Images(2)

Kotare

Vessel numberHV000785

Sail NumberR850

Designer Ken Watts

Vessel class Bluebird Class

Date1982

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 6.71 m × 5.33 m × 2.19 m × 1.17 m (22 ft × 17.5 ft × 7.2 ft × 3.84 ft)

DescriptionThe original owner and builder Robert Brown began the construction in his backyard in the late 1970s and saw it launched in 1982. He named it KOTARE after a New Zealand coastal steamer on which his grandfather had been chief engineer. KOTARE is also the Maori name for the native bird, the little blue kingfisher. The yacht is a plywood single chine hull with a fin keel and separate rudder. KOTARE was built to modified plans to give it higher head room, and it is not unusual for amateur builders to customize their own craft, as this is one of the appeals of building it yourself. The Bluebirds have a simple fractional sloop rig.

Robert Brown noted the following.

“I always regarded the Bluebird as Australia's own Folkboat, being as prolific as they were. I was the owner of three Formit built Bluebirds but only one of them I competed with in Victoria's fleet for some 14 years. They are a seaworthy little boat and I did single hand her off shore to King Is. about 10 years ago, but I have heard of others being sailed much longer distances.”

It is thought to have remained sailing in Victoria but most of the other owners remain unknown except Nick White who bought the yacht in 2007.

The class is distributed around Australia, and some examples were built in other countries such as New Zealand.

KOTARE sails with the last remaining active fleet of Bluebirds in Williamstown on Port Phillip, Victoria

SignificanceKOTARE is a wooden yacht built in Victoria in 1982 It is an example of the prolific Australian post World War 2 day sailing Bluebird class yacht, designed by Ken Watts. It was amateur built by its owner over number of years and launched in 182. It is widely recognized as the last amateur-built version of this popular class to be built and launched. It is also an example of a class that is becoming rare, most of the original home built plywood Bluebirds are no longer extant, and the subsequent fibreglass hulls are also diminishing in numbers.