The sloop Pleasure II, originally owned by Ben and Stella Morgan and launched in 1940, I provide the following information regarding my stewardship of her.

I purchased Pleasure II in October 1984 through Lake Macquarie Yacht Sales at Marks Point Marina. The vendor was Mr Noel Dewart. The agreed price after a survey was $3250. I still have the contract for sale. I had been looking for a classic yacht for some time and she filled the bill.

I then arranged for Jack Morgan, who I believe is the son of Ben and Stella Morgan, to sail her down to Pittwater for me. Is Jack still around ?

Pleasure II then spent some years on my mooring at Mackerel Beach, Pittwater where we had a beach house and I sailed her with my wife Jill and our 2 daughters and later our young son on the Pittwater and the Hawkesbury and raced her with the Palm Beach Yacht Club in Friday twilights. She was in need of some TLC so I organised a young apprentice shipwright named Bill Bates to work on weekends on her on the hard over a period of about 6 months at the RPAYC where I was a member at the time. Bill Bates was later the sewerman on the ill fated Australian America's Cup 12 meter challenger 'oneAustralia' which buckled in half and sank. I seem to recall that he was the last man to dive overboard.!

The work Bill did included removing the canvas deck covering, replacing the uppermost port strake, laying a teak deck and cabin top and replacing the port and starboard coamings as well as fitting 2 new self-tailing winches. By this time she had well and truly dried out so she then had a sprinkler hose running inside the hull to try to keep her wet and was later placed in the briny held in a slipway whilst she took up. A new main with the Lake Macquarie number M206 and a new jib and spinnaker, fresh paint and varnish, new aluminium spinnaker pole and she looked like new. I believe she originally had the sail number M6.

Several years later in 1993 we sold our beach house and so I sailed Pleasure II to her new mooring at Felix Bay Point Piper in front of the Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club where I was a member. We raced her with the RPEYC, CYCA, RANSA and Sydney Amateurs over many years, mainly in twilights and did a lot of cruising around Sydney Harbour with friends and the family. The aluminium mast and boom were replaced in 2004 with  lighter tailor made aluminium spars to similar specs as per the original plans for wooden spars although the boom is now slightly shorter, and she no longer has runners.

In October 2018, after she had been in a marina berth at the CYCA for some time, my wife and I decided to take her out for a sail on the Harbour. What we did not know was that she had sprung a plank just above the waterline and also the topsides had dried out in the berth. The result was that she started to take water at a rate which the electric bilge pump could not keep up with and notwithstanding heroic efforts of bailing to keep her afloat, she foundered. My wife was not amused!

I then had her refloated, contacted Sean Langman of Noakes Marine and had her towed to his boatyard at Berry's Bay where she was completely rebuilt by Sean and his son Peter. They did a fantastic job. Sean is well known for his love of old wooden boats. Keel removed, all paint removed back to bare hull, new deck, hull and keel sheathed in fibreglass and epoxy etc. She was relaunched on 5 May 2018. She will be good for at least another 50 years.

I enclose various photos of Pleasure II, one on Sydney Harbour before her rebuild and various others showing her during the recent rebuild, one showing her sailing and finally on her mooring in Felix Bay, Point Piper.

I have in my possession the original blueprints for her design and construction by Tyson Brothers of Newcastle which Jack Morgan very kindly gave me.

I hope this information is of interest to your fellow members, some of whom have spoken to me over the years when seeing Pleasure II on the Harbour. She is still very competitive and regularly beats modern plastics 10 feet longer than her.

Taken  by Sean Langman of Noakes Marine