Classic slice of sailing history

By ROBIN BAILEY

One of our marine gems is about to be given a new home at the National Maritime Museum. Auckland waterfront identity John Street has bought the 110-year-old Gloriana, designed and built by Logan Brothers.

Once installed, the gaff-rigged beauty will become an operational exhibit, managed by a trust to be formed by Street so the yacht can be maintained and crewed with no drain on the museum's funding.

Gloriana has been owned by Captain Jim Cottier for 22 years. Since he bought her from a youngster who had the yacht on a mooring in the Tamaki River, Cottier has returned the yacht to its original gaff rig.

Over the years she had been converted to Bermudan sloop rig and had a dog-house added that totally destroyed the classic Logan line.

Better known on the waterfront as a skipper of square riggers, including the Breeze (which he took to Mururoa with the N-test protest fleet) and more recently the Soren Larsen, Cottier is a wooden-ship purist.

Gloriana is still in remarkably good condition, he says. "Naturally she required the usual wooden-boat maintenance, but considering her age she is in great shape. The only reason I decided to sell her was that I am working on another wooden-yacht project. This one has none of the historic yacht responsibilities attached to Gloriana."

Cottier first advertised the old Logan in Classic Yacht magazine, hoping for the right sort of buyer with $27,000 to spend on a slice of sailing history. He was thrilled when Street phoned to outline his project to save Gloriana through the museum.

The deal was concluded at Roberton Island, in the Bay of Islands, where Cottier is caretaker.

Gloriana will be brought down to Auckland next month and prepared to play a starring role in the classic yacht events which will be staged during the break between the Louis Vuitton series and the America's Cup defence.

One of the biggest days will be the New Zealand Herald Anniversary Regatta on Monday, January 27.

The regatta will also feature the M-Class 80th anniversary and the start of the J.J. Giltinan Trophy series. This will see New Zealand's M-Class fleet defending the title it won in Sydney this year against a fleet of Aussie replica 18-footers.

The clash of the 18s is a fitting feature for one of the biggest and oldest regattas on the world sailing calendar. And - slap in the middle of the America's Cup and the classic yacht and superyacht races to Kawau - it will be a fitting showcase for Gloriana's reappearance as a star of the Anniversary Day fleet.

The yacht's story is covered in Robin Elliott and Harold Kidds' The Logans. Launched on November 14, 1892, she was built by Robert Logan jnr and his brothers Arch and John.

What was then called a two-and-a-half rater, the 24ft yacht was an immediate success, blitzing everything else on the harbour and helping to establish the Logans' reputation.

Elliott: "The boat was an absolute cracker, the platform for the later success of Logan Brothers as New Zealand's premier yacht builders. From that perspective she is a vitally important boat and must be preserved".

Which is where John Street, the man from A. Foster and Co, enters the picture with his Classic Boat Charitable Trust.

Having been on the team that helped to get the National Maritime Museum project started, and having kept involved during its developing years, he is keen to see it grow. He is equally enthusiastic about living exhibits.

"The trust is still being finalised but we'll have all the paperwork in place in the next few weeks," he says. "The main thing is that the yacht has been secured and we will have her performing in pristine condition in no time, thanks to the care and attention Jim Cottier has given his charge."

Museum director Larry Robbins welcomes the impending addition to the Hobson Wharf fleet and the trust formula as a practical way of preserving these magnificent working examples of our maritime heritage.