Episode 1
Barbary is a 36-foot ketch built in California in 1926. She has a long colourful history spanning her 98 years and way too much to try to cover here. Although built after his death, Barbary is thought to be a Colin Archer designed double ender. Barbary has an illustrious pedigree, built as a scratch racing boat and raced off the coast of California, until won in a card game by Hollywood bad boy Erroll Flynn. After sailing her around the Pacific on no doubt some swashbuckling adventures, Barbary changed hands and ended up in Auckland under kiwi ownership.
Barbary has seen her fair share of trouble, being wrecked in Auckland during a massive norwester and rescued by Bill Dawson who moved Barbary to Taupo to restore her. Bill rebuilt Barbary in the front yard of his Taupo home to the consternation of many Taupo residents and the council. After her re-launch Barbary became a remarkably successful charter boat on Taupo with Bill at the helm and crewed by numerous loyal backpackers.
Under the banner of “Sail Barbary” and owned by Pete Battell, Barbary plied her trade taking tourists around to the Maori carvings at Mine bay. Tragedy struck in 2019 and Barbary was washed onto rocks and again sunk. After three days of pounding on the rocks by a south-easterly Barbary was unceremoniously dragged off the rocks towed back to port and lifted out of the water. As with everything Barbary, her salvage if it can be called that, is another chapter in her colourful career but a story for another day.
That boat on Poihipi Road became a regular conversation between Alli and I as we drove passed it almost daily going from home to Taupo. After 2 years of should we-should we not and no real action at the Barbary I decided to contact Pete Battell and see what his intentions for Barbary were. A coffee at Baku later and we had a plan. Barbary became ours on 26th January 2022.
Now, this was no random act completely out of the blue for me, I have wanted to learn to boat build for many years and was even accepted to do a year long course in wooden boat building in the UK in 2016. Sadly, I couldn’t attend that course but still retained the desire to be involved with a wooden boat.
Barbary has a new home for now. Thanks to Murtagh cranes she was weighed (13.5 tons) and loaded on a truck and moved to a secure spot where I can work on her with access to power and water. You can see some of the substantial damage to Barbary on her side. The inside of the boat was totally trashed and had to be gutted to get to the broken ribs.
With the generous help of my mate Mike Thomas, Barbary has a place in his yard for her rebuild. With the help of Great Lake Scaffolds, she is now scaffolded and wrapped. These businesses have provided their help free of charge in an effort to support Barbary back to her former glory.
Barbary has seen her fair share of trouble, being wrecked in Auckland during a massive norwester and rescued by Bill Dawson who moved Barbary to Taupo to restore her. Bill rebuilt Barbary in the front yard of his Taupo home to the consternation of many Taupo residents and the council. After her re-launch Barbary became a remarkably successful charter boat on Taupo with Bill at the helm and crewed by numerous loyal backpackers.
Under the banner of “Sail Barbary” and owned by Pete Battell, Barbary plied her trade taking tourists around to the Maori carvings at Mine bay. Tragedy struck in 2019 and Barbary was washed onto rocks and again sunk. After three days of pounding on the rocks by a south-easterly Barbary was unceremoniously dragged off the rocks towed back to port and lifted out of the water. As with everything Barbary, her salvage if it can be called that, is another chapter in her colourful career but a story for another day.
That boat on Poihipi Road became a regular conversation between Alli and I as we drove passed it almost daily going from home to Taupo. After 2 years of should we-should we not and no real action at the Barbary I decided to contact Pete Battell and see what his intentions for Barbary were. A coffee at Baku later and we had a plan. Barbary became ours on 26th January 2022.
Now, this was no random act completely out of the blue for me, I have wanted to learn to boat build for many years and was even accepted to do a year long course in wooden boat building in the UK in 2016. Sadly, I couldn’t attend that course but still retained the desire to be involved with a wooden boat.
Barbary has a new home for now. Thanks to Murtagh cranes she was weighed (13.5 tons) and loaded on a truck and moved to a secure spot where I can work on her with access to power and water. You can see some of the substantial damage to Barbary on her side. The inside of the boat was totally trashed and had to be gutted to get to the broken ribs.
With the generous help of my mate Mike Thomas, Barbary has a place in his yard for her rebuild. With the help of Great Lake Scaffolds, she is now scaffolded and wrapped. These businesses have provided their help free of charge in an effort to support Barbary back to her former glory.