ARAPAWA
photos & details ex Rachel Jamieson (one of the powerhouses behind the Lake Rotoiti Wooden Boat Parade)
Rachel is very keen to find out more about her mothers launch, Arapawa. Like a lot of old launches Rachel has uncovered a mixed bag of info, alot conflicting but recent discoveries are looking good – Anyone able to confirm or correct the info below ?
Below are two excellent letters from Pete at Eco-Tours in response to Rachel contacting him. Read below (edited)
Letter #1 (Pete to Rachel)
“Was good to receive your letter Rachel, I was contacted by Trevor Watson several months ago asking for info. My opoligies for not responding.
I have had a search through my notes but couldnt find much detail. She was probably built by Ernie Lane, I would suspect in the early 1920’s, for a Mr Bay who started the guest house at Te Mahia .
Old Joe Hebberly thought that she was origionaly called the ‘Gannet’. She was always distinctive due to the vee stern, the only one like it in the Sounds.
I was told that she had a Bolinger 2 stroke that you had to stop and start running in opposite direction to run in reverse ! She was sold to Tim Watson in East Bay on Arapawa Island who changed her name to the Arapawa.
They added a small wheel house, later got Jack Morgan to build up a raised focsale head and new wheel house, this transformed her into a fine looking nicely proportioned vessel. Tim also re-powered her with a new BMC in 1957.
Mr Mike Povia ( Poiea ) bought her and was scalloping dredging out of Havelock, she was then purchased by Des Tierney, who bought her back to Picton, He extended the wheelhouse, (not sure who did the build, ) he also fitted a 75hp 4 cylinder Ford, had her for 12 yrs before selling to Alex Jamerson.”
Letter #2 (Pete to Rachel)
“Have just rang old Des Tierney about his ownership of the Arapawa, he didnt know about builder or origional owner.
He said that an old timer told him that it had been built in Titirangi, a bay in the outer Pelorus Sound, but didn’t have any specifics or year.
There was a prolific boat builder in the next bay by the name of Claude Wells, I will to some checking and see if any of his family remember the Gannet.
The hull type gives you something to go on re the time of birth. The launches built around 1900 had counter sterns, then compromize sterns then they built torpedo sterns before they settled on the straight transome stern. Although I have one of Ernie Lanes boats built for my grandfather in 1914, it looks identicle to the Arapawa so she could be 100 yrs old, I dont think it would be any older than that. Like I said the really distinctive thing about the Arapawa was the vee transome, ( Very special. )
I will give old Jack Hanson a ring, the boat builder who would of raised the focsale head and built the new wheel house , he is in his nineties and would be the only man alive who could shed light on this mystery…… so will be intouch if I can find any new info.”
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This is a distraction from the main purpose of your website, but…..the owner of the Te Mahia guesthouse (see letter 1) was a Mr Day, not Bay. My parents stayed at Te Mahia a number of times including their honeymoon in 1938. As there are no earlier newspaper references to a guesthouse I’d agree with the 1920s start
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just out of interest, what other boats in NZ have the vee-stern?
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Legend, Harold. Adding to that she had a 471 Detroit put in in the sixties after a major rebuild by Bill Orchard, followed by a 671 Detroit (derated to 180hp) in 1986 when she was owned by A E Sadd of Blenheim.
She is now swinging a 26″ Pitch 24″ Diameter 4 bladed Nalder and Biddle propeller on the end of a 2 inch 316 shaft crafted by Peter Rothwell. With a clean bum and flat water she can touch 16 knots at 1800rpm.
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IRIS was built by Ernie Lane for E.A. Johnson of Havelock in 1923 and was 40′ x 8’6″ x 3′ 5″ and originally had a 1918 H.C. Doman 2cylinder 15hp, later a Fairbanks Morse then a Kelvin.
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Just to be awkward (apologies) I’m going to disagree and say I think she does look like a Lane. I have an Ernie Lane (Iris) built in the early 1920’s and the lines (apart from the transom) are very close although I think Iris at 38ft would be longer. I have some old photos of Iris taken soon after launching, and the sheerline, aft tumblehome and stem are very similair. One other thing, is that one of the early houses on Iris is a dead ringer for the one on Arapawa in the third image (stbd side)
I’ll rummage out some photos of Iris and email them in..
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well I guess that makes our boat even rarer! ha ha. She gets an easy life in the lake so the strength should not be an issue…
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Precisely. The vee-transom was no more than a Yankee styling exercise of 1904-5 which was rapidly forgotten.
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Yes the vee transom does look similar, I guess Arapawa’s builder read the same magazine! However our rudder does not come that far back. What do you mean by not being a strong design? Is this because there is a join across the back instead of continuous planking?
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PS There are plenty of MARORO pics already on WW. Just use the search function.
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That early pic with the vee transom shows her as almost a dead ringer for the Rudder design that was built as MARORO in Auckland. As Marco Scuderi will tell you, it’s not a strong design. Pics sent to Alan.Claude Wells is likely.
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good morning, it’s interesting to hear there were others at that time with the vee stern, we aren’t 100% sure the earlier photos are the Arapawa, only from the info we have been sent. Perhaps Gannet is a different boat altogether?? If so is Gannet still about????
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Just “off the top of my head”, not verifiable fact, but in that earliest photo at Te Mahia she doesn’t look like any Ernie Lane boat I can recall. The configuration shown in the little colour shot and marked “owned by Watsons” stirs a faint memory; she may have been moored in Picton about where the ferry car park etc is now. in the early 1950s
The v-ed transom wasn’t quite unique; there were one or two other Sounds launches with that feature.
She also doesn’t look like any of the boats built by Claude, Francis or Tom wells at Wakatahuri that I know of, but I’m not familiar with any of the Wells boats built that early. Wouldn’t have called the Wells “prolific” boat builders; most of their boats were built for themselves.
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