RATANUI
Ratanui” is a 31’kauri carvel planked bridge decker. A plate on board indicates a build date of 1928 but it is ‘thought’ a more likely build date is 1910-1914 & possibly by Bailey and Lowe in Auckland. She is powered by a Ford D-Series, model 2722E giving 7-8 knots cruising speed.
Currently based at Lake Rotoiti & used for cruises on the lake, both pleasure & commercially. If Ratanui rings your bell, she is for sale on trademe.
Would be interested to know any details & obtain photos of her before the plywood sheets were added.
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Yep the age 1910-1914 at Bailey and Lowe came from info from you at the time my mate was asking. Damn that missing piece of paper – ha ha
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Ouch, I wish I still had that info about RATANUI. I didn’t record it at the time (or I’ve lost the scrap of paper with it on, more likely) but must have established that she’s not the Nelson-built (Curnow & Wilson) RATANUI that is well-known in the Sounds and Bluff areas. As for “Bailey & Lowe”, she does have the look of having started life as a flush-decker or a “tramtop” and, if the present coamings are original to the deckline, probably later than preWW1. 1928 is a distinct possibility and, dare I say it, Lanes??
I would dearly love to know her prior name.
It’s easy to kick Ken Ricketts around over his OCD with names, their order and so on. Ken has some odd belief system that each launch’s name should be unique, or should have a suffixed number if there’s a prior one with that name. That’s just not realistic by a country mile for a number of obvious reasons. However, he has a valid point about the downside of changing the name of a launch.
The common side effect of randomly changing a name is that it usually ends up destroying the launch’s provenance. It also results in fertile ground for mythologies supplanting facts…………and the facts are always much more interesting than the myths.
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By the way, sorry about the free ad. Didn’t realise there was a policy. Thanks Harold for info on my Woollacott Selena in the past. a great help. James
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Hi= not sure of her real name. The current owner has contacted you guys a few times in the past and most info from you (Harold). One of these older girls that have been so changed over the years that hard to find info.I usually worked on her at Tony Mitchells yard at Rotoiti. By the way, that yard is in temporary closure by the Rotorua council. A nearby neighbour complained about the noise. He’s trying to sell. Lets hope the council see the light as many beautiful boats get maintained, serviced and restored there.
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Well, share with us her real name?
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Get with it Alan. We live in an American dominated universe. I’m sure he snuck one in there. Usage is the strumpet that struts the streets of syntax.
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You sneaked a free ad in there 🙂
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Hi I am actually marketing “Ratanui” on Trade Me for my mate. Anyone keen for more info can find my details on my website. http://www.pacificrimmarine.com. You may want to check out my site anyway!!!!!
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Another rename.
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That’s a very nice interior fitout, Undeniably more room than a flush decker, but……
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I saw RATANUI at Tony Mitchell’s boat building yard on the lake a couple of years ago where he was doing routine maintenance on her — he will probably have some more info on her.– KEN RICKETTS
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