Barbary in Boating NZ July 2012 - Lake Taupo

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A silver screen connection takes Barbary into the future. Barbary has already survived several lifetimes, and now the 44-ft (13.4m) Colin Archer ketch is embarking on another that connects her to her most famous owner. Jamie and Sarah Looner bought Barbary in March 2011 and since then, in one short year of frenetic work and planning, the vessel has been revived, refurbished and repowered to meet the clean, green future head-on. Jamie and Sarah both came up through the waterborne hospitality industry – he as a class IV Master and she as nurse/stewardess – and their work brought them together aboard a charter yacht. The couple gave up the sailing lifestyle in the Mediterranean and Caribbean to return to Jamie’s New Zealand homeland. Their first project was the building and managing of a budget accommodation business in Whitianga on the Coromandel’s east coast, and the second was buying and operating a café at Mount Maunganui. The next plan was to do some overland travel and possibly get back to sea in the future. But sailing intervened more quickly than they planned when they learned that Barbary was for sale at Lake Taupo. The historic vessel was an icon of the Great Lake, taking passengers on sightseeing cruises. It didn’t take long for the Looners to make their decision: Sarah loves boats and Jamie claims to have salt water in his blood. When he was 12 his dad sold the family home and bought a yacht to go sailing in the Pacific. Jamie sailed with his dad for three years and became besotted with the sea and all things sailing. Barbary was built in California in 1926 and was raced hard early in her Errol Flynn life. Legend has it that in 1938 the famous screen star and romantic hero Errol Flynn won the yacht in a card game. Barbary was later purchased in Fiji and then sailed to New Zealand in 1947. She cruised the waters of the Waitemata Harbour and coastal New Zealand for many years, and in 1973 she made a name for herself as part of the Greenpeace fleet that sailed to Mururoa Atoll to protest against the French Government’s nuclear testing programme. In 1976 she was wrecked in a storm near Auckland, and that’s where she languished until Bill Dawson rescued her, restored her and put her on Lake Taupo. “The old girl had worked hard as a charter boat on c dream boat Words Dorothy Preece Photos Sarah and Jamie Looner 0712518 subscribe online at www.mags4gifts.co.nz/boating-nz 21
Sarah and Jamie Looner with their son Patrick the lake for nearly 30 years,” Jamie Looner says. “She was well-known and well-loved, but she needed a complete overhaul and a lot of TLC. “With so much in her past, as well as so much potential, we knew if we took the job on we had to do it right. “The ideas were flowing even as we looked at her. With our combined backgrounds of sailing and hospitality, Sarah and I were pretty sure we could fit the boat out to do justice to her history. At the same time we planned to make her unique.” They decided to make Barbary the first electric yacht to work commercially in New Zealand and, perhaps influenced by her film star history, they fitted her out with a big screen so she is now also New Zealand’s first and only floating cinema. When the couple started to list all the renovation required, it was more a case of what didn’t need fixing than what did. They found a home for Barbary at the local dry dock and began systematically stripping her down to the bare hull and deck. Very early in they decided to replace the noisy old diesel engine with an electric propulsion unit and cleaned 30 years of grease from the hull in anticipation. They resealed the teak decks and sent the brass portholes away to be polished. Dale Boat Builders checked the carvel-planked kauri hull for soft spots and completely recaulked the planking. The whole boat was then painted inside and out, including masts, before she was refloated. “Once back in the water it was time to tackle the interior,” Jamie says. “The heads were a pressing issue. The boat had a portaloo, which is fine when you’re back on shore every night. The problem was it had to be tilted to get it out of its restraints!” The couple installed a new electric toilet which now discharges to a large holding tank. The Looners were determined to keep the classic boat feel with as much polished timber as possible. They installed rimu floorboards and made hardwood galley bench tops, treating them with plenty of two-pot varnish in anticipation of the catering they planned to do. The chest freezer, capacious fridge and microwave were all necessities. Sarah and Jamie are in the business of sailing but their passengers get to handle the boat whenever possible. “No-one wants to turn on the engine in a sailing ship,” Jamie says. “It disturbs the peace and offends the ear. But every sailor knows it’s inevitable. 22 Boating New Zealand July 2012
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Barbary in Boating NZ July 2012 - Lake Taupo

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