MAYA on Sydney Harbour sailing with SASC

Images(4)

Maya

Vessel numberHV000751

Vessel Registration Number374822

Builder Alfred Cuthbertson

Date1929

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 9.2 m × 8.3 m (30.19 ft × 27.23 ft)

DescriptionMAYA is a gaff cutter built in Hobart by Alf Cuthbertson for racing in the Derwent Estuary, and was called MIRANDA after Alf Cuthbertson’s daughter. It was built to replace ALMIRA, an auxiliary ketch which Alf built in Lindisfarne, Hobart in 1918 and raced in the Derwent until he sold her in 1928. Alf Cuthbertson launched MIRANDA in late 1930 and raced it in the Cruiser Class at Hobart for two years with mixed success. It won the Kingston Regatta in 1932 on handicap but generally finished in the middle of the field or lower.

A report on the Bellerive Regatta, 9th January, 1931 noted:

‘Aotea was first away, followed by Falkyre Pandora, Ventura, Connella Gypsy, and Durham. Two collisions occurred on the line, one between Devanah and Miranda, in which Miranda's mainsail was torn at the clew, and the other between' Miranda and Tamlyn.’

After just two years racing Alf sold MIRANDA and it was sailed to Sydney. The Hobart Mercury, November 8th, 1932 reports-

“YACHT MIRANDA
VOYAGE TO SYDNEY.
The 30ft. auxiliary cutter-rigged yacht Miranda, which has been purchased by a Sydney
yachtsman, left Hobart for Sydney on Friday. Comprising the crew of the yacht, which is of Huon pine construction, are Capt. F. Jelley and Messrs. H. Brownell, N. Pegg. J. Chamberlain, and R. Piggott. It was expected that the Miranda would reach Rushcutters Bay, via Eden, on the Victorian
coast, about November 12. “

It was an eventful journey and on 21st January, 1932 the Hobart Mercury again reports

“MIRANDA'S VOYAGE
WHALE THREATENED YACHT.
The crew of the 30ft. yacht Miranda, which arrived at Sydney last week from Hobart, had a gruelling time during the nine days which the voyage occupied. Captain F. Jelly was in command, and he had with him Messrs. F. D. Chamberlain, H. B. Brownell, N. Pegg, and R. G. Piggott.

Trouble started on the second day out from Hobart, when the engine stopped, and the yacht was becalmed. To make matters worse, the ignition interfered with the compass. Later, gales made cooking impossible, and the main diet was corned beef, sheep tongues, and hard biscuits. The greatest blow of all was when the water became undrinkable. However, fresh water was secured at Gabo. Off Eddystone Point (T.) many anxious moments were spent when a whale was seen under the boat. However, it moved away without doing any damage.”

The Sydney purchaser was Dr A. Thornton Taylor a distinguished Sydney orthodontist who had bought MAYA in Hobart and arranged to have the yacht delivered to Sydney while he waited in eager expectation, planning to join the voyage in Eden. As he tells the story-

“What a lot I had to learn about sailors- and the sea! When, in the early summer of 1933, a telegram arrived advising the departure of yacht Miranda from Hobart for the passage to Sydney, I excitedly organised myself for a dash down to Eden, the old whaling town on Twofold Bay, 483 kilometres south. It had been agreed that Miranda would make landfall there, and pick me up for the leg north up the coast to Sydney.
Quite unmindful of speed potentials of sail and motor, we drove furiously south, 'over dusty winding' roads to Eden, then only a shell of a town, and started our vigil and waited - and waited - for sight or sign of little Miranda. Four days went by. By the third day my lonely, still eager figure, was known to most of the locals on the beach. The light-house keeper had been watching for Miranda, and on the fourth morning he sent a message that he had sighted her a few miles off the coast, heading north in a spanking leading breeze.
With very little money left, I made my way to the nearest railway, some distance away, and arrived in Sydney a bit the worse for wear, at about the same time as Miranda blithely entered port. The crew told me the breeze they got that morning off Eden was too good to let go. Damn the owner! “

Prior to World War II, now renamed MAYA, it raced with the SASC and also the Royal Sydney yacht Squadron and did quite well. Naval architect Alan Payne converted the yacht to a Bermuda rig in the 1950's or early 60's. Race results from the Sydney Morning Herald archives show MAYA racing in the 2nd division prior to and during the early days of World War II. Dr. Thornton Taylor was elected as a member of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron in1947 and MAYA was on the Register from 1947 until 1970.

His son David has his own recollections of the yacht..

“Digging into my memory, I seem to recall that my father said Maya was sailed to Sydney by some chaps from Tasmania. He was not on board. I suspect the year was about 1934. The boat had no loo and no motor for most of the time and when one was fitted, it was not super reliable. It had a fixed lead keel (which once fell off) and also a lot a movable lead ballast.
I don't know who bought it but I do remember listening to my father on the telephone describing to prospective purchasers all the faults. He was a reluctant seller but knew it had to go as we pursued other interests.”

It is understood MAYA was sold to Mr Solomons in the early 1970s, but it is known that but Mr J Ecuyer purchased the yacht in 1974. Mr Ecuyer lived aboard MAYA at Mooloolaba with his wife until the birth their daughter. Sadly they then had to move ashore and prepare to sell MAYA Trevor and Patty Brady purchased it in 1976 and cruised the Queensland Coast and lived aboard in North Queensland. Trevor wrote the following to the current owner:

“We were intending to sail her back to Tasmania after discussions with Bern Cuthbertson in the Whitsundays (1977) but family commitments intervened. As a consequence of this plan I, in conjunction with and with a sterling amount of expertise and assistance from Keith Allen, a OLD boat builder in Innisfail, rebuilt Maya from the keel up over a period of nine months. A job that would not be possible today under the same circumstances. There are some very good stories to be told about this period of our life and Maya's.

We replaced the Keel bolts, sister framed her, replaced all the deck beams, laid a cold molded deck of marine ply with a laid beech deck overlay, replaced the bulwarks, coachhouse and hatches and modelled her deck on the plan of Serafyn, the Pardeys yacht. We painted her in the colours of Wanderer, the Hiscocks yacht and finally had her British Registered, which took me some 12 months of dealing with beaurocracy!!! I still have the papers and a very comprehensive photo record of all of this project. We have been trying to trace Maya for some thirty years as we have quite an attachment for the old girl. I have always believed that sooner or later we would find her.”

The birth of a child to the Brady’s meant that MAYAhad to be sold in 1980, and its story is then not well documented until 2006. Plaques in the cabin show it was at a Vintage Boat Show at Paradise Point, probably the area of the same name just behind South Stradbroke Island. The plaque from W.A.G.S. is obviously the Wednesday Afternoon Gentleman Sailors run since 1978 by the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron.

In 1994 it is known to be back in NSW from a register record of the yacht with NSW at Waterways,. The unknown owner later sold it Mr Paul Rainbow. Paul took it on as restoration project in 2006 at Palm Beach, Pittwater. He moved her across to Coasters Retreat, Pittwater, in which idyllic surrounds it lay as Paul restored her spars. Paul moved to Northern NSW and with great regret sold MAYA to the current owner.

SignificanceMAYA is a wooden yacht built in 1930 in Tasmania. It as built by the well-known boat builder Alf Cuthbertson in Hobart. MAYA was originally called MIRANDA and had a short association with Hobart before it was sailed to Sydney. It is an example of Cuthbertson’s yacht building and was widely known in both regions, but the greater part of its racing and cruising story is from the Sydney region. It was one of the contemporary fleet with Sydney Amateur Sailing Club.