UTIEKAH III leaving for its Pacific cruise

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Utiekah III

Vessel numberHV000719

registration number151815

Sail NumberATS 27

Builder Wilson Bros.

Designer J J Savage

Date1925

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 17.07 m × 13.33 m × 2.1 m, 38.62 tonnes (56 ft × 43.75 ft × 6.9 ft, 38 tons)

DescriptionUTIEKAH III was built by the Wilson Bros assisted by two other men and a boy over 10 months. It is planked in Huon pine and copper fastened. It has 5 tons of lead placed in the keel and 7 tons of internal ballast that ensured a sea kindly motion in the open sea. It was the first private recreational vessel built by Wilson Bros who had only done commercial vessels up to that time.

UTIEKAH III was preceeded by UTiEKAH II (HV000505) which was designed and built by Jack Savage Senior in 1911, and built by Lyons and Savage in Williamstown. The name UTIEKAH is thought to have Maori origins, and refer 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, a project he had started with UTIEKAH II. Over 4,000 young students undertook these adventures and many recall them as some of their most memorable experiences. UTIEKAH III crossed Bass Strait over 50 times with these voyages. Giles retired and moved to Hobart, Tasmania where he continued to use UTIEKAH III to teach sailing to the local boys from The Hutchins School. In the late 1930s he formed a crew of his friends and they cruised extensively in the South Pacific, the first Australian flagged yacht to do so.

A record of vessels acquired by the Australian Army as aprt of thier Australian Water Transport Units divison in World War II shows that UTIEKIAH III was taken over in 1944, given the number AK84, but nothing else is recorded.

Giles sold UTIEKAH III at age 90, and he passed away two years later. It was bought by the Fowler Family in Tasmania. They fitted it 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 in 1974 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 power, fitted with a 3.5 tonne reinforced concrete keel to replace the one lost on the reef, then brought back to Australia and sold. It ended up in Hobart and was sold again, but the two owners fell into a disagreement and it was bought by John and Carolyn Mahoney who set out to rebuild UTIEKAH III to its original configuration.

A bronze bust of Ireton Elliot ‘Spuddo’ Giles was designed in honour of the dedication given to his students at Melbourne Grammar. At a reunion held at the school in 1996 Johnny Mahoney spoke to 150 ex-students and recalled there was not a dry eye in the auditorium. He had sailed UTIEKAH III from Tasmania to Melbourne at attend the ceremony. As it continues to sail In Australian waters it stirs memories and people sometimes ask if this is the UTIEKAH III that their father or they learnt to sail on.

SignificanceUTIEKAH III is a cruising yacht built in Tasmania in 1925. It was built at the Wilson yard in Cygnet, a family of well-known boat builders in Tasmania over three generations, and was the first non-commercial or private vessel they built. It was built for Ireton Elliot Giles, a charismatic Victorian teacher and adventurer who pioneered sail-training for youths and supported the practice for many decades with UTIEKAH III. He also cruised UTIEKAH III as the first Australian yacht to sail in the South Pacific.