MANA ROSE
Bay of Islands professional photographer & woody (MV Arethusa) Dean Wright emailed me the three photos above of the launch Mana Rose, Dean took them last Sunday morning. A very cool looking boat & looks very capable of handling most things that the ocean could throw at her. Dean commented that Mana Rose lives on a mooring close to the Russell side of the car Ferry.
Her anchor winch would get the tick of approval from Dick Fisher 😉
Can you of the woodys supply more details on her?
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Instantly recognisable as a Saunders. I have just spent 5 years rebuilding a 42 foot Saunders design, so I know the hull form intimately.
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Nice words Mark. I can relate to this sort of thing very well, I still dream about scenes like this. Shame you did not become a boat builder with a passion like that.
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Yes, very nice looking boat. All of the Saunders boys had a good eye for a nice shear line. Harold built Sea Bee for a family friend, Dave Baker in the late 1960’s.
I would like to see any photos of the Saunders yard and boats. My sort of stuff!!
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George,
I remember well the gutsey look of a Saunders built boat and still marvel at how the images in the mind of one man became a great boat that carries the unique styling details still recognisable 5 decades later. And then repeat the exercise many times over.
I was a paper boy and picked up my papers from your mother beside the yard. I was fascinated by the boat building enterprise in that Shanty town location. So often the long steamer for softening the planks had steam coming out of the cracks. Even at that age I knew these were significant boats being born in that shed in the same way that all the best boats of that era were being built around the country. In small sheds by the sea with a small number of men with an extraordinary talent for their craft. I am glad I got to see on a daily basis the genesis of what we are celebrating now. It seemed so odd when I later visited that place to discover the whole area had been flattened. Do you have photos of that place the locals called shanty town with the Saunders yard in it? I dont remember the individual boat names except the Silver Spray with a counter stern which was moored in the channel. Maybe you were there to witness this shy little kid picking up his stack of papers and scurrying off wishing he could go into the shed for a proper look but too scared to ask. I was the one with new shiney blue Humber bike with ears that stuck out like a wingnut. I dont know what happened to the bike but my ears came right and Im not shy anymore. Thanks for your reply it has set off a torrent of nostalgia.
Regards Mark Jarvis
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Good guess Mark designed and built by my brother Alf Saunders Jnr in 1965-66 for Mr Carol Tierney fisherman of Paremata She was built off the same plan as Alfs own boat the Oregan
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Very similar to the Messina if not the same boat
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Have some info now but should have full details later today — expect to be talking to the owner this afternoon or this evening — KEN R
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Im going to have a guess and say its a Saunders built boat.
Built in Paremata near Mana in the late 60s
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