The cry went up: “No leaks!” as the sailing cutter Kate was relaunched into Putiki Bay on Saturday afternoon, after three-months hauled out at the Waiheke Boating Club in Ostend.

With the final aim of using her as a teaching vessel for the island’s young sailors, boat restorer Bernard Rhodes and his team at Waiheke Working Sail passed the first big test on Saturday, after making the leaking hull sound, repairing the rot and making the decks watertight.

Bernard says the rot behind the stem was serious as expected, and was also evident around the rudder trunk.

“But all is now repaired with a fine new pohutukawa stem piece, and at the stern, the new planks extended to form a basis for re-building.”

Perfect conditions for a day at the races attracted around 3500 people to Onetangi Beach on Sunday.

From around 11am, the Strand’s food and drink stalls were doing a decent trade, while race goers also packed out nearby Charlie Farley’s and Fourth Avenue ahead of the starting gun. 

A high tide at 11.30am meant the popular Sealegs amphibious boat race was first off the sand, followed by the tractors and later in the afternoon, the Kidz Kartz and horses had their turn.

A log skidder – a large piece of heavy equipment used for removing entire trees – crashed though bush from a work site on Trig Hill road; flattening a full-grown plum tree and narrowly missing a house and parked car below at the property of Julie Ingham, on Eden Terrace, Onetangi.

Ms Ingham says “Jon Crowhurst, my boarder, was sitting three feet from where the machine came to rest and would have been killed.  The machine missed my car by two feet.   

“The company were cutting down trees on a very steep section above on Trig Hill Road.  There is a major problem with water runoff and soil movement.”

The machinery was being used by Island Tree Care and Sergeant Peter Knight of the Waiheke Police said the skidder was “unattended at the time.” The incident has been referred to Worksafe New Zealand, he said.•