23 very successful years of racing with the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron until 1969, when Bruce, Hec’s eldest son, reluctantly sold her after retiring as the Squadron’s Commodore. Sadly, at that time when the classics, as we know them today, weren’t recognised as such, she was modernised/bastardised with a cabin top complete with doghouse, shortened rig, her long counter shortened and – shock horror! – a skeg-hung rudder and wheel steering. Over the next 20 years she went to rack and ruin.
CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2012 33
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