Browns Bay Boatyards (17A Bute Road)

Browns Bay never had a yacht harbour but it has a large beach from which small boats could launch, and two prominent boatbuilders operated out of Browns Bay from the 1950s through the 1980. The world-famous boat designer and builder John Spencer pioneered lightweight construction of small boats in the 1950s and later developed larger yachts from his successful small boat designs. These ‘lightweight flyers’ changed the basics of keelboat design internationally.

His most famous design was the Cherub class, a 12-foot yacht that became New Zealand’s only fully fledged international class, still raced in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK. He also designed numerous other popular small boats including the Flying Ant, Javelin, Jollyboat, Firebug, and Frostply, and a number of larger racing yachts including Infidel, New World, Sirius, Frederick, and Buccaneer.

Spencer died in 1996 but his legacy lives on in the large numbers of yachties who first learnt to sail in a Spencer designed boat. His boats were cheap and relatively easy to build, bringing sailing within the reach of a larger (and very appreciative) proportion of the population. His original boat-building workshop still survives as Sam’s Motors.

Keith Atkinson’s original boatbuilding yard was demolished several years ago. Atkinson was a true craftsman who built a number of award-winning boats. He was well-known for his love of the 18-foot kauri-clinker M-Class yachts, originally designed by Arch Logan at Auckland in 1922. After a decline in their popularity, M-Class yachts regained favour in the 1980s and most of the yachts of this type racing at the time had been built by Atkinson at Browns Bay. Atkinson was also responsible for restoring the first M-class yacht Mawhiti, after it was found rotting at the local children’s playground. His role in the success of the M-class is remembered each year when yachts of this type compete for two Keith Atkinson Memorial Cups at the Victoria Cruising Club regatta.

Continue along Bute Road.