Guadalcanal, January 1945
A yacht club was formed about two months ago and quite a number of the boys have spent all their spare time and a lot of the Air Force’s too on building boats. Nothing can be bought here so it is just common sense that all the material from mahogany plywood to calico sails has been donated (?) by the tax payers of N.Z. The official opening was held at Tui Rest Camp and about eight boats were ready for the water. There are about eight more almost completed. The whole affair was very well organised and there was free ice cream and cake and there were real cloths on the table – the first I have seen since leaving N.Z. They were probably sheets off the hospital beds. The C. C. made a speech and finished up by saying “You’ve made a good job of building the boats, God only knows where you got the material from, and I don’t think it would be wise to enquire”
The above quote comes from the diary of Ronald Hermanns, an NZRAF serviceman based on Espritu Santos in 1943 and Guadalcanal in 1944 and ‘45. Among the men who made this yacht club happen were Wellington centreboarder racers Clive Highet, George Fisher, Frank Ballinger, all RPNYC members, and Dick Moult of Evans Bay YMBC, who was a power boat competitor during the 1930s. Others as yet unidentified include the “ATS” whose article is reproduced below, and the man who sent the postcard at the bottom of this article.
During the 1930s Clive Highet and his uncle Harry Highet had built and raced a lot of successful hard-chined racing 14 footers. George Fisher was part of the crew which took her to the Tasmanian centennial regatta in 1938. George also owned and raced the Highet-designed 14 footer Putorino, and Frank Ballinger had built his own, named Eileen in 1938/39.
It is thought that Clive Highet designed the Santos boat from which patterns were built for fleets of 10 and 14 footers at Palikulo, Espiritu Santo (colloquially known as Santos). Clive was killed when his fighter was shot down during a raid over Rabaul in 1943.
In late 1944 with the RNZAF now based at Guadalcanal, the yacht Club was reformed, and more boats built to the Santos design. It is evident from available photos that there were a lot of personal variations in addition to the racing fleet (for me a highlight is the hulls made of fuel tanks!). A good fleet of the Santos boats also turned up at Nissan Island in 1944.
In June 1944, one trophy which was used for a Santos regatta was presented by Dick Moult to the Evans Bay Yacht and Motor Boat Club to be competed for by the Idle Along Class. It’s still there, known as the South Pacific War Cup.
The article below appeared in Sea Spray magazine Vol. 1 (9) 01 August 1946. The magazine was based in Wellington at the time; it’s highly likely this article was written by a local, as the majority of copy in the early days of the publication came from local circles. The images make up part of the article, and captions the same.
N.Z. Servicemen yachting in a war zone
By A.T.S
There really was a time when the islands ceased to be boring, a time when every piece of metal was envisaged as a chain plate or a gudgeon. When every shiny piece of metal was tested for use as stays. When every case, or piece of timber held possibilities as spars, or frames. When every PV I which crashed mysteriously lost its control cable and elevator pulleys. Those were the days also when you lost a friend if you were unwilling to listen to the progress report on his yacht, and later its sailing qualities.
The airmen in No. 12 Servicing Unit R.N.Z.A.F., Guadalcanal, decided that yachting would provide entertainment hitherto unknown on the island, and set to work with mass production efficiency. The craft to be built was the 10-foot Santo class after the design of a member of the Pallukula Yacht Club on Espiritu Santo. We gathered one Sunday and, with the assistance of a Waukashaw power unit and saw, cut sufficient frames for 30 such craft (only 17 were finally built, however).
At the end of the day, these frame pieces were distributed, and then the race to get our boat in the water first started in earnest.
The fabric workers worked like maniacs making the sails while the riggers did our splicing, and the blacksmith the gudgeons. My skipper and I pulled the plywood off our office walls and, because of this, managed to put No. 1 in the water four weeks after it was started.
When two boats had been built, we organised an opening regatta, with prizes for the first three boats presented by Sir Robert Clark-Hall. Palm leaf-decorated tables laden with cake and fancies came from the Y.M.C.A. A tote, with win and place betting, and a loudspeaker commentary all made for a festive occasion. The official photographer in the R.N.Z.A.F. turned up and did us proud with frontpage publicity in the “Free Lance” several weeks later [on 17 January 1945 – ed.].
The so-called “Santo” class boat we built was 10ft. by 4.ft. 6in., flat-bottomed and fast. We carried a 19ft. stick and a total sail area of approximately 120 square feet, which is considerable for a boat of that size, and possible only because wind velocities seldom reached any height. The few occasions when the wind did start to blow resulted in several capsizes, and I can remember the day when our ship was planning with all wires humming. Oh yes, life was worth living, even in the islands.
Sir Robert Clarke-Hall
The C. C. mentioned in Hermanns diary entry was Robert Clark-Hall, mentioned by name in the ATS article above. He was a popular commander known to dig into his own pocket to provide extra rations and gear for his command. Prior to his posting to The Pacific, he was in charge of RNZAF Harewood in Christchurch, which enjoyed the nickname “Hotel Harewood” for this reason. Both Hermanns and “ATS” make particular mention of the spread of food and decoration, so it must have been a particular highlight for them.
The Tui Club
Camp Tui was a beach rest-centre on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands during the Pacific War of WWII. It was for the use of Royal New Zealand Air Force servicemen who were on leave from the fighting.
The camp had an ice cream plant installed so it could process a supply of ice cream mix, courtesy of Tip Top, New Zealand.
The images below are reproduced from Hermann’s diary held at the Alexander Turnbull Library. They show:
- An aircraft dump on Guadalcanal, a great source for pulleys and cable for rigging purposes.
- AA Lockheed PV1 of the NZRAF on patrol over Guadalcanal. PV1s were generally unpopular with NZRAF crews, having a reputation for poor engineering and in the habit of being shot down.
This Air Force postcard addressed to RPNYC for Christmass 1944 is from a crew member of the 11 foot centreboarder Mac, saying that there is a Mac II under construction somewhere in the Pacific. Unfortunately the signature is illegible. Please let us know if you can decipher it: Part of the text reads:
“…as well as striking a blow for democracy our lagoon will soon have more sails to the wind than those windswept waters of Port Nicholson… … For Jim’s benefit Mac II is under construction.”
