A couple of years ago the Geneva Christian School Camp at Interlaken inherited some boats from Mission Afloat when that latter organisation wound up its operations at Conningham. These boats have been found to be unsuitable for the Camp’s activities, and we are very fortunate that they have been offered to us. Last week Martin Riddle organised a reccy to see what they were like, and whether we should take them on, and the first one that caught our eye was the 18 foot ‘Abel Tasman’, built in 1967 for the sea scouts by Reg Fazackerly.
It is a ‘size up’ from a Grebe, designed for a scout patrol of six and a cox, or a smaller number of adults. It rows and sails, and would take an outboard motor (but yuck).
For those who don’t know, a Fazackerly dinghy is a prized thing. According to this brief obituary, unearthed by Gary McDonald, This boat is an example of many built by Reg for community organisations.
Abel Tasman is now taking up in reeds at the LBT and, with any luck, will be available for the ‘On the Water’ program next week.
