Atlanta, 1936. This 18-footer was one of Billy Rogers’ first V Class vessels, built for Aucklander Bourn Kendall Wilson in 1934.
Photographer unknown, New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa (1994.27.1) / Portrait: Billy Rogers, 1938. Photograph by J. J. Barnett, courtesy of Geoff Rogers
Moani sailing in the Logan Memorial Trophy, 1961. Moani was one of Billy Rogers’ 1947 trio of M Class boats, built to a Jack Brooke design.
Photograph by Marine Photos, Auckland, New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa (9999.595.1)
Ajax, Silver Fern 11, competing at Little Bucklands Beach, Auckland, 1981. Billy Rogers built Ajax for Trevor ‘Speed’ Allen about 1940.
Photographer unknown, New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa (1992.187.2)
(1906–72)
Billy Rogers was one of this country’s most respected centreboard boatbuilders.
The boatbuilding business
Billy Rogers began his career as an apprentice to Joe Slattery, a friend of designer Arch Logan.
Rogers built his first centreboarder in 1923, aged 17. Ten years on, he inherited his Uncle Jack’s boatbuilding business, repairing boats and designing and building new ones.
‘Auckland’s finest clinker builder’
In 1937, Arch Logan asked Rogers to build his M Class Mercedes. Impressed by the work, Logan again chose Rogers for his final M Class design, Marita, in 1939.
M Class (‘Emmy’) yachts are clinker-built – the hulls built from overlapping planks. By the end of World War II, Rogers was ‘probably Auckland’s finest clinker builder’.
In 1947, he built the ‘Emmy’ trio Matana, Moani and Monalua – the latter to his own design – probably his best. When Monalua was wrecked in 1962, he reribbed the hull. The boat was wrecked again in 1965, but sadly this time was beyond repair.
His surviving boats, however, are still highly regarded for their design, construction, and finishing.
Skippering success
Rogers raced some of the centreboarders he designed and built, such as his T Class creations Treasure and Vamp, which he skippered. His biggest successes came in the 14-foot Caress, ‘the outstanding X Class of the early 1940s’.