No yacht in Australia is better known than this magnificent William Fife III designed 65ft gaff cutter. Under two names and two owners MORNA (Claude Plowman) and as Kurrewa IV (Livingstone brothers) won line honours in seven Sydney to Hobart races (1946, 47, 48, 54, 56 & 57). This incredible success is only surpassed by the super maxi WILD OATS XI (nine wins). MORNA was built by Morrison & Sinclair in Sydney and launched in 1912.
She has suffered decades of total neglect having been left on her mooring to rot. The mess and decay on board and below decks was astonishing. The only thing that saved her (besides recent years laying at Noakes with submersible pumps working full-time) was her indestructible solid teak planking and NZ kauri deck beams. With the intermediate steam-bent frames all but gone her gracious hull shape was held by built frames, which although mostly rotten still managed to hold the subtle curved shape in her topsides.
Working for Sean Langman (Noakes Group) at Berry's Bay, from April to October 2021 we first removed the deck and cabinetry, then gutted and braced MORNA. This brought her essentially back to a bare hull building stage. From this point we removed all the steam-bent frames and replaced the built frames with laminated flooded gum frames before further work was postponed. The hull of this magnificent vessel has now been stabilised and awaits the next phase of her re-build.
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