STRATHMORE (Rahemo)
details ex Harold Kidd
Strathmore featured on ww back in August 2014 when she was for sale, the other day Nathan Herbert pointed me towards a collection of photographs from the marine photographer Tudor Collins . The two photos above of the 1936 Dick Lang built Strathmore are in my eyes stunning, she certainly was a very smart launch when launched. Lang built her at St. Mary’s Bay, Auckland for R.W. Butcher of Hamilton. She was 42’x10’9″x3’6″ and powered with twin 90hp Chryslers. In 1938 she was bought by the Todd family of Wellington and motored down via Tauranga and the east coast in December 1938. The Todds renamed her Rahemo. She was in NAPS out of Wellington in WW2 as Z76.
For more details & photos from her past & ‘today’ click these links
https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/08/01/rahemo/
https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/08/02/rahemo-2-post/
Look What The Postie Delivered Yesterday
For a long tome I have been a little envious of the classic launch owners that had a NZPBA/AMYC burgee. These club pennants were flown by owners of the oil launches that were becoming popular in the 1910-20s. The club was called the NZ Power Boat Association & founded in 1905. The name changed to the Auckland Motor Yacht Club in 1939 and then morphed into the RNZYS in the 1960s. The jewel in the crown of the AMYC was its sponsorship of the Kawau Island Yacht Club and the facilities at Smelting House Bay. There is a sign on the workshop wall at Greg Lees Boat shed at Sandspit (below), that supports the Kawau link.
The AMYC burgee was identical to the NZPBA’s.
The sender of my AMYC burgee was Rick McCay (Luana). Rick has uncovered a cache of these burgee’s which are available to classic aficionado’s owning a vessel of appropriate age. $59 + $5pp. Applications for purchase including vessel details, initially via email to me at waitematawoodys@gmail.com
Note: Unlike the Classic Yacht Association which allows its burgee to be flown from anything & by anyone – the supply of these pennants will be tightly controlled & policed 🙂
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There’s no hard and fast rule. If it looks like a bridgedecker it is a bridgedecker (especially if it has a bridgedeck).
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Now I’m thinking about this, is there an age limit on this description of bridge decker, as many modern launches could be referred to bridge deckers as well if there engine is below the floor of the helm.
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Thanks Harold, has answered a question that I have often wondered about. Have tried googling it, looking in dictionary etc., and didn’t come up with any answers.
It means that I can now confidently refer to my boat as a bridge decker. Nothing worse being in a conversation and being asked if it is, or told no it not!
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The “bridge deck” is the deck over the engine upon which it became very sensible and convenient to put the enclosed steering position. The first “bridgedeckers” were built in the US (naturally) and about 1919-20.
What happened at the cockpit end of the boat was irrelevant. So Rick McCay’s LUANA was a real trendsetter in January 1920.
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Just wondering what the definition of a bridge decker is?
Most bridge deckers have a hard top over the cockpit. Is this part of the bridge decker description, or is Rahemo definitely a bridge decker?
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