CYA Classic Register 2017-Flip

40
THE RESTORATION OF
CORONA
By Harold Kidd
CORONA is considered one of the best
26ft (7.93m) mullet boat ever built.
Designed by Charles Collings and built
by his firm Collings & Bell, she was launched in
October 1936 for the Nunn brothers.
Corona was a powerful sail carrier. On her 10ft
6in (3.2m) beam she carried 900ft² (274.3m2) in
her gaff cutter rig. Her mast was a towering 40ft
(12.2m), and she had
a 30ft (9.1m) boom, a
19ft (5.8m) gaff and a
15ft (4.6m) bowsprit.
From bowsprit to end
of boom she measured
45ft 6in (13.9m).
Two and a half
tonnes of lead ballast
kept her reasonably
stiff, standing in for
the load of fish her
ancestors would have
brought home to
market.
She was in a class
of her own from the
start and remained
scratch boat in the
fleet during the
18 years the Nunn
brothers owned her.
Fast-forward 30 years,
and Corona, now a tired old fishing launch was sold
to a group of three Ponsonby Cruising Club mullet
boat enthusiasts – Ron Copeland, Lee Chambers
and John Hogan – who persuaded the National
Maritime Museum at Hobson Wharf in Auckland
to restore her.
In 2009, with the blessing and active support of
Ron Copeland and Lee Chambers, the
New Zealand Traditional Boatbuilding School at
Hobsonville negotiated with the museum to take
over Corona and complete her restoration. School
trustees Robert Brooke and Ian McRobie put in a
great deal of research to ensure that Corona took
to the water again as a faithful recreation of her
original self. Collings original hull drawings were
checked to ensure the outlines of her cabin top
and other details were
in complete accord
with contemporary
photographs.
Ian McRobie
gathered a team of core
volunteers around him
notably Morrie Ogden
and Ian Stephenson.
The School obtained
generous funding and
contributions of work
and materials from the
trade, but the team of
volunteers were the key.
Corona was relaunched
on the top of
the tide in early March
from the old RNZAF
flying-boat slip at
Hobsonville. In brilliant
sunshine with a light
breeze, and as a large
crowd watched, Corona sailed like a witch in the
light breeze and got up to seven knots.
Nowadays Corona can be seen at Auckland’s
Viaduct alongside Jessie Logan, Wairiki and a clutch
of other fine classics sponsored by the Tino Rawa
Trust. Her skipper Richard Allen continues to ensure
that she is maintained in excellent condition and
enthusiastically raced on the harbour.