Iorana

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MYSTERY BOAT 21/01/15

photo ex Harold Kidd

OK trainspotters you have had a good break – its time to test your skills again. Clues are – she is a 1922, 38′ bridgedecker (built that way originally). When launched she had a 6 cylinder Alpha engine.

Suggestions?

See the comments section for lots of input – but the answer ex HDK is ……..

Leon Warne was the builder and she is IORANA (Tahitian for “Gidday”). He got a lot of work from Whangarei because he took ROSEMARY north every Christmas and raced her at Onerahi and Russell. Warne built IORANA for Selwyn Blake of Whangarei who had just sold WILD THYME. IORANA was originally painted glossy black but was repainted white in her second season. Blake came to live in St. Mary’s Bay in 1924 and brought IORANA with him. He sold her to C.D. Sellars who sold her to W. Joll of Ponsonby and then she went to Whangamata and, around 1950, to George Manktelow of Paeroa, where he kept her moored in the willows on the Ohinemuri River near the Puki Bridge alongside GLENIFFER. The above image was taken there.
Is she still around?

Photo below ex Papers Past from the NZ Heard 22nd Oct 1931, shows Iorana getting ready to float off with the incoming tide at St. Mary’s Bay

22 thoughts on “Iorana”

  1. Hi, from Dave Cochran Yes I know ‘Stella’ very well. My father Max Cochran (John Maxwell Cochran,) bought her together with Eric Berry when I was about 15, so about 1961. I believe she was sitting in the Tamaki River then, pretty scruffy but caught dad’s eye. We lived in Northland, dad was Head Teacher of the Ohaeawai Maori School and Eric owned the Northern News in Kaikohe. So the boat came up to Waitangi in the Bay of Islands and we set about cleaning her up. River stones covered in diesel and oil as ballast under the floor, so she stank of that for a long time, even after the stones were all dumped into the Waitangi river ! She was moored above the bridge at Waitangi, initially on a mooring then onto the piles when they came.
    She had a 4cyl Fordson in her, a mast and steadying headsail, and a long deep keelson running all the way to the bow. Made her hard to turn in tight manoeuvres, but supposedly was to assist a previous life long-lining. I was aware she had had a Maori name but could not have told you what it was.
    We took the mast away after a year or two of in and out under the Waitangi bridge and we cut away the deep forefoot to the keel line you now see. Originally the belting along the side was lower, as you can see in the other photos, but the subsequent owner, Peter Sharp, modified it to give more width to that lower side-deck. Unfortunately, to my eye at least, it really spoilt her lines.
    Dad and Mum retired to Paihia, and bought Eric out of the boat after a few years. He subsequently owned her for I believe 26 years. I did a hell of a lot of work on her from all the usual grinding off thick old paint and antifouling to quite a lot of wood work in later years. Replaced/doubled up damaged ribs, quite a bit of planking, a new starboard belting, etc.
    She was a boat that became well known in the Bay, dad was a stalwart of the Bay of Islands Yacht Club from it’s beginnings, and she was hauled out every year at the club slipway.
    He sold her to Peter Sharp about 1986? Peter was the Acting Harbour Master at Opua, and put her in the powder sheds there for about a year to give her another ‘birthday’. She was in need of new garboard planks, they were tired and couldn’t be properly caulked, plus things like moving the beltings, as I mentioned.
    I see in the recent photo’s of her in the paddock, the port side-deck hatch-way has been taken out of the aft dodger, I’m not sure if Peter did that when he added the beltings to the lower side-decks or whether it was later. It was quite a neat, and relatively unique feature.

    I’ll try and attach some photos of her

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  2. Pingback: Iorana > Stella – SOS | waitematawoodys.com #1 for classic wooden boat stories, info, advice & news – updated daily

  4. Those nice oval ports appear to have vanished in the Past Photo.

    Were they just snoozing in that earlier pic and at Kawau?

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  9. That would be a standard water injection via the joint between carb and inlet manifold as used frequently in the 30s. It was effective. A lot of Ford V8 taxi drivers swore by it as improving combustion with the low-octane benzine we had during and after WW2, partly by reducing the temperature (and thereby increasing the density) of the charge and partly by providing extra oxygen for combustion in the H2O. I forget the precise chemistry of it but used to nag my father to fit one to our V8.
    There was a proprietary English unit called a Geferator.

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  10. Yep, I remember it well, — have a feeling he added water to the kero. in the system he used, for improved combustion. I know she started her on petrol & switched to kero., when warm. — Pre heated the kero. on the exhaust manifold from memory. Cheers — K

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  12. George Manktelow also owned GLENIFFER around this time. He ran her for some years for Percy Jennings, then bought her c1957. Jennings had taken out the Gleniffer and put in a ChrisCraft (Hercules block). George converted it to run on kerosene using a Model A Ford Zenith carb and rejetting it.

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  14. Kia Ora (or Kia Orana) as my bro in Raro says. Boy, there are some lovely Polynesian names on boats. I am not aware of her her existence in the area,but up to a couple of years ago the remnants of the EVA (not to be confused with LADY EVA ) was lying in a paddock in Paeroa. I took a swag of photos of her.

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  15. I like the oval ports, they may help identify her today.
    I also like the appearance of the brow on the cabin tops. I note the builder has taken your eye in an upward stroke by raiseing the cabin aft, illustrating some sheer in her lines, instead of falling away.
    Guess this may all have altered by now and she is probably 3 or 4 story’s high, if she is still around.
    Pam

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  16. What a wonderful totally new peek in to the past for me –thank Harold — hope we can get some updates on her story — That would have been the era when GLENIFFER was owned by Percy Jennings. — He owned the Paeroa Picture Theatre at that time & kept her jointly there & at Ruffins Bay Coromandel where he had a property. He was a close family friend. — KEN RICKETTS

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  17. Leon Warne was the builder and she is IORANA (Tahitian for “Gidday”). He got a lot of work from Whangarei because he took ROSEMARY north every Christmas and raced her at Onerahi and Russell. Warne built IORANA for Selwyn Blake of Whangarei who had just sold WILD THYME. IORANA was originally painted glossy black but was repainted white in her second season. Blake came to live in St. Mary’s Bay in 1924 and brought IORANA with him. He sold her to C.D. Sellars who sold her to W. Joll of Ponsonby and then she went to Whangamata and, around 1950, to George Manktelow of Paeroa, where he kept her moored in the willows on the Ohinemuri River near the Puki Bridge alongside GLENIFFER. The above image was taken there.
    Is she still around?

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  21. Any other thoughts before I spill the beans? One small clue, she was built in St. Mary’s Bay for a Whangarei owner.

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  22. My first thought when I saw her what a sweet ship. I can see a bit of Shenandoah in her.Pretty sure she is Bailey. Looks like she has a Maori name.Won’t say any more before I make too big an ass of myself 😦

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