Trixie Newton
Maybird beached on a rocky outcrop
Trixie and her partner Tom Nayler bought Maybird from Robin MacDiarmid in 1988. Trixie owns and runs a very successful travel agency in Keri Keri, New Zealand. Tom was a mechanical engineer by training, from Wellington in New Zealand’s South Island. It was Tom who introduced me to Johnny Wray's South Sea Vagabonds, a classic yarn on the building of Ngartaki and her South Pacific adventures. The book is all about Kiwi ingenuity and being able to build anything out of no 8 wire! Trixie is British and went to school at Claremont College in Esher, Surrey. She worked for the BBC as a programme maker for many years prior to emigrating to New Zealand. Trixie is a very keen racing yachtswoman and Maybird was entered into most of the Keri Keri Cruising Club races whilst in Trixie’s ownership. Her cruising ground extended to Auckland in the South and Whangaroa in the North.
Trixie Newton 2009
It was under Trixie’s ownership that Maybird went ‘walkabout’ one windy night on the Keri Keri inlet. The wind was blowing from the East directly into the Bay and Maybird’s mooring chain parted company with the concrete block that acted as an anchor. She drifted in the inlet and was beached on a rocky outcrop near Goat Island. Fortunately the rock was covered in seaweed which gave a much softer landing. New pieces of planking were scarfed into her starboard side planking. The Kiwi shipwrights did a really good job and we have ‘left well alone’ during her recent renovation as their repair could not be bettered. Trixie stills lives in Keri Keri and her house overlooks Dove’s Bay where Maybird was moored for many years. Trixie sold Maybird to her current owner in 2000 as the maintenance required was getting a little too much. Trixie has continued her love of sailing and regularly sails Sagacious, her wooden Robert Clark designed sloop, from Maybird’s old mooring. Sagacious competes regularly in the Keri Keri Crusing Club’s racing fixtures as well as the Tall Ship’s Race at Russell each January in the same spirit as her elder sister – the good ship Maybird. In addition to her business interests, Trixie makes radio programmes about travelling.
