Page 137 - KBHA BULLETIN 8
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Mr. Hare’s boat. In design concept, however, she seems to have followed the traditional
form, like Voyager. She was launched in Table Bay around October 1928. (Fig. 3. 25).
According to an unpublished history of Sir Abe, he was very fond of children and often
took groups for rides on Clewer. (Fig. 3.26). Perhaps this was to make up for his not having
seen nearly enough of his own children, which, however he blamed on his wife, whom, he
suggested, squirreled them away from him. Reading between the lines of the work referred
to, however, this may to a large extent have been the consequence of his own commitment
to his business affairs at the time his own children would most have appreciated his
presence and time.
It is clear from the photographs that both Voyager and Clewer were boats adapted from the
traditional form of fishing boats of the day. They were displacement hulls as opposed to
planing or semi-planing hulls, the essential difference being that a displacement hull has a
limitation placed on its speed by the underwater shape of the hull, or body of the boat.
Typically, displacment boats are easily and cheaply driven at low speeds, which in fact they
are unable to exceed almost regardless of power applied.
A planing hull, on the other hand, which rises up and rides on the surface of the water like a
water skier, will increase its speed with the application of more power. This, however, is
costly, since the power required for higher speeds its out of all proportion to the speed
achieved and is not what most of us understand as a straight line equation: x = y. The
parabolic curve of the planing hull equation is closer to x = y squared. For high speeds of
the order of forty knots or more a “crashboat”, like the Iona, would perhaps require ten
times the power it would take to drive it at say, ten knots, a quarter of the higher speed
referred to.
Another leisure boat of traditional design of the early days was Lucky Jim, which belonged
to J. B. Taylor, a so-called “Randlord”. (Fig. 3.27). Little is known about this boat except

