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Welcome > Ted Bailey

Skippered the 14 footer Peggy (1926?)

NZ yachting historian Harold Kidd says of Ted Bailey:

Ted Bailey was EDWIN Richard Bailey, a younger brother of Chas. Bailey Jr. He joined the long established firm of Jas Bringans at Martins Bay (formerly Bringans and Hogg c1892 and Bringans and Cunningham,1899) around mid 1908. Ted moved to Shed 49 at the Boat Harbour in 1909 apparently having ceased partnership with Bringans who carried on solo at Roseneath/Evans Bay. Ted was building at Clyde Quay until the late 1930s.

He was a fine yachtsman. His Thelma was one of the Thorndon Dinghy Sailing Club 10 footers which flourished briefly from 1907 but died out with too much money being spent on professionally built boats (by Ted and brother Walter) and "professional" skippers like Ted winning everything....familiar story.
His later 14ft X Class boats were very competitive...ANIVAL, EYNIN, HINAU, JANNET, LAVINA, NANCY, PONEKE etc while he built some fine keel yachts like REVERIE and WYLO and launches like the Defence launch W (probably as a result of his Auckland family connections as the Defence launches for Auckland and Lyttelton were built by his brother Walter Bailey of Bailey & Lowe), DAUNTLESS, RESOLUTION, MATAKITAKI, TARANUI etc.

It was probably the W contract that got him to Wellington.

Ted was a bottle of whisky a day man.