Valencia, Aumoe & Ranoni 1948

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Valencia, Aumoe & Ranoni 1943

Valencia, Aumoe & Ranoni 1948

I really like this image sent to me by Andrew Pollard the current guardian of Aumoe. Its such a great photo & if you look closely you will notice that the crews are a really mixed bag of men, young boys & women, I doubt you would get that in the 2013 event.  The photo is of the opening day of the 1948 Whangarei Deep Sea Anglers Club. I wonder what the catch was like.
A understand that at the time of the photo Aumoe was owned by the Wilkinson family of Whangarei.

Harold Kidd Update 

VALENCIA was then owned by E S Ralls. I’m not sure who built her and where. There were several Valencias around the coast as it was the name of a very popular song of the time. It would be good to get feedback on her (I suspect a c1928 name change). RANONI is easier, she was built by Charlie Gouk at Beaumont Street in the winter of 1911 for the Rushbrook brothers. In 1948 she was owned by O. Mann. The lovely AUMOE of course was built by Tom Le Huquet for F M P Brookfield of Brookfield Engineering in February 1913 and initially fitted with an Advance 30hp 4 stroke sleeve valve engine built by Brookfield Engineering which was still in use when replaced by A J Wilkinson of Whangarei when he bought her in the late 30s.

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7 thoughts on “Valencia, Aumoe & Ranoni 1948”

  1. Valencia belonged to my Grandfather Earnest Ralls, my mother’s father and Mum (Dorothy) is one of the crew on board in that photo. Mum is still alive and remembers Valencia well. It was in Whangaroa for many years. Grandpa temporarily renamed Valencia as Mercury but when she sank he quickly changed it back to its original name. Valencia sank in the Whangarei Town Basin when it was tied up too high to the jetty. Earnest and May had gone away and their eldest son Keith discovered the mishap. Everything had to be taken out in order to get Valencia out from under the jetty. Earnest bought Valencia from a man in Mercury Bay

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  2. My Dad and his friend co-owned a boat called Valencia that looked just like the Valencia in the photo at Whangarei Basin. She was based on the Whangaroa harbour for a number of years; maybe 1950 – 1970 and my Dad, Bingham Green, used her for game fishing charter tours. The friend who first owned her was Ted Ferrier and he used her to get to and from his bach on Jones Island, Whangaroa harbour. Dad sold the Valencia to a chap from Tauranga and we heard she sank off one of the marinas where she was tied incorrectly to the wharf. She was a beautiful boat…Lees Marine diesel engine, kauri double-skin hull, two berths, a galley, toilet. As a child, I remember steering her with my feet and standing in the wheel house with my head out the hatch lol!

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  4. PS the reference to Len Oliver’s speedboat (no name) is in New Zealand Aquatic magazine of 16/11/1923.

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  5. I’m certain that the boat in the 1923 Herald report was a 20ft speedboat owned and built by Len Oliver of Tauranga. There were several Valencias around at the time, the names inspired by the very popular recordings of the paso doble by Jose Padilla which came out in 1926. Oliver’s speedboat may have been renamed Valencia in 1926 or it could be a new one. The more famous W O (Willie) Oliver didn’t start building in Tauranga for many years after 1923 in which year he was still working for Caesar Roose at Mercer on the Waikato River.

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  7. VALENCIA was then owned by E S Ralls. I’m not sure who built her and where. There were several Valencias around the coast as it was the name of a very popular song of the time. It would be good to get feedback on her (I suspect a c1928 name change). RANONI is easier, she was built by Charlie Gouk at Beaumont Street in the winter of 1911 for the Rushbrook brothers. In 1948 she was owned by O. Mann. The lovely AUMOE of course was built by Tom Le Huquet for F M P Brookfield of Brookfield Engineering in February 1913 and initially fitted with an Advance 30hp 4 stroke sleeve valve engine built by Brookfield Engineering which was still in use when replaced by A J Wilkinson of Whangarei when he bought her in the late 30s.

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