Page 13 - Mark Chews Forty Two Australian Wooden Sailing Boats Sept 17 2020

It might seem odd that a boat that seems to have never raced in its life, and is not power, fitted with a 3.5 tonne reinforced concrete keel to replace the one lost on
renowned as a great explorer should come so high up on my list . However this the reef, then brought back to Australia and sold. It ended up in Hobart and was
vessel and her long time skipper “Spuddo” Giles safely introduced over 4000 sold again, but the two owners fell into a disagreement and it was bought by John
Australian boys and a few girls to the pleasures of ocean sailing over a 30 year period. and Carolyn Mahoney who set out to rebuild UTIEKAH III to its original configuration.
This wasn’t just on the odd afternoon, but during long term cruises through Bass
Strait, around Tasmania and the South Pacific. Many of those children went on to
become lifelong sailors. It’s hard to imagine a greater contribution to the culture of
Australian sailing, and this is the yacht that made it all possible.

UTIEKAH III was built in Tasmania in 1925 by the Wilson Brothers yard in Cygnet, a
family of well-known boat builders in Tasmania over three generations, and was the
first non-commercial vessel they built. It took them 10 months. She was built for
Ireton Elliot Giles, a charismatic Victorian teacher and adventurer who pioneered
sail-training. She is planked in Huon pine and copper fastened. The name UTIEKAH
is thought to have Maori origins and refers to the sound of rippling water. Giles
collaborated with Jack Savage to design the third UTIEKAH for the purpose of taking
students at Melbourne Grammar School on challenging and character building
exercises where they learnt the art of seamanship, blue water sailing and
understanding the elements of the ocean.

UTIEKAH III crossed Bass Strait over 50 times with these voyages.
In 1927 Giles set sail with a crew of young Grammar fellows and a couple of 'old
salts' on a South Pacific voyage, rationed with bully beef and kerosene they departed
from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria. Giles was recorded by one journalist as stating
that Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands were on the itinerary, beyond which the rest of
the passage would be subject to “wherever prevailing winds may take them'. The
voyage was reported as the first such cruise by a privately owned Australian yacht,
visiting Fiji and Samoa.

In the 1950’s Giles retired to Hobart, where he continued to use UTIEKAH III to teach
sailing to the local boys from The Hutchins School.
Giles sold UTIEKAH III at age 90, and he died two years later. She was bought by the
Fowler family in Tasmania. They fitted her with a deck house and a 1958 Ford Thames
diesel motor which is still installed. A syndicate purchased UTIEKAH III in 1972
intending to use the yacht for charter work on the Great Barrier Reef. In 1974 it
foundered on a reef off Mackay and was written off and abandoned. A storm came
up from the south and washed the yacht into a lagoon where it was found floating
and recovered by Gary Underwood. It was taken to New Zealand mainly under

CYAA Magazine Issue 43 September 2020 Page 13