New look for Lady Waiake

A team of Torbay Sailing Club members have been working hard in the background since the start of February.

Lady Waiake is a feature of Waiake Beach and, after suffering a catastrophic engine failure during the 2016 Aon Youth Sailing World Championships at Torbay, it was used more commonly as a swimming platform for locals rather than a committee boat for the club.

However, actions were taken and funds raised, and on September 15 a new-look committee boat was launched at Riverhead to start the 22nm journey back to Waiake Beach - and only 12L of petrol was used. 

The Lady Waiake was designed by Terry Bailey and built in 1978 at Kerry Alexander’s boatyard in Browns Bay. Bailey was a Torbay Sailing Club member and Paper Tiger sailor and built a number of Paper Tigers, some of which are still sailing in the fleet.

A huge shout out to Blair Gerrard (rear commodore) and Graham Fleury who put in more hours than all the members who help combined.

A quick summary of the work done:

• inboard engine removed
• floors, toilet, and pretty much everything removed, and entire interior cleaned (due to oil)
• new floors and transom built
• new engine fitted
• new windows fitted
• repaint of the entire boat including antifoul

Come and see her for yourself at this year's Sir Peter Blake Regatta on December 1-2.

Lady Waiake was towed via water and land to a safe place ready for work to be carried out.

Under cover, needing some TLC

A few transformations in colours through the process...

And there we have it.

Cruising speed of 7 knots, and she reached 10 knots.