Te Rapunga versus Ngataki
Te Rapunga got a great reception from the Royal St. Kilda and Brighton Yacht Clubs…
The Trans-Tasman race from Auckland to Melbourne had started at 2.46pm, Saturday 8th December 1934, from a mark off the Akarana Yacht Club’s clubhouse in Mechanics Bay. The only two contestants were German offshore yachtsman George Dibbern’s Te Rapunga and Aucklander Johnny Wray’s Ngataki, evenly matched in performance and seaworthiness. Ngataki had 17 hours’ time allowance from Te Rapunga.
When was off Flat Rock about 8pm that night the yacht was making water seriously. George had never installed a bilge pump, so it was all hands to buckets. Twenty kerosene tins, 80 gallons, for every hour were needed to keep the water below the floorboards. As the yacht staggered up the coast in the easterly gale the inflow increased. They passed Bream Head at 2am on Sunday and sighted Cape Brett at
