TOREA Canoe Bay, Fortescue Bay, Tasmania 2017

Images(8)

TOREA in early 2008, out for a test sail after minor rig modifcations were made to improve its…

Torea

Vessel numberHV000094

Vessel Registration NumberBY1938

Sail NumberB1938

Builder Peel Bros

Designer Charlie Peel

Datec 1938

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 9.14 m x 8.49 m x 3.05 m x 1.3 m, 5.9 tonnes, 48 sq m (30 ft x 27.86 ft x 10 ft x 4.27 ft, 5.99 tons, 516.72 sq ft)

DescriptionTOREA is believed to have been built in 1938 in Sydney, possibly at Hayes Yard, Careening Cove.The wooden carvel cutter has a profile and hull section shape that is the hallmark of Victorian designer Charlie Peel. Torea has fine lines and is similar in some respects to Charlie Peel’s Sydney boats Native (1914), Monsoon and Hoana, which spent 3 years cruising around the world in the 1960s (out of Sydney). TOREA has been built with a typical shipwright's craftsmanship of the period, and is well proportioned. It is primarily a cruising yacht, and was probably raced in small club events from time to time.

The early history remains unclear. All that is known is that by the mid 1990s the yacht was in Sydney and in poor condition. In 1999 a first restoration had TOREA sailing again. Following a sale in 2004 to the current owner in Melbourne, TOREA was trucked to the Wooden Boat Shop in Sorrento, Port Phillip for a more thorough rebuilding programme that returned TOREA to the likely original configuration. It was re-ribbed and restored at the Wooden Boat Shop during 2005, and re-launched in March 2006. The yacht is now a fine example of a classic yacht in its style and construction from the late 1930s.

TOREA has much of the Couta boat heritage in her design with a 5-foot bowsprit, inclined wine glass transom and a full-length wooden keel and drawing 1 foot more than a Couta boat but with no centreplate. It has a full cabin with a Bermudan cutter rig which may be her original configuration. This makes Torea an ideal weekend cruising boat but able to make an occasional passage as she did to Hobart for the 2009, 2011 and 2017 Australian Wooden Boat Festivals.

SignificanceTOREA is a timber yacht built in NSW in the late 1930s. It a good example of typical yacht construction for the 1930s and has all the hallmarks of a Charlie Peel design. Peel was one of Victoria's first vessel designers and created many fine craft as both designer and builder.