Kiwi DNA : From Logan Brothers to Bruce Farr
It’s a fascinating concept… Three moments in time for Kiwi boat design spanning a 90 year period. From a vessel ordered to be both fishing boat and farm truck, to a time when the vision of two young sailors was to create a global legacy shaping a generation of cruiser-racing boats, craftspeople and competitive sailors.
At the Auckland Wooden Boat Festival we caught up with the charming Iain Valentine aboard FRANCES ; Skipper Robin Kenyon of ARIKI; and Ken Fyfe of TITUS CANBY to soak in the pleasure that is seeing three extraordinary, living pieces of yachting history.
Below you’ll find a little more information about each vessel and a link to the video.
ARIKI 1905
Ariki is a racing yacht which was built in Auckland, New Zealand in 1904 by Logan Brothers. She had a distinguished career as a racing and cruising yacht. From the time of her launch in October 1904, she dominated first class Auckland yacht racing until the appearance of the yacht Ranger in 1938. She has the sail number A3. Ariki is the Maori name for chief or leader. Ariki was designed by Archibald Logan and built by Logan Brothers for Charles Horton of the Horton publishing family as a combined racing and cruising yacht. Ariki's design was based on the Logan brother's highly successful Rainbow.
FRANCES 1906
The Classic Yacht Frances was designed by Arch Logan and built by Logan Brothers in 1906 at St Mary's Bay. She was designed as a snapper fishing boat with a broad beam and open hold for that purpose. For the first two years she was owned by an Auckland Storekeeper and sold to Robert Shakespear of Whangaparaoa in 1908 who used her as a 'farm to market' transporter. The Shakespear family owned her until 1991. Anson Shakespear, Robert's son, said they could get nine bales of wool below decks and as much as four tonnes of cement. At the height of the season Frances would carry up to 600 large watermelons from the family farm to the market in Auckland and hence became known as the 'Watermelon' boat.
TITUS CANBY 1971
TITUS CANBY was designed by Bruce Farr for Rob Blackburn who had previously crewed with Farr in 12 ft dinghies. Rob required a yacht around 26 ft that would have a very low building cost for Harbor and Gulf racing under a general handicap system, and for Gulf cruising. The basic concept was for a light displacement yacht, broad in the aft sections to ensure high speed reaching and running, and fine forward with a reasonable ballast ratio set low in a fin keel to develop good windward performance. The rig was 7/8 with, for that time, relatively small headsails and no running backstays, which gave a simple, low cost rig. When the boat was launched its performance exceeded all expectations. Rob rated the boat as a 1/2 Tonner and went on to win the New Zealand Half Ton Championships in 1972.