My Girl

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MY GIRL
photo & details from Jason Prew, Harold Kidd & Ian Gavin

At ww we love restoration projects, anyone that commits to saving one of your old girls is a good friend of waitematawoodys.

Todays classic launch is My Girl, built by Dick Lang in late 1925 for C.B. “Tui” Waldron of the Wade who commuted with her. The square-bilge design was based on one by W.H. Hand. She was fitted with a 6 cylinder 100hp Scripps that pushed her along at over 18 knots. Waldron later took her to Whangarei and she was in NAPS as Z32 out of Whangarei in WW2. She survived at Te Atatu owned by Trevor Davies.

The photos above show her in days gone by & being transported from Te Atatu Boating Club to her new home where her new owner Jason Prew , who recently purchased her from the Davies family, will commence her restoration. Jason has both done himself & supervised some of the best restoration projects in the CYA fleet so we will follow My Girl with great interest. I think I might need to re-power Raindance to keep up with Jason (My Girl) & Nathan Herbert (Lucinda).
You can follow the project here http://www.my-girl.co.nz

Interesting statistic – there are 9 CYA members on the CYA General Committee, myself being one of them, of those 9, 6 of them are now launch owners.  Owning a classic wooden launch is the hot new boating trend 🙂

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12 thoughts on “My Girl”

  1. Pingback: The Restoration of My Girl | waitematawoodys.com #1 for classic wooden boat stories, info, advice & news

  2. Jase-the-ace, that is a worthy progression compared with the modern model. Optimist for 5 – 8 years at parent’s (deliberate positioning of apostrophe) insistence: Boredom interposed with spells on the X box and close friends. Make a stash, marry, kids, Beneteau: more boredom and still no aesthetic sense. Separation. Pack it all in and get a Harley: boredom. Back to X box. Then burial box. Life gets tedious don’ it! BUT Woodys (sic) do it better! Gin anyone?

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  3. hmmm i feel your progression should read something like, sunburst, laser, frostbite, V class, E class, C class, Launch 🙂 Mister Deeble, you’re lucky you avoided the security rotweillers 🙂 A nice secondhand Yanmar of 130ish HP would be lovely if you’re in a donating mood 🙂

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  4. A casket is optional. My good friend Jim Chapple (launches MATAREKA II and MAPU, 3 litre Bentley, Royce Silver Ghost Continental tourer etc) had a cardboard Fisher & Paykel stove carton fashioned into the shape of a boat with an “Exit this way” sign on the bows and was taken to the crematorium in his trusty Morris 1000 van which we all had to push start. Funerals don’t need to be dull.

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  5. Rick, the great and magnificent Houghton and I were discussing this progression at Lake Rotoiti. It goes P class, small yachts bigger yachts -maybe a big Farr boat then a launch, then a motorhome and then the casket. Uhh yep….

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  6. Just caught a glimpse of her, a very worthy project – with some judicious strengthening and the right (light) engine will be something to behold, of course I am soft on old chine launches, now what engines are we pulling out of superyacht tenders at the moment..

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  8. Yeah, get the original box on her down aft. That first pic is such a trad pose with a head out of the hatch and someone standing aft and leaning on the dodger roof. Two sheilas down below cooking the dinner.
    Ignore Murray’s jibes, he’s got a fizzer too now. You can point much better than in a wind bludger! BUT you have to join what the old man used to call “The spirited dash department”: Get underway early and git where you’re going quick to avoid the strong winds and heavy seas!

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  10. Lucky Jase, those William Hand launches all perform well if not heavily loaded (hint) with big cabins, also note that the dog house top should not fall aft, my pet hate and usually the sign in our local boats of a hogged hull.

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  12. I really love her name, it suits her perfectly, & what a beautiful little lady she is. — Really look forward to hopefully being kept abreast of her restoration. I note that her engine appears to be well aft for her era, by the position of the exhaust outlet. It is my experience that there was a tendency in the pre & earlier post 30s, to put the engine well forward.
    Just as footnote, have been studying older pics of boats with side exhausts, & it seems to follow a rough pattern, that boats that were powered with American petrol engines usually had the flywheel at the front end & the manifold on the starboard side, (unless they were in matched handed pairs such as those Chrysler produced ), whereas the majority of English engines — (Austin Morris etc.,) had the flywheel at the back end, & the manifold on the port side, & I have often been able to deduct the country manufacture of the engine fitted to a particular boat, by this, — it is not however infallible, & there were of course English diesels in particular, like Ailsa Craig Gleniffer etc., with the flywheel on the front — KEN RICKETTS.

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