The Eventider's News
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Issue 13 Autumn/Winter 2009
Page 7 Moonraker The SWIN Class An MG/Buchanon collaboration |
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2009 sailing 'Shellicky Bookey' Syringa Owners tips Wild Affair Scran Bag!
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Hello, Thanks for your reply, My Swin class yacht ‘Moonraker’ was built here in Victoria, professionally in the 50s. I will join the group and write about the boat soon, every spare minute is going into the boat. I have seen many wooden boats as a specialist wooden boat shipwright and have rarely seen a better built boat this one, beautifully ribbed and fastened with strong floors. All the screw fastenings are monel. She is built entirely of premium NZ Kauri, full length planking, with hardwood frames. As far as I can tell from the book, she is built exactly to the plan. Do you have the edition of yachting monthly, we have almost an entire library of Y.M. magazines here, I have one on my desk March 1932. I have poured over your website and seen that the ‘Micklewhite’ boat is undisputedly a Swin class yacht exactly the same as mine. I have seen nothing to support a Centre cockpit design Swin class with an underhung rudder, therefore the centre cockpit boat, I think it might be a stretch to call it a Swin? You are welcome to put my couple of pics on the website. Best regards Wayne Parr
Wayne at woodenboatshop.com.au www.woodenboatshop.com.au
Hello Wayne,
Would it be possible for you to scan the picture of Moonraker on the slip separately, or if it is a digital picture, to just send it, makes it easier to put on the site..
The centre cockpit version was built in the local boat yard Johnson and Jagos, the owner apparently Ok'ed the changed with MG.. Very odd layout and really makes her a daysailer only.... not a lot of room left below! The ‘Micklewhite’ boat has disappeared sadly, no response from Mick for a long time.... Very sad when old wooden boats are left... but there are not many with the time money or inclination today, to look after them. Yours looks to be a treasure, love to see a pic of her under sail, they always looked so over canvassed!
Thanks for the PDF of ‘Dreamships’, I think I have seen reference to the design elsewhere in my MG books, I will have to have flick through when I can find 5 minutes
Regards, John Eventiders
Hello John, One picture is the day I bought the boat. She had been out of the water a long time, I took a punt and launched her and steamed her across Port Phillip Bay to my home 30Nm. The other is of her sailing in the 50s. At this time I have spent the last two months removing every inch of paint for the inside of the boat, just now I am undertaking some minor repairs, where she has been altered, i.e. holes cut in bulkheads etc and some superficial dry rot. I expect she will be ready for cruising in about 12 months from now. I intend to spend some time around the Bass Strait islands. Do you have an MG boat? I was thinking of pursuing an original plan set from the Buchanon angle? I am very keen to get my hands on a full set of Swin Class Yacht plans. What has happened to all of MG’s original drawings? Re time money and inclination…… I have a very supportive wife who allows me to escape every night to work on the boat up the road and go without spending money on the house for a while. Best regards Wayne Parr Wayne at woodenboatshop.com.au
Hello Wayne, I wondered how you and your Swin Class 'Moonraker were getting on. I was about to add your information and pictures to the site and to the Newsletter. Sorry it takes so long, getting to be a full time job here. We had pics on the site somewhere of a boat sailing in Port Phillip Bay believed to be a 3 tonner and I wondered it she was Moonraker, have you any deck shots from the cockpit we can compare? http://www.eventides.org.uk/3tonpic.htmI have made more enquiries about 'Misty II' and we now find there is more than a hint of mystery regarding her build. Seems she may well have been a very much one off and based only loosely on a Swin, that the boatyard may have been building at the time. Certainly I do think you are 100% that yours is a Swin and she is not. I have been studying my copy of the book 'Dream Ships' I know Alan Buchanan and he shared this design, but by how much and where is not at all clear. Certainly the hull form is akin to the 3 Tonner, but the raised topsides very much an MG trait, though some 3 Tonners look just like this! Have you ever found out more? Seems MG had many variations on a theme for rig too. The 3rd option of cutter with topsail was Alan's preferred rig. Seems a shame that the drawings of this and many other of his designs have been lost. we have managed to salvage some and reproduce them on CD for posterity, and to assist owners with rebuilds, sadly I doubt many would undertake to build one today! If you have any more pictures you could send I would like to make a feature of Moonraker in the Newsletter. Regards, John Eventiders.
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