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