Florence M
A bit of a mystery to me this one, owner says a 30′ single skin, Logan ‘design’, built in the Bay of Islands…………….. Had recent work that would make the purists frown e.g. splining & glassing.
Anyone able to shed some light on her past?
Pre-restoration photo below
29-09-2016 photos ex trademe via Ian MacDonald & Ken Ricketts
02-10-2016 Update ex Ken Rickets. edited by Alan H
Florence M, (formerly Carla Maria), is owned by Bill Morgan of Mahurangi, who bought her c.2007, off the one time harbour master of Mahurangi, the late Graham Meikle, who owned her for many years. At purchase she was 2 years into a 7 year stint in a shed at Mahurangi where Graham M had started a major total rebuild. As a result of poor health, Graham M. passed her to Bill M. to continue the restoration, which took until 2012 to complete. Bill is a perfectionist cabinet maker, with a very strong bent for boat building, witnessed by the new interior seen in the above photos. Sadly she has been splined & glassed 😦
Graham M replaced the twin cylinder Lister (seized up) she had when purchased & fitted the Isuzu she has today. This gives her a cruising speeds of around 8 -9 knots at 2400 RPM with top revs of 3000 RPM & around 12 knots.
Bill is now reluctantly selling Florence M, as he is making a major move to Whangaroa.
(photo below pre restoration)
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New details & photos added. Alan H
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New photos added. AH
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Thank you Harold. I like the contrast of vessels that appear on the blog here. They do provoke thought when the design is traditional but some-what radical like Florence M seen above. The small work boats have special appeal and I tend to try and hunt them out when I / we can. I think I would do well to talk with the builders of these boats, clever folk like Zach’s uncles. But they seem to hibernate into small old shantys that are tucked into the mangroves and the little critters are just as hard to find as their craft. Thank you for your thoughts Harold, I can’t promise not to pester you again, but you know that.
Florence M has now been locked in for future generations to enjoy.
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All Fell boats were built as workboats. The Hokianga dairy industry was initially centred around the factory at Motukaraka near Panguru on the north side of the harbour. The separated cream was collected from jetties all around the harbour by up to 50 launches like this one. The same thing happened on many harbours and rivers around the country eg Kawhia, Netherton, the Bay of Islands “cream trip” launches. Later a lot of Hokianga cream went to the cheese factory at Waimamaku by truck.
It’s impossible to succinctly answer your question “who or what inspired the shapes of these boats” except to say that form follows function. Their roots are in the tuck-stern mullet boat hull with some flare forward to turn the water and an easy run aft to enable them to be easily driven by low-powered engines by today’s standards, and so on…
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Harold, would Awhitu (Awaroa) and Florence M have been built as work boats for harbour situations, who or what inspired the shapes of these boats. What year would Florence likely to have been built please. They both look very relevant boats from our past.
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Ignore the “Logan”. Fell or Deemings perhaps?
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To me looks like one of Joe Fell’s boats from the Hokianga, has a simularity to AWAROA
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