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Ambrosia

Vessel numberHV000640

Vessel Registration NumberSA944Q

Designer W D Bailey

Date1937

DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 8.5 m × 2.74 m × 1.07 m, 5.08 tonnes (27.89 ft × 9 ft × 3.5 ft, 5 tons)

DescriptionThe construction of AMBROSIA began in a Sydney backyard in 1937. In 1939 or 1940 the owner and builder left the unfinished yacht to serve in the military during World War 2, but he passed away soon after his return from the war. The yacht then remained unfinished and standing outside for about 40 years. The designer, WD Bailey was one the early designers to concentrate on building a portfolio of stock designs, which he advertised in Australian Motor Boat and Yachting Monthly.

In the early 1980s the unfinished yacht was bought by Allan Le Couter who was a carpenter. He purchased the boat in late1992 from Hilton Gardener a oyster farmer from Shell Point south of Captain Cook Bridge at Botany Bay. Gardener had lived next door to the boat in a small shed, and knew that the boat had never been in the water It was launched as TE WAKA , Maori for war canoe, and moored in Double Bay on Sydney Harbour for many years. A subsequent owner kept the yacht at Oyster Bay on the Georges River to the south of Sydney.

The hull has been built according to the original detailed plans, but the cabin has a wheelhouse added and the mainsail and rigging arrangement are also slightly different from the configuration drawn by Bailey. It is not uncommon for amateur builders to make changes of this nature to stock designs to suit their own requirements, and the ability to do this is one of the reasons home builders will take on their own project.

The current owner has named the yacht AMBROSIA and cruises it along the Queensland coast. The yacht is in good condition and has had an extensive overhaul where the only significant changes were new sails and a new engine.

SignificanceAMBROSIA is a cruising yacht whose original owner began its construction in 1937, but it was not launched until many decades later. It is one of a modest number of surviving yachts that were built to a set of stock plans from the Sydney naval architect WD Bailey, an early designer of stock plans, and it represents a typical small cruising yacht of his design and of the pre-World War II period. It also represents the early stages of amateur boat-building which has consistently made a small but strong contribution to the boating industry, market and social history for many decades.