History – Kawau Island Yacht Club

With summer here, though that seems questionable as the rain falls in sheets as I write, a summer boating story might be appropriate.

In the late 1940s, the permanent population of Kawau Island was around 120. All were boaties as that was the only way to access their homes. Summer sailors and bach owners swelled the island numbers considerably. Summer Saturdays would see teenage sailors with their small sailing boats, such as the Z and M class yachts and cherubs and Idle Alongs, sail over from Sandspit, enjoy a race in Bon Accord Harbour, swim or lunch with their families who would have come over with one of the Algies, Dawsons or Morrisons on their launches, and then sail home again.

In 1951, locals from the island and nearby mainland started up the Kawau Island Yacht Club. The first of many regattas was held, and the local women set up a committee to raise funds for a clubrooms. Irene and Roy Lidgard offered land for the clubrooms at a peppercorn rental. With the funds raised, membership fees and donations of time and materials, the clubrooms were opened in 1954. The Kawau Islanders were for many years the heart of the yacht club and the clubrooms were very much the heart of Kawau for the islanders themselves. Ngaire and Bill Schumacher were the managers, welcoming both locals and visiting boaties.

Maureen, a teenage sailor of the 1950s, remembered the sailing dinghy Merrilee that her father had built for her, which was kept on the beach at Sandspit. Your Saturday crew was whoever turned up in time to sail over to Kawau, sometimes having to tack backwards and forward in the channel if the tide was against you. Dave Parker also has fond memories of those teenage years when the clubhouse was being built and the young sailors would spend some time helping tidy up after the weeks work and then race in the bay before sailing back to Sandspit, often with the hope of being back in time to bicycle out to the Saturday dances in the Matakana Hall.

New Year’s Day regattas were always a highlight with many visiting boats. For several years an old navy Fairmile Ngaroma would bring the P class sailors up from Auckland to race, with their boats stacked on deck.

In 1968 tragedy struck the Lidgard family when three generations of Roy’s family were lost at sea on their way to New Caledonia, resulting in a mortgagee sale. The Auckland Motor Yacht club bought the freehold land, allowing the KIYC to continue with its cheap rental. Later, the MYC gifted it all to the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron, who for many years used the yacht club and the old Lidgard house for sailing events. In 2014, the squadron wanted to sell the KIYC and club members made an offer of purchase. This resulted in it becoming the Kawau Boating Club, a beautifully revamped and welcoming place for boaties again. The squadron, at this stage, still retain the iconic Lidgard house.