BELLE ISLE
New owner, looking for details on this rather pretty 27′ double ender. Kauri planked, obviously had an in-board before that appendix on the stern. The un-confirmed build date is ‘said’ to be 1913. As the architects say – she has great bones. I can just see her on a lake.
She came from Taranaki.
Being this distinctive someone must be able to shed some light on her past?
Harold Kidd Update:
The only reference I have found is to a BELLE ISLE being a 26ft Hutt Valley launch, one of 23 that joined the Heretaunga Boating Club in October 1929. I suppose it’s the same one that somehow migrated up the coast to New Plymouth, maybe by rail. I would think that 1913 is right for the raised foredeck but wrong for the torpedo stern unless she’s a Sounds boat where the builders favoured such sterns well after they had been dropped in favour of broad tuck sterns elsewhere.
Belle Isle was a well-known barque that traded on the Tasman in the late 19th century and could be the inspiration for her name, although I suspect she wasn’t built as BELLE ISLE.
Belle Isle was a well-known barque that traded on the Tasman in the late 19th century and could be the inspiration for her name, although I suspect she wasn’t built as BELLE ISLE.
Update (09/07/13) from the new owner
I’ve just caught up with the guy who sold it to me, I’ve got some new info on her.
First, she’s never been to Taranaki..but she was built in Auckland, spend a long time on Lake Waikaremoana and end up in Wanganui.
First, she’s never been to Taranaki..but she was built in Auckland, spend a long time on Lake Waikaremoana and end up in Wanganui.
Harold Kidd Update
If that’s the case, then she would have been built in the period 1903-6 and certainly without that raised foredeck. In 1903 Logan Bros built a launch, KAHURANGI, for the Government Tourist Bureau’s passenger work on the Lake of vaguely similar configuration, but bigger at 36ft, so there’s a possibility that she’s a Logan. It was quite a trick getting vessels to the Lake in those days as they had to be shipped to Gisborne and taken over the metalled road to the Lake on a waggon drawn by a bullock team.
A Dr. Collins of Gisborne had a similar launch on the Lake which was damaged in a fire in 1913. I have no name for that boat, but it could have been rebuilt in this configuration after the fire, perhaps?
Most of the Lake launches migrated there from Gisborne or Napier, like IDALIA which is still there.
A Dr. Collins of Gisborne had a similar launch on the Lake which was damaged in a fire in 1913. I have no name for that boat, but it could have been rebuilt in this configuration after the fire, perhaps?
Most of the Lake launches migrated there from Gisborne or Napier, like IDALIA which is still there.
HK Update2
As an afterthought, It’s unlikely she was built by Logan Bros who, although they built many launches with this type of “torpedo” or “compromise” stern, usually didn’t build single skin boats, nor would they have built a single skin boat with those horrible butts in the planking in the image taken from aft, although I guess they could be the result of amateurish repairs.
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Hi Wayne – email the photos to the address below and we will share them with all the WW readers 🙂 Many Thanks. Alan H
waitematawoodys@gmail.com
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Hi, I’ve just discovered the WW website & love reading about these lovely old craft. On a whim I decided to search for a couple of the boats I know from lake Waikaremoana, the Belle Isle & Idalia, & was interested to see your story on Belle Isle. I have a photo of her moored in the smaller bay at Home Bay in 2003. On another visit there I’m pretty sure it was her with only the tip of her bow above water, & I think she was taken away from the lake after that.
The Idalia was a big part of a friend’s deer culling life in the 70’s. The owner would drop Jim Wright (the culler) at the far end of the lake for his trips into the bush, then pick him up weeks later. Jim spent time on the Idalia recuperating then would be dropped back in the bush for more culling.
Unfortunately the last photos I have of the Idalia was of her tied to the bank in Home Bay after being broken into & scuttled. I’d love to know what happened to her once she was taken away.
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As an afterthought, It’s unlikely she was built by Logan Bros who, although they built many launches with this type of “torpedo” or “compromise” stern, usually didn’t build single skin boats, nor would they have built a single skin boat with those horrible butts in the planking in the image taken from aft, although I guess they could be the result of amateurish repairs.
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If that’s the case, then she would have been built in the period 1903-6 and certainly without that raised foredeck. In 1903 Logan Bros built a launch, KAHURANGI, for the Government Tourist Bureau’s passenger work on the Lake of vaguely similar configuration, but bigger at 36ft, so there’s a possibility that she’s a Logan. It was quite a trick getting vessels to the Lake in those days as they had to be shipped to Gisborne and taken over the metalled road to the Lake on a waggon drawn by a bullock team.
A Dr. Collins of Gisborne had a similar launch on the Lake which was damaged in a fire in 1913. I have no name for that boat, but it could have been rebuilt in this configuration after the fire, perhaps?
Most of the Lake launches migrated there from Gisborne or Napier, like IDALIA which is still there.
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